If Bernie Sanders can be criticized for his comments about terrorism at Saturday’s second Democratic presidential debate, it’s not because he linked terrorism to climate change. It was his opening statement with a few sentences about the attacks on Paris, which were crowded clumsily into a preface of his standard speech about economics. Even avid Sanders supporters like me winced at that.
But there were, as The Hill reported, lots of raised eyebrows later when Sanders repeated in the second debate what he said the first debate about climate change being the greatest threat to national security—raised eyebrows and mockery. But Sanders was and is right. And the mockers’ truncating of what he actually said at the debate and on Face the Nation shows that it’s not he who is off base. Here’s the exchange Saturday on CBS:
JOHN DICKERSON: Senator Sanders, you said you wanna rid the planet of ISIS. In the previous date you said the greatest threat to national security was climate change. Do you still believe that?
BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely. In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism. And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say you're gonna see countries all over the world-- this is what the CIA says, they're gonna be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops. And you're gonna see all kinds of international conflict.
But of course international terrorism is a major issue that we've got to address today. And I agree with much of what-- the secretary and-- and the governor have said. Only have one area of-- of disagreement with the secretary. I think she said something like, "The bulk of the responsibility is not ours."
Well, in fact, I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something that I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely. And led to the rise of Al Qaeda-- and to-- ISIS. Now, in fact, what we have got to do-- and I think there is widespread agreement here-- 'cause the United States cannot do it alone. What we need to do is lead an international coalition which includes-- very significantly-- [unintelligible] nations in that region are gonna have to fight and defend their way of life.
As Jeremy Schulman pointed out Sanders is hardly the only person warning about the national security implications of climate change:
According to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, "Extreme weather, climate change, and public policies that affect food and water supplies will probably create or exacerbate humanitarian crises and instability risks." The Department of Defense says that climate change "poses immediate risks to US national security" and has the potential to exacerbate terrorism. There's also substantial evidence that drought linked to climate change helped spark Syria's civil war.
On Face the Nation Sunday, Sanders “doubled down,” as more than one source put it:
“The reason is pretty obvious: If we are going to see an increase in drought and flood and extreme weather disturbances as a result of climate change, what that means is that peoples all over the world are going to be fighting over limited natural resources,” Sanders said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“If there is not enough water, if there is not enough land to grow your crops, then you’re going to see migrants of people fighting over land that will sustain them, and that will lead to international conflict,” he added. [...]
“And when people migrate into cities and they don’t have jobs, there’s going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment, and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al Qaeda and ISIS are using right now,” he added.
Eric Holthaus at Slate hits the bullseye:
Sanders’ response is gutsy for a challenger that’s recently seen his polling numbers slip to frontrunner Hillary Clinton. But it’s also correct.
Even though the wounds in Paris are still very fresh after Friday’s attacks, Sanders appropriately used this moment to highlight the current and future global tragedies that unmitigated climate change will surely cause. A landmark study earlier this year provided convincing evidence that a multiyear drought linked to global warming helped spark the catastrophic Syrian war, which helped give rise to ISIS. The Pentagon has consistently called climate change a “threat multiplier.” “If we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say,” Sanders said at tonight’s debate, “you're going to see all kinds of international conflict.”
To reiterate, Sanders did not say that climate change is the only threat to national security. Nor did he say terrorism is caused solely by climate change, as some of his mockers would argue. The people with the tin ear in this matter are the ones who have spent years downplaying climate change rhetorically and policy-wise. Those critics are also wrong to downplay the impact that climate change is already having—and will have in the future when it comes to sparking or worsening international conflicts.