Last week the world watched in dismay as U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed his plans to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Accord. Almost instantaneously, other world leaders stepped up to reaffirm their commitment to the largest threat to life continuing, as we know it, on this planet. You don’t have to agree or like the Paris Accord to recognize the ultimate reality that we all face, which is a daunting one wherein the oceans are acidifying, anomalous weather patterns are becoming more frequent, all while the planet is literally getting warmer and warmer year over year.
And yet there are still many right leaning politicians and pundits, in this country and around the world, who claim not to “believe” in anthropogenic climate change. It would, of course, be much more intellectually honest if climate change deniers and doubters would simply say that they don’t understand anthropogenic climate change. Although as the recent past has very clearly demonstrated, it is often seen as a caveat to understand and accept even the most basic of scientific principles or concepts.
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Simply knowing how to balance a molecular equation or being able to grasp any math beyond basic arithmetic can risk one being labelled as an out-of-touch elite. Indeed, the rhetoric emanating from right-leaning politicians and pundits over the last few years has often tried to paint anyone who understands the science behind climate change — and is compelled to want to do something about it — as someone who is out of touch with the needs of Joe Everyman, or as an elitist or a tree hugging hippy bent on destroying the economy.
Well, if we can’t win over reluctant conservatives by convincing them via science, raw data, or even the moral imperative to act in the best interest of future generations, then perhaps it’s time to shift the narrative into terms they will be more willing to accept and understand.
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In addition to being terrible for the planet, climate change is considered to be a threat multiplier, meaning that climate change exacerbates threats to things like national security that already exist. This isn’t coming from latte-sipping professors in their ivory towers, but from the Pentagon and other military and national security experts from around the world.
As the climate changes, terrorist groups can assert their power over a group of vulnerable people simply by being the ones who control resources like food and water. Indeed, Boko Haram, ISIS and the Taliban have all been reliably reported to exploit people by controlling access to water during times of drought. Throw in the aspect of food insecurity during times of flooding or heavy rains and it’s easy to see how an already vulnerable and unstable region can become exponentially more vulnerable and unstable.
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Trump’s own Defense Secretary, James “Mad Dog” Mattis stated to the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation process that climate change poses a real security threat, makes the world a more unstable place and that it would require a holistic response from the government to address it.
Back in 2014 the Pentagon released a report entitled the Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap that laid out in very clear terms the negative impacts climate change would have on national security, asserting that the effects of climate change posed “immediate risks to U.S. national security.” A year later in 2015, the Pentagon released another report reiterating the dangers of climate change, stating it was “an urgent and growing threat” which not only contributed to the increase in natural disasters, but also “refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water.”
Remember how world leaders and experts from all over the world keep telling us that we’re currently in the midst of the planet’s worst refugee and migrant crisis since the Second World War? Well, what do you think will happen when coastal nations face rising sea levels?
Bangladesh is the world’s eighth most populous country. It has over 160-million people and it is already starting to see the effects of rising sea levels. It shares a border with India and India has already very clearly expressed it has no desire to take in displaced Bangladeshis. In fact, India has been building a wall on its border with Bangladesh for the last few years – back before building walls were a GOP policy staple – and is currently at the halfway point to completion.
Climate change is by no means the sole cause of many of the global threats and challenges we face, but if the world’s top military minds can all agree and recognize that climate change will make things worse, it seems especially ignorant and hypocritical for those on the right side of the political spectrum to ignore it. So while right leaning politicians, talking heads and voters may feel as though sitting back and doing nothing on climate change is akin to sticking it to the academic elites and Birkenstock-wearing hippies, what they’re all really doing is undermining our collective security. Not sure how that’s supposed to make any of us great again.
Supriya Dwivedi is host of The Morning Show on Toronto’s Talk Radio AM640 and a columnist for Global News.
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