Severe drought. Record heat waves. Extreme storms. Food and water shortages. Mass migrations. These are but a few of the dangerous effects of climate change, and they have very real implications for those whose primary mission it is to protect our national security.  

As a former Navy gunnery officer who served in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War, I was trained to act in the face of a threat. As a solutions-focused institution, the U.S. military is renowned for confronting new security challenges head on – and today we, as a nation and as a military, face one of the biggest national security threats in our history.  Climate change is a global security threat that cannot be confined to national borders; it will require an entire generation answering a call to action to address this threat.

That’s why I was proud to advocate for our national security at a hearing at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where I testified in support of a proposed new rule to limit emissions carbon emissions for new power plants.  The proposed rule would impose pollution caps on the largest source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The process for implementation of these critical standards will not come easy; however, I believe we should seize this historic opportunity to confront the global security threat of climate change.

Climate change is widely recognized as a “threat-multiplier” - with more frequent and severe weather events destabilizing some of the most dangerous regions of the world, exacerbating existing national security threats, and pushing those states with weak infrastructure and political instability to near constant crisis. According to the Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense Review, National Intelligence Estimates and the National Security Strategy, this growing threat of global instability significantly increases the likelihood of more troops sent into harm’s way.

Additionally, climate change creates a strategic disadvantage for our military and forces our servicemen and women to divert time and resources from primary missions. In a high-profile interview with the Boston Globe in 2013, Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, the combatant commander of U.S. Pacific Command, was asked to identify the largest security threat facing his region - a region filled with existing high-profile security concerns like North Korea and China.  His response? Climate change.

For the complete article, please see The Hill.