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Iceberg in Ross Sea, Antarctica seen from bridge of
icebreaker N.B. Palmer. Photo © Bruce Luyendyk
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Over the last two weeks significant news has occurred on the Climate Change front. First was the report from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on the security threat posed by Climate Change, second was the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and last was the takeover of the U.S. Senate by the Republican party (GOP).
The DoD report analyses
the U.S. military’s place in combating and adapting to climate change. The U.S.
has over 7000 bases around the globe all of which need to deal with Climate
Change. Defense Secretary Hagel, who as senator once signed a resolution
labeling Climate Change as more or less baloney, has come around. “… we will integrate
Climate Change considerations into our planning, operations and training,” he
told an audience recently.
The IPCC report follows on its last one in
2007 (AR4). (For a brief note on what, who the IPCC is go here IPCC .)
What has changed since the AR4 is that the
situation has worsened and the time to address Climate Change has shortened.
