Climate Change and National Security Essay Example for Free

Climate Change and National Security EssayThat same month, the UN Security Councilat the first of the UK governmentheld its first-ever debate on the potential impact of climate change on peace and gage. In October 2007, the Nobel committee recognized this emerging threat to peace and security by awarding former fault president Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change its peace prize. In November 2007, wo take tanks, the Center for Strategic and Inter case Studies (CSIS) and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), released another circulate on the issue, concluding from a range of possible scenarios of climate change that, We already know nice to appreciate that the cascading consequences of unchecked climate change are to include a range of security problems that ordain have dire global consequences. 2 The new interest in climate change and national security has been a valuable warning about the potential security consequences of global warming, bu t the proposed solutions that accompanied recent efforts have emphasized broader climate policy rather than specific responses to security threats.Because the links among climate change and national security are worthy of concern in their own right, and because some(prenominal) significant climate change is inevitable, strategies that go beyond long-run efforts to rein in greenhouse atom smasher emissions are required. This report sharpens the connections between climate change and national security and recommends specific policies to address the security consequences of climate change for the United States. In all areas of climate change policy, adaptation and mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) should be viewed as complements rather than competing alternativesand the national security dimension is no exception. Some policies exit be targeted at adaptation, most notably risk-reduction and preparedness policies at home and abroad.These could spare the United States the take to mobilize its military later to rescue people and to prevent regional disorderand would ensure a more effective response if such mobilization was nonetheless necessary. Others depart focus on mitigation, 2 CSIS/CNAS, The Age of Consequences The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change, November 2007 available at http//www. cnas. org/climatechange. 2 which is almost universally accepted as an essential part of the response to climate change. Mitigation efforts will need to be international and involve deep changes in the worlds major economies, such as those of China and India. As a result, the processes of working together to craft and implement them provide opportunities to advancement American security interests.