The Pentagon Warns Climate Change Will Bring Global Catastrophe

In a secret report,President Bush has been warned that rioting, nuclear war, rising seas that will sink costal cities are just a few of the calamities the will befall earth in 20 years if global warming continues.The Observer says it has obtained a copy of the report, which was commissioned by Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall.

The report, according to Jeremy Symons, a former EPA employee, was suppressed for four months by the White House. President Bush has been under increasing pressure to pay some attention to the apparent growing evidence that global warming is an almost immediate threat to humanity.

Here are some of the dire predictions in the report:

• Millions of lives will be lost in wars and natural disasters.
• Major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas.
• Britain’s climate will become “Siberian”.
• “Abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies”.
• “The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism”
• “Warfare would define human life”
• Widespread flooding of coastal areas of the United States would create a major upheaval for millions.

Not a very pleasant look at the future.

Chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bob Watson, weighed in on President Bush:

“Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It’s going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush’s single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon”

Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace is quoted as saying:

“You’ve got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you’ve got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It’s pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue”.

While the present administration has less than a year left in office, everyone believes the time for action is now, and that the president and his administration need to end their denial of climate change.

This article reminds me of a story I heard as a child about a city-slicker watching a farmer trying to get his mule to move. After some pushing and coaching, the farmer finally picked up a piece of 2×4 lumber and hit the mule square between the eyes.

The mule moved, and the city guy was outraged. He asked the farmer why he hit the mule so hard.

The farmer said, “To get his attention.”

Let’s hope this report will be the “2×4” that gets the administration’s attention.