A day after warning of potential disruptions worldwide due to climate change, President Obama signed a memorandum “establishing that the impacts of climate change must be considered in the development of national security-related doctrine, policies and plans,” said the White House. The memorandum created a Federal Climate and National Security Working Group involving 20 agencies in the job of identifying security priorities affected by climate change and to share information about how to respond to it.
Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Council issued a report listing ways climate change will be felt in the near and long term. Over the next 30 years, climate change is expected to cause warmer days and nights, more heat waves, and more outbreaks of weather extremes, such as torrential rains or punishing drought. The report cited the U.N. climate change panel’s conclusion that extreme and record-breaking weather events are likely to become more common.
In his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama said that without bold action to avert the worst impact of climate change, “the bill that could come due will be mass migrations, and cities submerged and nations displaced, and food supplies decimated, and conflicts born of despair.”
The NIC report said, “More frequent extreme weather events, ranging from droughts to extreme rainfall, would significantly threaten agricultural production. Moreover, long-term climate trends — such as more very hot days, changing precipitation patterns, and pole-ward shifts of tropical clouds — along with constraints on land, water, and energy also put upward pressure on food prices. We judge that in countries with weak political institutions, climate-induced threats to food security sharpen the risk of social disruption, migration, or large-scale political instability.
“Heat waves threaten livestock directly and also reduce fertility, decrease milk production, and make them more vulnerable to disease. Droughts, wildfires, and extended periods of reduced precipitation threaten pasture and food supplies, indirectly threatening livestock.”