US Military // Current

US Defense dept warns of danger from climate change

In January this year the US Department of Defense, that bastion of socialists, published its Quadrennial Defense Review Report.

The report not only implicitly accepts climate change but also points to the dangers it poses to national security.

It’s worth reading how it expects climate change to impact the armed forces:

*Crafting a Strategic Approach to Climate and Energy (pg84)*

"Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment.

"Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked. The actions that the Department takes now can prepare us to respond effectively to these challenges in the near term and in the future.

"Climate change will affect DoD in two broad ways.

"First, climate change will shape the operating environment, roles, and missions that we undertake. The U.S. Global Change Research Program, composed of 13 federal agencies, reported in 2009 that climate-related changes are already being observed in every region of the world, including the United States and its coastal waters.

"Among these physical changes are increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening growing seasons, lengthening ice-free seasons in the oceans and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows.

"Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration."

The review also offers examples of how the US Military has reduced its carbon foot-print and secured energy supplies...

An LC reader wrote in to say: “With the Pentagon acknowledging the reality of global climate change in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review Report, this surely puts the neocons with their ‘greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people‘ at odds with their own Generals and Admirals.”In January this year the US Department of Defense, that bastion of socialists,... more

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A Series of Bombs kill dozens in Iraq

A double truck bombing in northern Iraq and a series of explosions in Baghdad today have killed at least 48 people and wounded almost 250, raising fears of a resurgence of sectarian violence.

The truck bombing killed 28 people and wounded 138 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, while nine bombs in the Iraqi capital killed 20 people and wounded 108, officials said.

Insurgents are targeting Shias in an attempt to reignite the sectarian violence that devastated the country in 2006 and 2007. So far the Shias have not retaliated, according to the US military.

The deadliest of the pre-dawn violence was in Khazna village, 12 miles north of Mosul, which is inhabited by the Shia Shabak ethnic group. Two trucks parked less than 500 metres apart in an alley blew up together, flattening about 30 homes in the small village, which lacks the security measures of large cities. Many of the dead and wounded had been sleeping on their roofs because of the summer heat.

The explosions left a large crater and reduced the neighbourhood to piles of bricks, twisted metal and smoking debris. Family members pulled the wounded from the debris and carried them away as ambulances wailed through the neighbourhood. Mahmoud Hussein, 28, said his house about 140 metres away from the truck bombs was flattened and he survived only because he was asleep on the roof.

"If we had slept inside we would have been killed," said Hussein, who had a head wound from flying debris.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.

On Friday, a suicide truck bomber destroyed a mosque used by the Shia Turkomen minority just north of Mosul, killing 44 people. The US military says Mosul is the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The bombs across the capital this morning are a reminder that insurgents remain a threat in Baghdad despite an announcement by the Iraqi government last week that it would remove all blast walls in the city in response to the improved security situation.

The first bomb in Baghdad was hidden in a pile of rubbish when it exploded at about 5.50am Iraqi time near a group of construction workers drinking tea and looking for day jobs in Amil. It killed at least seven people and wounded 46, officials said.

About 10 minutes later, a car bomb targeted construction workers elsewhere in western Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 35. Three bombs exploded in the mainly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah shortly before 7am, wounding a member of a government-backed paramilitary group. The army said there were no fatalities. A few hours later a roadside bomb exploded in front of a mosque in the primarily Sunni neighbourhood of Sadiyah in south-west Baghdad, killing two and wounding 14 others, a police official said. A minibus exploded in Shula, a predominately Shia neighbourhood, killing one and wounding three more. Two bombs went off elsewhere in the city, wounding 10 other people.

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TAGS

tagged w/ US Military

US Defense dept warns of danger from climate change

First strike: 10 dead as Obama aims missiles at Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Taliban enclaves

Under Russian pressure Kyrgyzstan to close key US military airbase

Blackwater in Kabul, or Eric Cartman Gets an AK-47

3 U.S. Special Forces Die in Pakistan Bombing

Clinton, Gates: No exit strategy for Afghanistan

Whistleblowers: Blackwater approved $1M in payoffs of Iraqi officials

Illusion of Security in Iraq

US drones hacked by Iraqi insurgents

Our European Arrogance

U.S. Military Developing Hacking-for-Dummies Cyber-Warfare Device

Tip of the Spear - Soldiers of Viper Company

US forces shot down Iranian drone, official says

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A Series of Bombs kill dozens in Iraq

Hamid Karzai sets target for US withdrawl from Afghanistan within five years in inauguration speech

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U.S. Builds Up Bases in South America

Iraq and suicide bombers: what the Obama administration doesn't see - slide show

Thousands of Japanese Protest U.S. Base

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