By Marvyn N. Benaning / Correspondent
THE world is teetering on wars over water and other natural resources as climate change worsens, the Pentagon has warned in a document that took several months before being cleared for release.
In a report released last week, the US Department of Defense admitted that climate change will exacerbate current world problems like “poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries.”
US interest in maintaining stability worldwide has been so intense that it had created practically a global military organization comprising the African Command, Central Command, Pacific Command, Northern Command, as well as the European Command, all of which equipped to wage war and implement different types of operations in response to human, as well as natural disasters.
Ret. Gen. Charles Jacoby, who commanded the US Northern Command, which is charged with protecting the US mainland, until last year, warned that stiff competition for energy and water sources would intensify competition among states and instigate armed conflict.
In ZME Science, writer Tibi Puiu said the US military should also do something to curb climate change.
“The Pentagon is very apt in identifying threats. No one can deny this. Personally, it would be a lot more constructive and helpful if the Pentagon also took steps to help curb the problem. The US military is the primary polluter in the world’s second biggest polluting country,” Puiu explained.
Negligence had been blamed for the beaching last year of the USS Guardian, a minesweeper, in the Tubbataha Reef, a UN protected marine sanctuary.
Pentagon paid only P87 million for the damage to the corals, an amount deemed by experts to be puny even as the damage was really on a smaller scale compared to the reclamation of reefs and shoals undertaken by China in the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea.
With various reefs unchartered and not well studied by various agencies, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) said it is now time for the National Mapping and Resources Inventory Agency and the Bureau of Aquatic and Fisheries Resources to map all of them and determine as well the biomass of pelagic fish species in the country’s 13 fast-depleting fishing grounds.
Searca Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. said the Philippine Coast Guard can also pitch in by helping implement fisheries and environmental laws, particularly against illegal fishing.
The Pentagon is also concerned about the rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, which would lead to the opening of new shipping routes through the Northwest Passage, which had trapped ships for centuries.
Moreover, oil drilling has intensified in the general area.
“Future Arctic offshore drilling will also create a resource demand and the need for emergency response, risk reduction measures, and environmental protections,” the Pentagon report added.
In the Middle East, the greatest climate-change risk is water scarcity while the humanitarian crisis is the main concern in Africa, where the US Africa Command operates.
In Hawaii, the Pentagon is concerned with the resilience of its military installations, whether these will hold against rising sea levels and more weather calamities.
“The National Security Strategy, issued in February 2015, is clear that climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water,” the report said.
“These impacts are already occurring, and the scope, scale and intensity of these impacts are projected to increase over time.”
“The Department of Defense’s primary responsibility is to protect national security interests around the world. This involves considering all aspects of the global security environment and planning appropriately for potential contingencies and the possibility of unexpected developments both in the near and the longer terms,” Pentagon noted.
“It is in this context that the department must consider the effects of climate change—such as sea level rise, shifting climate zones and more frequent and intense weather events—and how these could impact on national security,” the report concluded.