U.S. president says yes, but some climate analysts not so sure
Barack Obama has spent considerable time in recent months publicly explaining his positions on both climate change and violent extremism.
But in a Coast Guard commencement address last week, the U.S. president deliberately combined the two, saying that climate change “constitutes a serious threat to global security.”
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Security analysts say the idea has been percolating in Western military circles for the past few years, but there is still skepticism about a direct link.
Francesca de Châtel, an Amsterdam-based researcher with an expertise in water issues in the Arab world, says that while issues such as climate change and terrorism are real, “bundling them all together” is problematic.
“Climate change implies a lot of unknowns, and then if you add to that conflict, which also implies unknown outcomes, it just creates an air of uncertainty and fear,” she says.
Stage-setting for climate talks
Still, for Obama, “climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and, make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” he told over 200 graduating Coast Guard cadets in Connecticut.
U.S. President Barack Obama used a recent commencement address for Coast Guard graduates to talk about the link between climate change and regional conflicts. (AP file photo)
The same day as Obama’s speech, the White House released a paper called “The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate.”
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