Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
- Original Message - From: "Marvin Gandall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Details of this report first appeared in Fortune magazine last month. Today's Observer article is a more sensational recycling of the already sensational story which Fortune reporter David Stipp broke last month. And the Observer account misses the main point of the exercise. As reported by Fortune, the Pentagon study assumed a "midrange case" of abrupt global warning, characterized by plunging temperatures in the Northern hemisphere, droughts, storms, flooding, desperate illegal migration from poorer regions, border raids, and the possibility of full-scale warfare between alliances of nuclear-armed states over scarce food, water and energy supplies. Note, in particular, the reference to illegal migration. The study's concern is less scientific than military, less the causes than the effects of an environmental catastrophe. Stipp is, in fact, quite explicitly says climate change should be treated as a "national security" issue to protect America's borders and resources. Significantly - and presuming the reporter is reflecting the views of his editors who reflect the views of the Fortune 500 - there is little emphasis, despite the frightening apocalyptic scenario, on any urgent preventative environmental measures, beyond tightening fuel emission standards for new passenger vehicles. It would appear the Pentagon planners invited Stipp in for a chat and leaked the Marshall study to him in a bid for further resources. Must be getting close to budget submission time in Washington. == UNDERSTANDING INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY: A STRATEGIC MILITARY PERSPECTIVE Colonel W. Chris King November 2000 AEPI-IFP-1100A Army Environmental Policy Institute http://www.aepi.army.mil/Publications/king.A.pdf
Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
Details of this report first appeared in Fortune magazine last month. Today's Observer article is a more sensational recycling of the already sensational story which Fortune reporter David Stipp broke last month. And the Observer account misses the main point of the exercise. As reported by Fortune, the Pentagon study assumed a "midrange case" of abrupt global warning, characterized by plunging temperatures in the Northern hemisphere, droughts, storms, flooding, desperate illegal migration from poorer regions, border raids, and the possibility of full-scale warfare between alliances of nuclear-armed states over scarce food, water and energy supplies. Note, in particular, the reference to illegal migration. The study's concern is less scientific than military, less the causes than the effects of an environmental catastrophe. Stipp is, in fact, quite explicitly says climate change should be treated as a "national security" issue to protect America's borders and resources. Significantly - and presuming the reporter is reflecting the views of his editors who reflect the views of the Fortune 500 - there is little emphasis, despite the frightening apocalyptic scenario, on any urgent preventative environmental measures, beyond tightening fuel emission standards for new passenger vehicles. It would appear the Pentagon planners invited Stipp in for a chat and leaked the Marshall study to him in a bid for further resources. Must be getting close to budget submission time in Washington. - Original Message - From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 8:28 AM Subject: [PEN-L] Secret Pentagon report on global warming Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us · Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York Sunday February 22, 2004 The Observer Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. (snip)
Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
And of some importance... just what are we supposed to conclude from this Pentagon speculation? That the bourgeoisie are now trying to curb their less enlightened members who want to pillage and loot in order to give the more enlightened more time to set the stage for pillaging and looting? And that the same war-game entrepreneurs that back SDI, shock and awe, and the "new army" (meet the new army, same as the old army except better press coverage), now predict Apocalypse Pretty Soon? Headline reads: Doomsday Salesmen Predict Doomsday Near. That's news? Give me Janet's wardrobe malfunction anytime. This article is the complementary opposite of the "science" that has been used to justify rejection of the Kyoto measures. Bunch of crap not worthy of serious consideration. dms
Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
> 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes > the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' doesn't it _already_ define human life for them? Jim D.
Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
- Original Message - From: "Eugene Coyle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This account is very misleading. They report a Pentagon "What if..." exercise as a Pentagon prediction. There is a frightening possibility that sudden climate change can occur, with some of the outcomes described here. But this sensationalism takes away from the serious discussion that needs to hit the mainstream media. Gene Coyle = Yeah, that piece read like the person who wrote it had thrown back a couple of pints or been toking on that Brit weed. The Fortune article was better. The reference to Yoda is a tiny hint as to how much sci. fi. is read by military brass over the past 25 years. From people I know who are in or have just left Orson Scott Card and Vernor Vinge are *very* popular with the new generation of Herman Khans. Ian
Re: Secret Pentagon report on global warming
This account is very misleading. They report a Pentagon "What if..." exercise as a Pentagon prediction. There is a frightening possibility that sudden climate change can occur, with some of the outcomes described here. But this sensationalism takes away from the serious discussion that needs to hit the mainstream media. Gene Coyle Louis Proyect wrote: Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us · Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York Sunday February 22, 2004 The Observer Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority. The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network. An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions. Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change. Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change. A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch. One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible. Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change. Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.' Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored. '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, gener
