måndag 18 juni 2007

Klimat och säkerhet

I april i år lanserades en amerikansk rapport där höga militärer tog sig an frågan hur klimatförändringarna kan komma att påverka USA:s säkerhet. Bara själva greppet är värd uppmärksamhet. Jag har skrivit om rapporten här på bloggen förut, det var alltså en panel med 11 pensionerade generaler och amiraler, under ledning av Ret. Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, som undersökte klimatförändringarna i ett säkerhetspolitiskt perspektiv. Deras rapport heter "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change".

Rapporten verkar ge konsekvenser som sträcker sig bortom dagsrapporteringen. Anna G. Eshoo, ordförande i Intelligence Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, skriver i en artikel att:

"Recognizing these potential threats, I challenged the director of national intelligence, Michael McConnell, to integrate global warming into U.S. intelligence planning. McConnell expressed his support, saying, "I believe it is entirely appropriate ... to prepare an assessment on the geopolitical and security implications of global climate change." The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence took the Military Advisory Board's findings seriously as well. Acting on one of the board's major recommendations, the committee included a provision in HR2082, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, to require a National Intelligence Estimate on climate change."

"Vigilance cannot be shortsighted. The intelligence community has to be able to see beyond the horizon to prepare for long-range threats to our security. An assessment of climate change by our best intelligence experts will do just that. As Gen. Sullivan, the Military Advisory Board chairman, said: "There is a relationship between carbon emissions and our national security. ... We have to start paying attention." And pay attention we will."

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