Sanders stands firm on Climate Change as Security issue

[Armstead]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/11/16/amid-terror-fever-sanders-refuses-back-down-climate-threat-stance

Despite being mocked by conservative media and Democratic operatives alike, Bernie Sanders is holding fast on his assertion that climate change is the greatest threat to national security and is "directly related to the growth of terrorism."

...During an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Sanders elaborated further.

"If we are going to see an increase in drought, in flood, and extreme weather disturbances as a result of climate change, what that means is that people all over the world are going to be fighting over limited natural resources," he said. "If there is not enough water, if there is not enough land to grow your crops, then you're going to see migrations of people fighting over land that will sustain them. And that will lead to international conflict."

In Syria, for example, Sanders said that drought has driven people to migrate into cities. "When people migrate into cities and they don't have jobs, there's going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment, and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al Qaeda and ISIS are using right now," he said.

Sanders noted that this belief, which he originally stated during the first Democratic debate, is in fact shared by both the CIA and the U.S. Defense Department.

Writing for Slate, meteorologist Eric Holthaus said Sanders' response was not only "gutsy" but "also correct."
MORE

[Thinkingabout]

1. Great statement he made, revealed lots.

[Armstead]

4. Like being guilty for those Lockheed contribuitions he didn't receive?

[Thinkingabout]

9. He was wanting to cut defense spending, how, by voting more money for defense welfare contracts?

The F35 also needs $400,000 helmets and let's not forget about the drone production. Sanders will not reduce the spending in the defense department, but it sounds good to some people.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Politifact rates his statement as mostly false.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/16/bernie-s/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-comments-climate-chan/

[Armstead]

3. I know they do...And they're quibbling

The shades of meanings....None of them contradict what he said. Just shades of meaning between whether is a "major cause" or a "direct cause" etc., etc. etc.

[WIProgressive88]

5. And yet, when O'Malley stated that climate change helped lead to the rise of ISIS, they rated it

mostly true. Interesting.

[UglyGreed]

11. DoD Releases Report on Security Implications of Climate Change

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2015 — Global climate change will aggravate problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries, according to a report the Defense Department sent to Congress yesterday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee requested the report in conjunction with the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2015, asking that the undersecretary of defense for policy provide a report that identifies the most serious and likely climate-related security risks for each combatant command and the ways those commands integrate risk mitigation into their planning processes.

Fragile States Vulnerable to Disruption

The report finds that climate change is a security risk, Pentagon officials said, because it degrades living conditions, human security and the ability of governments to meet the basic needs of their populations. Communities and states that already are fragile and have limited resources are significantly more vulnerable to disruption and far less likely to respond effectively and be resilient to new challenges, they added.

“The Department of Defense's primary responsibility is to protect national security interests around the world,” officials said in a news release announcing the report’s submission. “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.

“It is in this context,” they continued, “that the department must consider the effects of climate change -- such as sea level rise, shifting climate zones and more frequent and intense severe weather events -- and how these effects could impact national security.”


http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/612710

[Todays_Illusion]

14. Odd that when the U.S. Department agees with Bernie, climate change is a security issue our MIC

loving Republican legislators ignores them.

http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/612710

[frazzled]

6. But it's no answer to the immediate issue of terrorism

Yes, we've all agreed for some years that climate change is an extremely pressing issue that will have social and economic impacts if left unaddressed (Sanders did not generate the discussion of these ideas). But with respect to widespread terrorism in Syria and Iraq, and now in Lebanon and Paris, it's not a complete answer. It neither explains nor addresses policy, for example, with respect to Belgian nationals who plan mass murders.

We need to address long term climate change issues, and address them now, cognizant of the repercussions if we don't. But Assad's bombs and ISIL-sponsored beheadings and murders cannot be solved in the short term by disquisitions on climate change. It wasn't just drought that caused all this mayhem.

We need to talk about climate change and also talk about strategies for addressing the civil war in Syria, the refugee crisis, the recruitment and radicalization of young men, and the ways in which extreme ideologies can be countered. Unless all these issues are investigated, climate change just sounds like a dodge.

[Armstead]

8. I'm pretty sure Sanders was not suggesting....

that all military and security personnel should be reassigned to duty making solar panels.

He was asked about security threats.

But actually if we had gotten off our asses and seriously pursued sustainable energy technology back in the 70's when the dangers of oil politics were becoming evident, we might be dealing with much less of a mess over there now. We might have extricated ourselves more from the Middle East, rather than out subsequent actions that have stirred the pot.

[winter is coming]

13. +1. We should have listened to Carter.

But the lobbyists didn't want that.

[demwing]

7. Of course it's correct

Climate change is fueled by our addiction to oil. It's why we interfere with Middle Eastern nations - those rat bastards have OUR oil buried under their sand. The nerve.

Climate change reduces our already dwindling supply of water and land, and destroys our homeland infrastructure. If some group of non-Christian brown people built a climate changing device and pointed it at New York, we'd lose our collective shit trying to destroy them.

Let it happen to the whole world, and the theocrats write it off as God's will.

Here's a news flash, fuckers...your God is a terrorist.

[Todays_Illusion]

15. I hope I stop reading "we are addicted to oil," our fossil fuel suppliers are addicted to the

dinosaur dollars. I think a large number of people probably a majority of people are quite willing to move on to another energy source or the climate deniers would not have to spend so much money and effort to stop that idea.

[azmom]

10. I'm happy he's doing so. He is

Correct. We simply can't keep denying climate change. It is real and it impacts all parts of our lives.

Go Bernie!

[sabrina 1]

12. He is so right about Syria and Climate Change. Saw a devastating documentary about that country

and the effects of Climate Change about a year ago. WE SHOULD BE HELPING them not bombing them! So sad the ignorance that allows the propaganda to reel people in to the simple minded 'messages' they receive from our corporate media. Bernie is EDUCATING people! That is why he is such a threat to them.