Washington, DC – On Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 8:30 am, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will convene an open hearing about the national security implications of climate change. During this hearing, the Committee will examine the impacts of a changing climate and associated extreme weather events on U.S. security interests and on economic, political, social, and humanitarian conditions globally.

Our national security depends on American leadership – both at home and abroad – in combating and leading the charge on climate change. The Intelligence Community (IC) plays a critical role in that mission by providing rigorous analysis about the intersection of climatological trends and U.S. national security interests.

The IC has previously issued public assessments and findings addressing the security challenges posed by the effects of climate change, including previous Worldwide Threat Assessments prepared by the Director of National Intelligence, previous editions of the National Intelligence Council’s (NIC) strategic analytic report, “Global Trends,” and the NIC’s “Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change” memorandum, issued in September 2016.

Among other topics, the Committee will seek testimony about climate change’s impacts and:

Risks of decreased state stability;

New patterns of migration;

Other negative humanitarian impacts;

Potential competition over scarce resources;

Possible radicalization amid governance failures;

Threats to U.S. basing and force posture;

The evolving Arctic environment;

China’s potential to influence and become a leader in new norms on climate policy;

The role of unregulated emerging technologies, such as “geoengineering”; and

Implications for global governance and multilateral responses.

The Committee has invited the following witnesses to attend:

Peter Kiemel , Counselor, National Intelligence Council (NIC), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

, Counselor, National Intelligence Council (NIC), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Jeffrey Ringhausen , Senior Naval Intelligence Manager for Russia and Eurasia, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)

, Senior Naval Intelligence Manager for Russia and Eurasia, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) Rod Schoonover, Senior Analyst, Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (State INR)

Details:

What: National Security Implications of Climate Change (Open Hearing)

When: Wednesday, June 5, 2019; 8:30 am

Where: 1100 Longworth House Office Building

All media wishing to attend this hearing must be credentialed through the House Radio & TV Gallery at (202) 225-5214. All TV camera crews should RSVP to the House Radio & TV Gallery. Media seating will be first come, first serve. Livestream available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCheD2L-zDY

Below are the witness biographies:

Peter Kiemel, Counselor, National Intelligence Council (NIC), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

Peter Kiemel is the Counselor to the National Intelligence Council (NIC), where he oversees tradecraft and serves as final reviewer for the full range of regional, functional, and hard target issues. Mr. Kiemel previously was the Deputy Assistant Director of CIA for the Iran Mission Center and led the deepening of inter-directorate integration in support of the CIA mission in the standup of the Iran Mission Center in 2017. Prior to that he was an analyst and manager on Eurasia and the former Soviet Union. He was CIA’s Eurasia Issue manager from 2010-2014, served as the NIC’s Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Eurasia between 2008 and 2010, and was CIA’s Deputy Issue Manager for Eurasia and Regional Dynamics from 2006-2010. Mr. Kiemel also served from 2006-2008 as Deputy Chief of the Societal Issus Group in CIA’s Office of Transnational Issues, where he was responsible for a wide range of issues, including global political instability and migration. He began his career as a political analyst in the Office of Soviet Analysis.



>> Mr. Peter Kiemel's Statement for the Record

Jeffrey Ringhausen, Senior Naval Intelligence Manager for Russia and Eurasia, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)

Jeff Ringhausen is the Senior Naval Intelligence Manager for Russia and Eurasia at the Office of Naval Intelligence. In this position he supports the Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence in delivering comprehensive and full intelligence cycle support to meet the needs of the Navy, the nation and Intelligence Community. He was appointed to Defense Intelligence Senior Level in August of 2018. Mr.Ringhausen’s background is in tactical, operational and strategic intelligence analysis. He has served in a variety of positions in naval intelligence supporting analysis for national and EUCOM priorities. His joint duty assignment was in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Policy where he was the desk officer for Ukraine and Belarus. Mr. Ringhausen graduated from the University of Georgia (2002 BA and 2005 MA in Geography) and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (2007 MA in Russian and Eastern European Studies). His academic studies focused on geographic information systems, Russian language, Russian history, and quantitative and qualitative analytic methodologies



>> Mr. Jeffrey Ringhausen's Statement for the Record

Rod Schoonover, Senior Analyst, Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (State INR)

Rod Schoonover is a Senior Analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. Department of State. For nearly a decade, Dr. Schoonover has analyzed impacts of issues at the intersection of science and national security; in particular the national security implications of climate change, global ecological change, water and food security, and emergent and disruptive technologies.

From 2016-2018, Dr. Schoonover served in the Strategic Futures Group at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As the Director of Environment and Natural Resources, he oversaw the NIC’s analytic program in environmental and ecological change, and was a primary contributor to the NIC’s flagship unclassified document Global Trends: The Paradox of Progress.

Prior to coming to government in 2009, Dr. Schoonover was a tenured full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a Visiting Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Schoonover earned his PhD in chemical physics from the University of Michigan where he studied complex systems and chaos theory.

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