Obama: Denying climate change erodes national security

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama called out climate change deniers in Congress for being weak on defense, saying it would be "dereliction of duty" for the United States to ignore the national security implications of rising global temperatures.

Obama's convocation speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Wednesday was his most forceful argument yet that climate change ranks alongside terrorism as a grave threat to America's future.

"I know there are still some folks back in Washington who refuse to admit that climate change is real," he told graduating cadets in New London, Conn. "Denying it, or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces."

Obama continued, "Politicians who say they care about military readiness should care about this as well."

It's not a new argument for Obama. "The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security," he said in his State of the Union Address in January. "We should act like it."

And in February, the White House released a national security strategy document that called climate change "an urgent and growing threat to our national security."

But in addressing 218 graduating Coast Guard cadets and their families, Obama made the case in even more direct terms to the servicemen and -women who he said would be specifically challenged by climate change. The Coast Guard, after all, patrols the coasts and has installations likely to be flooded if sea levels continue to rise.

Before congratulating the newly commissioned ensigns, Obama told them that their Coast Guard should be prepared to deal with refugees from flooded and drought-stricken countries, patrol an Arctic Ocean newly opened to oil drilling and shipping lanes, and respond to weather-related rescues and disaster assistance.

"You are part of the first generation of officers to begin your service in a world where the effects of climate change are so clearly upon us," Obama said. "Climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip, and protect their infrastructure, today and for the long term."

The Department of Defense is studying the effect that climate change will have on its 7,000 bases and installations, and more extreme weather events also put a strain on National Guard troops that respond to emergencies.

But Obama also said that preparing for inevitable climate change is not enough, and that the world needs to act now to prevent and slow down the rate of change.

Obama is expected to travel to Paris in December for a Climate Summit seeking to reach a global accord limiting greenhouse gases, and has already committed to reducing carbon emissions in the United States 28% by 2025.

Follow Gregory Korte on Twitter @gregorykorte.