Pentagon Removes Numerous Climate Change References From Obama-era Report

The Pentagon reportedly removed numerous references to climate change from a report about U.S. military installations, de-emphasizing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) focus on preparing for the effects of rising temperatures and sea levels.

An unpublished draft of a DOD report obtained by The Washington Postshows that a final version, which was presented to Congress in January, was missing several references to climate change as well as other key data.

In particular, maps detailing “those sites that indicated possible effects could occur due to increased mean sea level between 0-3 feet” were left out, the newspaper noted.

Other references to climate change were changed to “extreme weather,” “climate” or were deleted entirely, it added. One passage describing how storms are “made more destructive by a reduction in sea ice and an increase in ice free periods” was removed completely from the final document.