[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 22, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2349-S2351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EARTH DAY

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today is Earth Day, and on Earth Day it is 
important for all of us to reflect not only on how human activity 
impacts the environment but also how those impacts on the environment 
affect people.
  Unfortunately, one of the impacts of climate change that is 
increasingly being documented by the military and intelligence 
communities is that climate change is a threat to our national 
security. This threat takes many forms. Perhaps the simplest 
manifestation is the threat of sea level rise on the Pentagon's 700 
costal facilities. Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia is the largest 
naval base in the world, but the station and the surrounding community 
is being inundated by coastal

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flooding from sea level rise. Norfolk is experiencing high tides 1\1/2\ 
feet higher than it did a century ago. This has already caused the 
naval base to have to abandon some piers, but perhaps the real worry is 
how flooding could prevent sailors from reaching the base during a 
weather event. One local minister quipped to the Washington Post that 
the local church that is now up for sale faced the prospect of putting 
``the tide chart on their Web site'' so people would know whether they 
could get to church.
  Norfolk and the Navy are exploring various solutions, including a 
costly flood gate proposal, but the reality is that Naval Station 
Norfolk and U.S. Navy infrastructure around the world is at threat 
around the world, and in a time of tightening budgets, that can have 
real impacts on military readiness.
  A similar problem exists in my home State, in Annapolis, home to the 
U.S. Naval Academy. NOAA's 2014 ``Sea Level Rise and Nuisance Flood 
Frequency Changes Around the United States'' found that ``Annapolis and 
Baltimore, Maryland, lead the list with an increase in number of flood 
days of more than 920 percent since 1960.'' NOAA goes on to conclude 
that sea level rise in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is the cause of 
these ``nuisance flooding'' events.
  On Monday, I visited the Patuxant River Naval Air Station in Southern 
Maryland on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. I raised the issue 
of how sea level rise is expected to affect the important work this 
installation does to ensure our Navy's defense preparedness and 
aircraft testing and what sort of preparation and mitigation work they 
were doing to meet these imminent challenges.
  Critical to the function of Pax River's operations is that the base 
be located at sea level, so if sea level is changing, even by just a 
few feet, they have to account for these changes and essentially raise 
the base. Fortunately, the Navy is already putting a lot of thought 
into this issue; however, the infrastructure adaptation and mitigation 
projects that are essential to keeping our military prepared are coming 
at the expense of the taxpayer.
  Climate change is also a threat to national security because it can 
serve as a threat multiplier. For as long as there have been humans, 
there has been conflict over resources, especially when those resources 
are scarce and essential. Many national security and defense experts 
have commented on how climate change's impacts on food production, 
freshwater resources, and the destruction of critical infrastructure is 
contributing to political instability in a number of countries, 
particularly in developing countries where political leadership is 
already tenuous.
  As former colonel and current Department of Defense consultant Pete 
Newell put it, ``As a precursor to conflict, lack of access to basic 
human needs is a major driver and it's only getting worse.''
  Prolonged drought and other serious environmental disasters are also 
made more likely in a warming world, and these kinds of conditions can 
overwhelm governments and cause government collapse.
  The potential of conflict, radicalism, and terrorism are heightened 
when states fail.
  Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullin, was 
quoted in the DOD's 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review:

       The scarcity of and potential competition for resources . . 
     . compounded by the influx of refugees . . . creates 
     conditions of hopelessness that could lead to failed states 
     and make populations vulnerable to radicalization.

  CNA Corporation's Military Advisory Board issued a 2014 report titled 
``National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change 
``calling for political leadership to address the causes and impacts of 
climate change:

       The national security risks of projected climate change are 
     as serious as any challenges we have faced . . . .Political 
     posturing and budgetary woes cannot be allowed to inhibit 
     discussion and debate over what so many believe to be a 
     salient national security concern for our nation.

  Scholars at U.C. Santa Barbara and Columbia University have shown how 
Syria is an example of how climate change can help create conditions 
that lead to conflict. The ongoing tragedy of ISIS cannot be explained 
by any one single cause, but studies are pointing to climate change as 
an important factor.
  Between 2006 and 2010, Syria experienced its worst drought in 
decades. Reportedly this caused crop failure on 60 percent of Syria's 
arable land and the country lost 8o percent of its head of cattle.
  Rural farmers had nowhere to go but to Syria's cities. Syria's 
Government, which was already dealing with 1 million displaced people 
from Iraq, was overwhelmed by an influx of 1 million people internally 
displaced by drought.
  As we know all too well from recent history, failed states and the 
chaotic conditions within them are breeding grounds of terrorism and 
radicalism such as that practiced by ISIS.
  Climate change helped create stresses on the Syrian Government it 
could not handle, and its collapse has helped lead to the emergence of 
ISIS.
  Leaders and experts attribute other global conflicts to climate 
change. Ban Ki-moon holds that violence in Darfur was sparked by a 
decline in rainfall that devastated cattle herds. Others believe that 
the 2011 Arab spring relates to heat waves that forced cereal-exporting 
countries to take grain off the global market.
  A severe drought in the Horn of Africa has starved off tens of 
thousands of Somalis, and many more are on the brink of starvation in 
crowded refugee camps nearby. This displacement and desperation can 
only compound other crises and issues, such as civil conflict, fragile 
societies, and underdevelopment.
  Many Pacific Island nations, such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, are being 
swallowed up by the ocean.
  While no single extreme weather event can be attributed to climate 
change, and the Earth has certainly experienced hurricanes and cyclones 
since the dawn of time, what is worth noting is the trend in increased 
intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is clear. Since 2000, 
there have been 18 category 5 hurricanes and cyclones--18 storms in the 
last 14 years. The previous 18 category 5 storms occurred over a 39-
year period from 1961 to 2000. In other words, the phenomenon is 
becoming a more common occurrence in our world.
  Last month, Cyclone Pam quite literally leveled the island nation of 
Vanuatu in the South Pacific. An overwhelming majority of the island's 
structures were destroyed. As the days went on and the media began to 
lose focus on the humanitarian crisis that was unfolding, access to 
food and freshwater became increasingly difficult for the people of 
Vanuatu. Foreign aid has slowly made its way to the stricken people of 
Vanuatu. The World Health Organization has noted a rise in illnesses 
related to lack of access to safe drinking water and exposure to 
mosquito-borne diseases.
  We must remain mindful of the pace and quality of recovery efforts in 
Vanuatu. Cyclone Pam has created a situation that could very easily 
destabilize the government if conditions on the ground in Vanuatu do 
not continue to improve.
  Extremist organizations feed on instability and chaos, and if the 
people of Vanuatu feel their government is not adequately addressing 
their needs in a timely fashion, concerned nations need to be vigilant 
of what forces may take hold.
  As climate change worsens, more countries may become vulnerable to 
its effects. Lack of food, water, and living space is displacing and 
killing people.
  To protect our national security, we need to listen to the Department 
of Defense and an emerging group of scholars who are showing the 
connections between climate change and conflict. That means heeding the 
warnings of humanitarian need, providing adequate aid to maintain 
stability during crises, and helping vulnerable countries build 
resilient infrastructure. But most fundamentally it means we need to 
fight climate change. Global warming pollution is harming our planet, 
harming nature, and endangering wildlife.
  But Earth Day is not just about the Earth; it is also about the 
people inhabit it. Let's remember the most severe human impacts of 
climate, its impacts on our national security, and avert the worst 
affects of global warming.
  Let's do justice to Earth Day and make fighting climate change a true 
national priority.

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