Tuesday
Sep082009
Lieberman: Climate Change Threatens National Security
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 3:58PM
By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that climate change presents a growing threat to the United States.
“The environmental concerns have merged with two other major American national interests. One is economic. The second coalescence is that climate change is a matter of national security,” Lieberman said during a panel discussion with the Reserve Officers Association in Washington, D.C.
Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, added that climate change does not threaten the stability of the U.S. alone.
“The Minister of Defense from Bangladesh is planning what they will have to do for the unrest that will occur if global warming is not checked and tides rise,” said Lieberman.
Lieberman noted that legislative changes would need to be enacted to offset the risks, conceding that while there is a resistance to change, the U.S. is making progress.
“This is not easy because of the change involved. And yet as the years have gone by the number of stake holders, including businesses that have come forward and said they want to be part of the change because they see it coming ... has grown.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that climate change presents a growing threat to the United States.
“The environmental concerns have merged with two other major American national interests. One is economic. The second coalescence is that climate change is a matter of national security,” Lieberman said during a panel discussion with the Reserve Officers Association in Washington, D.C.
Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, added that climate change does not threaten the stability of the U.S. alone.
“The Minister of Defense from Bangladesh is planning what they will have to do for the unrest that will occur if global warming is not checked and tides rise,” said Lieberman.
Lieberman noted that legislative changes would need to be enacted to offset the risks, conceding that while there is a resistance to change, the U.S. is making progress.
“This is not easy because of the change involved. And yet as the years have gone by the number of stake holders, including businesses that have come forward and said they want to be part of the change because they see it coming ... has grown.”
Reader Comments (1)
Senator Lieberman gave very sound advice
By sounding a cautionary note re: reforming healthcare,
But in seeing "climate change" as a threat to national security
His advice in that arena must be judged "only 'fair'".
If we're to believe what he says about the latter
We must be shown, clearly, exactly how
The national security of the U.S. could be threatened
And/or when,e.g.,down the road a piece or here and now?
There's been so much gobbledegook about "climate change"
And no hint of what the average global temperature is day by day
That folks cannot be expected to have confidence,
Even in what reasonable men like Senator Lieberman say.
Start computing and publishing (with explanation)
A defined average global temperature
And until it starts to change perceptibly
In our status of doubt we'll endure.
(One supposes it should remain constant
Showing no seasonal variation, for example,
Unless something dramatic occurs somewhere on earth--
That, of change, probably would be evidence ample.)
Climate change, itself, is much like the elephant
Whose characteristics are being assessed by blind men--
It's this to one, that to another, and something else to the third,
And so on (counting upwards to 10).