Center for a New American Security

This week’s roundup will provide to you with plenty of conversation starters for your weekend parties, with the latest news on the often-controversial topic of geoengineering – the altering of Earth’s systems to mitigate or reverse the effects of climate change.  

Today the New York Times reported on a growing trend in housing construction: the decision to use lighter-hued materials as opposed to darker, traditional counterparts such as slate and asphalt. The article focuses on the economic benefits families and businesses can enjoy if they follow Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s advice and make this switch. In many cases, using light-colored roofing materials or simply painting roofs white can increase building reflectivity, thereby cooling the structure and reducing the residential or corporate investor’s energy costs. The economic basis for the white-roof transition is fairly sound, though results vary by region and depend on other factors such as average exposure to sunlight.
 
However, when considering approaches to greenhouse gas reduction, it is important to consider just not the aspect of energy savings, but that when aggregated, seas of white-shingled roofs may actually have the potential to alter the Earth’s albedo, a measure of the planet’s overall reflectivity, and, thus, impact the climate in ways that we do not quite understand.

• U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that rich nations – including the United States, Australia, and the Netherlands – are likely to face an increasing number of water-related disasters in the coming years.
• Senator John Kerry believes that the United States and China’s progress on talks concerning climate change has been too slow.
• Two new British-built satellites designed to help monitor natural disasters have been launched.
• The European Union has sent a delegation to Turkmenistan in the hopes of forging better relations as the EU seeks to gain suppliers for the Nabucco pipeline.
• The New York Times examines the use of white roofs to help cut energy costs everywhere from Wal-Mart stores to Fort Irwin Army Base.
• The Financial Times examines public wariness about carbon capture.
• Scientific American examines how minor errors in data have been exploited by climate change skeptics.

Reading Old Magazines this week will be short and sweet: a brief tale of two seemingly unremarkable Time magazine articles that appear to have had undue influence on two members (including the chairman) of the Senate Foreign

• The United States and China have promised better cooperation on climate change, energy, and the environment without laying out specific targets in a memorandum signed yesterday.
• The New York Times’ Dot Earth Blog examines the possibilities of the Arctic as a shipping route in the future.
• The Department of Defense continues to examine its fuel and water use in an effort to reduce its logistics “tail.”
• BP believes that it will see a return from work on Iraq’s Rumaila field comparable to that of other world fields, and that the deal to develop Rumaila will be wrapped up by the end of the year.
• The Guardian examines the mass extinction event currently taking place – the “sixth great extinction event” – and its potential effects on populations living in the southern hemisphere.

• A new report shows that China’s top three polluters emit more greenhouse gases than the whole of Britain.
• The New York Times profiles the surge of investment in the battery industry, a component of the further development of photovoltaic, wind turbine, and hybrid-electric vehicle technologies.
• Stimulus plans for the federally sponsored smart energy grid have encountered fresh criticism amid concerns about the network’s vulnerability to cyberattacks.
• Legal recourse continues against Americans who have been charged with stealing $40 million in fuel from Camp Liberty, Baghdad, and selling it on the black market.
• Despite concerns last week about India’s shirking at proposed emissions targets, a top Indian climate change official has confirmed the country’s commitment to reducing fossil fuel use, simultaneously requesting developed countries’ aid with the transition.

On Tuesday, July 21st, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called a hearing on the national security implications of climate change. Arguably, it should have been the Senate Armed Services Committee, but the SFRC was right for so many reasons. Start with the fact that the Chairman and the Ranking Member have been leading the way on energy security and climate change for the nation for some time.

First and foremost, this hearing legitimized the notion that climate change is a national security issue, and that the national security community needs to look at climate change as a concern with planning, policy, force structure, and budgeting implications. It was a bipartisan hearing, both in the senators in attendance and in the witnesses.

The star witness was former five-term senator, the Honorable John Warner, who is honorable, indeed. He could do anything he wanted to with his life right now, including just hang out with his grandchildren, but he has chosen to make raising awareness of climate change his mission. Two of the other panelists were retired flag-rank military officers – between them, about 70 years of experience in the U.S. navy. They passionately and persuasively talked about the national security challenges of climate change.

The fourth panelist was…me. I’ve attended many hearings, prepared others for hearings, but never been in the witness chair myself – it’s a slightly

• Secretary of State Clinton and Treasury Secretary Geithner call for a “new strategic dialogue” between the United States and China to address issues including climate change, energy, and the environment in the Wall Street Journal.
• The New York Times examines Russia’s contributions to climate change and ability to adapt to potential new climate goals.
• Two new water stations have been opened in Ninewa Province, Iraq, to provide potable water to some 150 homes in five villages.
• A new study on clouds over the Pacific Ocean shows how climate change can create feedback loops, reports Bloomberg News.
• Newly declassified satellite photos show the extent of the retreat of Arctic sea ice in the summer.
• Scientific American profiles a plan to use bacteria to halt desertification.

“Surely it has to frustrate you coming from where you come from that this country is not embarking on a massive project and working with China and India to do the same – nuclear countries already – to build many, many nuclear facilities to combat this [climate change] issue that you’re so concerned about,” said Senator Bob Corker at the July 20, 2009, hearing "Climate Change and Global Security: Challenges, Threats and Diplomatic Opportunities," before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From my vantage point within the security community, it is not terribly frustrating. Because for all the benefits that come with diversifying the energy portfolio by increasing nuclear power, the inextricable security challenges too often get missed or ignored.

What was missing from Senator Corker’s remarks was an indication of the potential security concerns with nuclear power projects popping up all over the world. Nuclear non-proliferation has been an intractable issue for more than a half century, an issue we’re reminded of day in and day out by Iran and North Korea. But with nuclear energy reentering the global debate as a pseudo-panacea for the world’s energy woes, the threat of proliferation may become more urgent.

• Yvo De Boer, the top climate official at the UN, has said that success at the Copenhagen summit will require a $10 billion investment by the world’s wealthiest countries.
• The American Forces Press Service examines the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team’s efforts to provide food storage facilities to Afghan farmers.
• The New York Times examines the transportation and logistical difficulties associated with the development of wind power.
• Scientific American profiles Europe’s attempts to generate solar power in northern Africa.
• Violence in the Niger Delta has driven down oil production to the point that Angola has overtaken Nigeria to become Africa’s top oil producer.