Center for a New American Security

Last week the House Science & Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Energy & Environment held a hearing entitled "A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response." The objective was, in the words of Subcommittee Chairman Brian Baird (D-WA), to go "back to the basics" of climate change science "for an open discussion." The first of the panels discussed the fundamental physics and chemistry of the phenomena, the second focused on climate modeling, and the third focused on what impacts are already being observed and actions needed to prepare for the future. 

RADM David Titley, Oceanographer of the Navy and the Director of the Navy's Task Force Climate Change, participated in the last of the panels. RADM Titley's testimony included a quote from VADM Richard Truly, former NASA Administrator and Director of Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab: “The stresses that climate change will put on our national security will be different than any we’ve dealt with in the past…this is why we need to study this issue now, so that we’ll be prepared and not overwhelmed by the required scope of our response when the time comes.”

It will be hard for anyone to accuse the Navy (and DoD more broadly) of not "studying" climate change. Here are a few of the studies the Admiral mentioned:

• - four research projects funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (DoD's enviro science and tech program) to evaluate sea level rise on coastal installations, 
• - a QDR-directed, comprehensive assessment of military installations to assess the potential impacts of climate change on DoD’s missions, 
• - an assessment by the Defense Science Board’s Task Force on Trends and Implications of Climate Change for National and International Security of what DoD's interagency role should be, and  
• - a National Research Council’s Naval Studies Board (Navy-sponsored) study on effects of climate change on naval forces. 

Let's hope all of these studies lead Congress to take action. "The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow." - Marcus Tullius Cicero