LONDON (AFP) - A secret report prepared by the Pentagon (news - web sites) warns that climate change may lead to global catastrophe costing millions of lives and is a far greater threat than terrorism. The report was ordered by an influential US Pentagon advisor but was covered up by \"US defense chiefs\" for four months, until it was \"obtained\" by the British weekly The Observer. The leak promises to draw angry attention to US environmental and military policies, following Washington\'s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) on climate change and President George W. Bush (news - web sites)\'s skepticism about global warning -- a stance that has stunned scientists worldwide. The Pentagon report, commissioned by Andrew Marshall, predicts that \"abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies,\" The Observer reported. The report, quoted in the paper, concluded: \"Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life.... Once again, warfare would define human life.\" Its authors -- Peter Schwartz, a CIA (news - web sites) consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of Global Business Network based in California -- said climate change should be considered \"immediately\" as a top political and military issue. It \"should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern\", they were quoted as saying. Some examples given of probable scenarios in the dramatic report include: -- Britain will have winters similar to those in current-day Siberia as European temperatures drop off radically by 2020. -- by 2007 violent storms will make large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable and lead to a breach in the acqueduct system in California that supplies all water to densely populated southern California -- Europe and the United States become \"virtual fortresses\" trying to keep out millions of migrants whose homelands have been wiped out by rising sea levels or made unfarmable by drought. -- \"catastrophic\" shortages of potable water and energy will lead to widespread war by 2020. Randall, one of the authors, called his findings \"depressing stuff\" and warned that it might even be too late to prevent future disasters. \"We don\'t know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,\" he told the paper. Experts familiar with the report told the newspaper that the threat to global stability \"vastly eclipses that of terrorism\". Taking environmental pollution and climate change into account in political and military strategy is a new, complicated and necessary challenge for leaders, Randall said. \"It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat,\" he said. Coming from the Pentagon, normally a bastion of conservative politics, the report is expected to bring environmental issues to the fore in the US presidential race. Last week the Union of Concerned Scientists, an influential and non-partisan group that includes 20 Nobel laureates, accused the Bush administration of having deliberately distorted scientific fact to serve its policy agenda and having \"misled the public\". Its 38-page report, which it said took over a year to prepare and was not time to coincide with the campaign season, details how Washington \"systematically\" skewed government scientific studies, suppressed others, stacked panels with political and unqualified appointees and often refused to seek independent expertise on issues. Critics of the report quoted by the New York Times denied there was deliberate misrepresentation and called it politically motivated. The person behind the leaked Pentagon report, Andrew Marsall, cannot be accused of the same partisan politicking. Marsall, 82, has been an advisor for the defense department for decades, and was described by The Observer as the author of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld\'s plans for a major transformation of the US military.
this is a heated topic of debate among scientific minds, but right now the most backed theory is the least likely to be true. greenhouse gases are causing global warming. that is a true statement. the whole truth is that the earth\'s temperature naturally swings between hot and cold and we are on an up-swing. the change in earth\'s climate follows the same time scale as the reversal of the poles. the earth is getting warmer because that is what it does. greenhouse gases are helping it get warmer, but play a backseat role. the ozone layer has a hole in it! oh no! this is not a good thing, but its bad for different reasons than you may assume. the depletion of the ozone layer will make humans more succeptible to radiation, but some scientists theorise that with the absence of ozone in our atmosphere the earth will cool. ozone \"reflects\" radiation out into space, but it also holds other \"greenhouse gases\" down. i don\'t have any sources off hand, but if you google it, i am sure you will find some info
ITEOTWAWKI!!! OMG!!! What a conspiracy!! Bush is trying to take over the world by using global warming!! I\'m surprised nobody has blamed the US government for the earthquake in Morocco yet. Here\'s an idea, how about YOUR government take care of the problem instead of just blaming everything on the US? Wait, then you wouldn\'t have anything to complain about. Oh well, there goes that idea.
Nothing new, Bush is an idiot. The reason he goes against the Kyoto agreement is so he and his oil buddies can keep gettin richer while he destroys more of the environment by expanding oil fields in sensitive ecosystems. Like the wildlife refuge in Alaska, which Bush wants to turn into a big oil plant. Fuck, Bush pisses me off...all you Americans better get him out of office in the next election...its a joke that he got elected in the first place. And by the way, coverups/outright lies are the way Bush does business, cmon, its nothing new.
They actually don\'t headline a lot of that stuff to the U.S. Why? Because then everyone would know the truth about all of the shit going on that is just plain wrong... As it stands now, other countries are more informed about bush is doing, than we\'re informed about what bush is doing! As far as the whole \"Bush Issue\", I stand neutral until I pick a good candidate that I actually like.
He didn\'t get elected, thanks to those asshats over at the Supreme Court........ And that last part is sad, but very true.....
just to give a little more perspective into my last post in this thread I will give this one. i am not saying that greenhouse gases are not a problem. what i was saying is that all of the fluctuations in the climate are not solely due to greenhouse gases. in the long run, it is a problem, but instead of sitting around with our thumbs up our butts murmuring about CO2, maybe we should be out doing things to better the lives of humans on earth now. greenhouse gases don\'t pose a threat to earth, it poses a threat to man. do i feel threatened? no. do i feel threatened walking down the street late at night? yes. can i watch tv without being reminded of starving kids in godknowswhere-opia? no. are fat kids getting fatter? yes. are poor people getting poorer? yes. as things are going now, greenhouse gases are not going to be a building problem. burning fossil fuels is not the most efficient way of producing energy, and that is why we don\'t have to worry about it. man, in his quest to build something bigger and better is going to outgrow fossil fuels and the greenhouse gas problem all together. i really do like earth, but i hate people who can\'t see the forest for the trees. if you are wise enough to realize that greenhouse gases are going to cause a long term effect on earth, why aren\'t you wise enough to see the wheels of change turning so rapidly? i kind of want my funeral to be warm anyways. shorts and t-shirts when they spread my ashes! ~supa
alls im saying is that we can rant and rave all we want, and until we actually do something we might as well just keep re uppin on the cotton swabs. *edit: what im saying is that we can sit back and call bush a moron or an idiot and accuse him of this that and the other...but this isnt exactly pro-active behavior, it solves nothing, it just proves that were good at name calling...what we have to do is actually pay attention to the candidates, pay attention to the future, we cant change the past, hes in office now, and we cant do anything about it...educate yourselves, all of you 18,19,20 year olds out there(not all of you, but some of you) dont just vote for the name you know, vote for the one whos true agenda is to fix the problems at hand... i think weve made it to the point where our only weapon is education so go get some cotton swabs, clean your ears, and listen up.
Did I say that???? Fact is he did not sign the kyto proctocol and my goverment did, not that it matters, but if you feel that Bush is not repsonsible for a whole lot of shit the last four years, than you are blind. My point is we ALL are fucking this planet, and the US as the world leader should at least give the good example, otherwise, waterworld, here we come! Peace SJ