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Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us A secret report,
suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The
Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas
as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict,
mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document 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 threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and
conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis.
'Once again, warfare would define human life.' The findings will
prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied
that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make
unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority. The report was commissioned
by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew
Marshall, who has held considerable sway on Climate change 'should
be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a An imminent scenario
of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge Last week the Bush
administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected
scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy
agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former
whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that
suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White
House trying to bury the threat of climate change. Senior climatologists,
however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush
to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope
it will convince the A group of eminent One even alleged that
the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed
to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he
branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible. Among those scientists
present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber,
former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the Sir John Houghton,
former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior
figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If
the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important
document indeed.' Bob Watson, chief
scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be
ignored. 'Can Bush ignore the
Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest
priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no
wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate
change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act.
There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby
and the Pentagon,' added Watson. 'You've got a
President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Already, according to
Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can
sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will
become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They
warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop
failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be
repeated. Randall told The
Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would
create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he 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.' Randall added that it
was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. '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 said. 'The consequences for
some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that
cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.' So dramatic are the
report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the The fact that Symons, who left the
EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the
report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of
climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop
burying its head in the sand on this issue.' Symons said the Bush
administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was
vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically
in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to
placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added. |
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Guardian Unlimited ©
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004