WASHINGTON – A top Defense Department official says the military already is feeling the effects of climate change on bases and operations, while a congressional investigative agency called on the Pentagon to set strict deadlines to ensure it adapts to rising sea levels, storm surges and temperature swings.
Though the Defense Department published a Climate Adaptation Roadmap last year—its first step of action in addressing the evolving national security threat—the Government Accountability Office report called on the department to set milestones in adapting its defense facilities and infrastructure to the changing climate.
But a Republican congressman hopes to block Pentagon plans to battle climate change.
Last month the House passed an amendment to the 2015 energy and water appropriations bill, introduced by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., that would prohibit the Energy Department from using funds “to design, implement, administer or carry out specified assessments regarding climate change.”
In May the House also passed McKinley’s amendment to the 2015 defense authorization bill that also would prevent the Pentagon from using funds to fulfill recommendations from climate change assessments and reports.
“The McKinley amendments do not deny science but deny ‘science’ based on political agendas that get in the way of actual science,” said McKinley spokesman Jim Forbes. “We want to find partners to work with in the Senate who understand science is not political or an ideology.”
Both bills now need Senate approval, but it’s likely McKinley’s amendments won’t be included in the Senate versions, Forbes said.
The GAO report evaluated 15 coastal defense facilities in Virginia, California, Hawaii and Alaska over the last year.
At several Air Force radar installations in Alaska, erosion along the coast—from the combination of thawing permafrost, decreasing sea ice and rising sea levels—has damaged roads, utility infrastructure, seawalls and runways, according to the June report. Coastal erosion has so severely damaged a runway at one installation that large planes are no longer able to land.
Daniel Chiu, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, echoed the findings at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month. “The effects of the changing climate affect the full range of department activities, including plans, operations, training, infrastructure, acquisition and longer-term investments,” he said in his testimony.
Defense infrastructure managers have already begun adapting to the changing climate, according to Chiu. Following extreme storms, rebuilding efforts have included building more wind-resistant structures, burying utility lines, protecting water supplies, and re-locating chemical storage, he said.
Projected stronger storms and cyclones, along with sea level rise, could cause flooding and power outages that might damage military infrastructure, said David Michel, director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center, an environmental think tank. The result might be similar to how Hurricane Andrew destroyed Homestead Air Force Base in Florida in 1992.
Beyond affecting strictly military bases, these conditions could also affect military personnel who live in the surrounding communities and who might not be able to commute to carry out operations on base, Michel said.
The Pentagon’s forward-looking approach to climate change fulfilled the Obama administration’s 2009 executive order commanding federal departments to evaluate climate change risks and begin adaptation planning.
With the preface that “operational readiness hinges on continued access to land, air, and sea training and test space, all of which are subject to the effects of climate change,” the roadmap laid out plans to assess the risks of climate change on defense infrastructure and base decision-making on “the best available science.”
In March the Pentagon called for new, energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy sources “to increase the resiliency of our installations” in its Quadrennial Defense Review. The department said the impacts of climate change might weaken “the capacity of our domestic installations to support training activities.”
The Pentagon is conducting a baseline study to determine which defense infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather events and sea level rise. The study will be completed later this year.