While most view climate change as a global problem, the Homeland Security Department (HSD) identifies climate change as a threat to domestic security. Consequently, the Homeland Security Department and the U.S military are both engaged in extensive measures to prepare for the impact of climate change (Erickson, 2016). However, HSD and the U.S military are not dealing with all direct impacts of climate change. The focus of this research paper is to evaluate some of the impact of climate change that the country is not dealing with or preparing for that are directly related to change in the climate.
How the U.S Is Preparing For the Impact of Climate Change
The U.S congress affirmed that the changes in climatic patterns are a direct threat to the U.S national security in the 2018 Defense Authorization Act (Thornberry, 2017). Climate change has been identified as a driver of unpredictable instability as it is associated with risks such as shortage of resources such as water and food. The U.S military and HSD have engaged in developing and implementing extensive measures to handles some of the effects of climate change. For example, due to the expected coastal flooding, the military bases face the threat of heightened sea level rise and storm surge. The government has increased its readiness to dealing with these flooding and storm surges with suggestions to change some of the bases from the seafronts and the rebuilding of some of the naval bases.
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The melting Arctic continues to create new opportunities and challenges for countries that border the Arctic region. While new trade routes are being found because of the melting ice in the arctic region, there is a concern about the need to provide security and emergency response measures on these routes as well as sea vessels that can navigate these areas. Consequently, the U.S is in the process of developing new ship designs meant for arctic operations.
Aspects of Concern That We Are Not Dealing With Related To Climate Change
Homeland security agencies have identified most of the concerns that relate directly to climate change. While there are many different ways that the government is preparing to deal with the climate change impact, there are some areas of concern that no much attention is being put in place. Climate change directly impacts public health, Energy and Physical infrastructure military and defense department, agriculture, and migration.
Destruction of Physical and Energy Infrastructure
Disasters that occur as a result of climate change result in the destruction of physical and energy infrastructure. While protecting the physical infrastructure is the government’s responsibility, there is little that is being done to protect infrastructure from climatic- influenced disasters. Homeland security admits that events occurring as a result of climatic change have caused destruction on infrastructure both natural and human-made in the past. Response in the past has shown that the government is not well prepared in dealing with such occurrences.
There have been increased activities of the destruction of the natural resources by events related to climate change in the U.S. Large forest fires continue to increase since the 1980s in the U.S and Alaska causing the destruction of natural forests. Forest fires cause deaths of animals, trees, and people which impact regional ecosystems. The rise in water has caused destruction to coastal properties. Hurricanes, cyclones, and winds continue to cause destruction of physical infrastructure both private and public. Transport systems such as ports, airports, roads, rails have in the past been destroyed by climate change events such as heavy rains. While the government continues to prepare and address some of the impacts of climate change less have been done to protect infrastructure.
There is a rising concern in HSD that events may overwhelm the capacities of critical infrastructure at some point in the future which will cause widespread disruption in the supply of essential goods and services across the country. HSD identifies that it is impossible to protect some of the infrastructures from climate change and thus there is fear that climate change must impact infrastructure thus hindering services that are required in different places. For example, in 2012, a rare derecho storm in the mid-Atlantic area caused the destruction of trees and utility poles that left an estimated 1.2 million homes without power (Busby, 2016). There is little that the government can do to protect some of the infrastructures from events occurring as a climate change.
Increased Burden on Defense Department
Climate change has led to increased cases of extreme weather events such as flooding, earthquakes, droughts, and famines thus creating demand for military aid. In the past, the department of defense has been engaged in responding to humanitarian crises arising from natural disasters. As the climate continues to experience dramatic changes, natural disasters are becoming common phenomena in the U.S and other places across the world. The U.S military personnel responsible for emergencies on humanitarian work are now in high demand (Busby, 2016).
In the past decade, the U.S experienced climate influenced crisis that saw the deployment of the military humanitarian teams to provide aid to persons in these areas. In 2012, the U.S experienced hurricane Sandy which was one of the deadliest in the 21st century. Hurricane Sandy caused an estimated loss of $60 billion and caused the displacement of people. Sandy hurricane caused a rise in the water levels in the East Coast of the U.S impacting the states like Florida and Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York affecting millions of people (Busby, 2016). In response to the situation, Pentagon was forced to mobilize 24,000 military emergency response personnel. The military team was supposed to carry out disaster relief and rebuilding efforts. In addition, other disasters happened in the last decade which saw an increased need in a military response. In 2017, hurricanes Harvey and Maria saw the military also responding to these disasters.
There is an increased cost because of these military emergency response operations which have an impact on the overall readiness of the military. Increased events such as hurricanes in the homeland have increased the demand for emergency response units from homeland security and the military which continue to increase the cost of overall security for both federal and state governments (Busby, 2016). With the continued climate change there will be a need for emergency response teams that will increase the cost of state budgets on security teams.
The emergency disasters caused by climate change continue to increase the demand for security personnel and resources which the government has not dealt with. Facts are that there is no way to prepare for some of these events because some occur unexpectedly or those that are expected nobody knows their intensity.
Climate Change Impact on Public Health
According to the National Security Strategy (NSS) 2010 report, national security includes the ability of the government to protect the public from health threats that contribute to illnesses and deaths. NSS report noted that public health is achieved when there are improved medical capabilities, reliable and rapid medical countermeasures to public health risks and domestic surveillance of diseases (Morales, 2015). Climate change continues to contribute to factors that affect public health.
Morales (2015), notes that climate change has led to an increase in events that have put into risk the lives of the Americans and it has slowly become a homeland responsibility. An increase in wetness and temperature has led to an increase in animal born diseases. There is an increase in animal-borne diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and other viral diseases like Coronavirus. An increase in temperatures and drought instances has provided an ideal environment for animals and insects like mosquitos, fleas, and ticks to breed thus increasing the level of infections. Different studies show that climate change alters the way diseases are transmitted. The available data indicate that a change in climate has resulted in an increase in animal born diseases which are a threat to the American citizens. For example, in 2012 a new form of West Nile virus which is spread by the mosquitos was discovered in the U.S. the disease had infected about 5,600 people.
Hot-waves in the U.S are becoming common. Heatwaves are related to climate change and have a direct threat to public health. Heatwaves might not cause illnesses but they are known to cause death. For example, according to Morales (2015), in 1995 a heatwave in Chicago lead to the deaths of 750 people and in 2006 heat waves in California led to estimated deaths of 333 persons.
Research indicates that homeland security has failed in its campaign of providing countermeasures to health risks that result from the effects of climate change. While there are reports in place of what should be done about public health and climate change in the U.S, little has been done to prepare for health issues that might arise as a result of climate change (Morales, 2015).
Reduced Agricultural Produce, Food Nutrition, and Security
In the United States, achieving food security, ending hunger, and improving the nutrition of citizens is among the goals of sustainable development. Climate change, however, is impacting the security of food and agriculture hence it is likely to difficult and challenging to end malnutrition and hunger (Gitz et.al, 2016). The great effects that climate change has on the ecosystem are widespread and severe and making sure that there is food security in the face of the changing climate is among the greatest challenge that is facing humankind.
The government has not given much detail to climate change in its agenda on food security given that some issues associated with climate change are gradually emerging. Concern and actions should be taken urgently so that to allow ample time for building resilience into the production system of agriculture. Climate change impacts the conditions in which the activities of agriculture are carried out. In all regions in the world, animals, ecosystems, and plants are adapted to the climatic conditions prevailing. Upon the climate changing, even if in a direction that could be favorable, the animals and plants are impacted with some of them being less production or disappearing (Gitz et.al, 2016). Despite the fact that some of these impacts of climate change on the agricultural produce such as the direct effect of the heatwave on the plant can be predicted, not much has been done about it.
Besides affecting plants and animals directly, climate change leads to the movement of diseases and pests which affect plants and animals. These risks on agriculture directly translate into extra risks for the nutrition and food security of the people who depend on agriculture for livelihood and food. To those people who are distant, climate change has an impact on their food nutrition and security through disrupted trade and price volatility.
Studies have indicated the impacts of past trends of climate on the production of crops in different regions of the world with positive impacts being less than the negative impacts (Gitz et.al, 2016). Evidence indicates that the change in climate has affected the yields of maize and wheat negatively. The increase in the frequency of the hot nights that are unusual in most rice-growing regions has led to the damage of mots crops. For example, in the maize growing zones in the United States of America, climate change can affect the crops negatively due to the reduction of water availability and intense heat during the seasons of growth (Gitz et.al, 2016). The government, therefore, needs to consider the impacts of climate change and make preparations for dealing with it.
Climate Change and Its Impact on Migration and Displacement
Climate change has had a great impact on the migration of people. Changing climate usually alters the intensity, timing, and frequency of some climatic conditions and the effect of the changes is identified if people start to relocate to other places. Climate change effects such as the increase in temperatures, rise in the sea level, heavy rainfall and flooding may result in people being displaced or even evacuated in order to prevent them from harm. Reviews and researches have procrastinated that by the year 2050 around 200 million people would have been affected by the change in climate that could induce human migration (Stapleton et.al, 2017).
Other studies have estimated that the number of immigrants as a result of climate change to be between 25 and 30 million every year with most displacements being a result of the rise in sea level (Stapleton et.al, 2017). The hazards that are related to climate change such as floods and storms occur often and they lead to the displacement of people especially when there are deaths associated with the hazards. In 2015, disasters that were a result of floods forced approximately 8.3 million people to move from their homes, 6.3 million were displaced by storms while 87000 were the people displaced by wildfires.
Displacement and migration as a result of climate change have been ignored by most nations since they have been associated with other factors such as conflicts and poverty (Stapleton et.al, 2017). Governments and researchers, therefore, focus on other issues such as poverty reduction to prevent the citizens from moving to places where there are greener pastures and give less concern to displacement which are led by the changes in climate. Coming up with a plan on how to handle disasters such as floods is the solution to minimizing migration and displacement related to climate change.
The global climate continues to experience changes that affect all countries. However, the U.S government has categorically identified climate change as a risk to homeland security. In response, the homeland security agencies together with other agencies have developed strategies to adapt and mitigate the direct instability that is created by climate change. However, these agencies have fallen short as some of the direct risks have not yet been thoroughly dealt with. Risks such as public health, destruction of infrastructure, increased military demand, resource shortages, and immigration are impacts of climate change. Despite identifying these factors as direct risks of climate that affect U.S security the government has done little to deal with them.
References
Busby, J. (2016). Climate change and US national Security: sustaining security amidst unsustainability. Sustainable Security: Rethinking American National Security Strategy, ed. Jeremi Suri and Benjamin Valentino (Oxford University Press, 2016), http://tobinproject. org/books-papers/sustainablesecurity .
Erickson, E. J. (2016). Climate Change and the Department of Defense: An Introduction . Marine Corps University Quantico United States.
Gitz, V., Meybeck, A., Lipper, L., Young, C. D., & Braatz, S. (2016). Climate change and food security: risks and responses. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Report , 110 .
Morales, E. (2015). Global climate change as a threat to US National Security. Journal of Strategic Security , 8 (3), 134-148. Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1482&context=jss
Stapleton, S. O., Nadin, R., Watson, C., & Kellett, J. (2017). Climate change, migration, and displacement: the need for a risk-informed and coherent approach . Overseas Development Institute.
Thornberry, M. (2017). National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. In Congress. gov .
