The Patriot Post® · Hagel Warns Again About Climate Change

Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced its plan to fight climate change. On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reiterated the significance of the threat. “From my perspective, within the portfolio that I have responsibility for – security of this country – climate change presents security issues for us,” he said. How so? “As the oceans increase, it’ll affect our [military] bases, it’ll affect islands, it’ll affect security across the world,” Hagel explained. “So, just from my narrow perspective, what I have responsibility for, that’s happening now, and we have to be prepared for that.” Furthermore, he concluded, “Bottom line is, with all the crises of the moment – and that’s part of my job, to manage the immediate crises – we also cannot lose sight of the strategic, longer-term challenges that face our country either, and this [climate change] is one that we’ve got to be smart in how we handle it. … [T]he military, the Pentagon, has maybe – at least perceived by many people – a more serious look at the world.” More serious? Not if our Pentagon policymakers are taking cues from Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.