This news story originally provided by The Progress Report

April 17, 2007

CLIMATE CHANGE A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY: "Global warming poses a 'serious threat to America's national security' and the military should act now to minimize the destabilizing consequences of rising temperatures, a panel of retired generals and admirals warned Monday." The panel's new report concludes that the effects of global warming could act as "threat multipliers" and "add to tensions even in stable regions of the world," incubating "civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism." Among the report's authors is ex-Middle East envoy and retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, who noted, "We will pay for this one way or another. ... We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today...or we'll pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives." The panel calls on the United States to "become a constructive partner" in the international fight against global warming and recommends that climate change be "woven into national security and defense strategies." The report was "broadly endorsed" by climate scientists and is in line with the findings of the head of the U.N. University's Institute for the Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Janos Bogardi, who yesterday cited "the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, where 200,000 people have died, was 'probably the most prominent example' of a conflict partly caused" by changes in regional climates. The U.N. Security Council convenes today to conduct its first ever debate on global climate change.   From americanprogressaction.org