Latest in Climate Change and Security
In the middle of the last century, Dr. Murdock Head, a George Washington University professor, acquired an old manor house and farm known as Airlie outside the nation’s capital. Dr. Head wanted to create a place where experts and organizations could meet in a neutral environment to analyze the pressing issues of the day.
Now the other shoe has dropped and President Trump has announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
My business just picked up. I wish it hadn’t.
Last August, David Wirth explained to Lawfare’s readers how simple it would be for President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord’s nonbinding provisions on climate emission reductions: Trump “need not go through a formal withdrawal process, as required by the Agreement and international law.
President Trump’s campaign promise to “cancel” the Paris Agreement, and his subsequent statement that he has an “open mind” on the question, will now be transported to the multilateral stage in a setting of high politics.
The Climate Security Act of 2007 was introduced by Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator John Warner, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee keenly aware of the dangers that climate change poses to our national security and military readiness.
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning refugees from a number of Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States and blocking Syrian refugees indefinitely, his justification was that the ban was necessary to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals,” and to prevent the entry of those who “bear hostile attitudes toward [the United States] and its founding principles.”
Several weeks ago we expressed our hope that the incoming administration and the national security community will work together to address the sweeping challenges created by climate change. We stressed two main ideas.
In light of the scientific consensus that substantial increases in atmospheric CO2 will inevitably lead to solar-driven global warming, the nations of the world are seeking to obtain agreement on proposals to reduce the amount of CO2 that their economies produce.