r/geopolitics • u/[deleted] • 28d ago
Why Europe’s militaries should worry about climate change Opinion
https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/opinion/why-europes-militaries-should-worry-about-climate-change/[deleted]
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u/Pamishelis 28d ago edited 28d ago
Submission statement:
Concise yet interesting perspective on how climate change will affect Europe's military capabilities over the next decades (well, many decades, but you get the point). Essentially, the author argues that the most important negative features of climate change will be felt across four categories: military infrastructure, political instability in the MENA region, tensions in the Arctic and the need for more disaster relief operations. Some of these ideas are hardly new (i.e. the geopolitical rivalry over the Arctic or the fact that as MENA gets hotter, the living conditions there will get worse), but some of them merit greater attention. The point that climate change (well, flooding, hurricanes and other natural disasters) will prove to be a constant cash and resource drain for some of the militaries due to infrastructural damage is a particularly noteworthy one. Also, it's interesting how defence policy planners will have to adapt (in terms of resources, equipment, training and etc.) to the fact that more and more European armies (and armies everywhere, obviously) will have to be deployed for disaster relief missions.
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u/NineteenEighty9 28d ago
The US Department of Defence has been doing climate reports for years. They’re a great read and help cut through a lot of the media noise surrounding the climate debate. Highly recommend everyone read it.
Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense
The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to Department of Defense (DoD or the Department) missions, operational plans, and installations.
Our 2018 National Defense Strategy prioritizes long-term strategic competition with great power competitors by focusing the Department’s efforts and resources to: 1) build a more lethal force, 2) strengthen alliances and attract new partners, and 3) reform the Department’s processes.
To achieve these goals, DoD must be able to adapt current and future operations to address the impacts of a variety of threats and conditions, including those from weather and natural events. To that end, DoD factors in the effects of the environment into its mission planning and execution to build resilience.
For this report, the Office of the Secretary of Defense requested information and inputs from the Military Departments, Joint Staff, Geographic Combatant Commands, and other organizations.
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u/[deleted] 28d ago edited 28d ago
[removed]
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u/PajeetLvsBobsNVegane 28d ago
Do you have a link?
I didn't realise one country was responsible for two thirds of emissions.
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u/papyjako87 28d ago
It isn't, this guy is straight up lying for whatever reason. China is first at 30%, the US second at 15% and the EU third at 9%. His comment also completly ignore the fact a lot of chinese emissions come from manufacturing products bought by western consumers. And let's not even get started on the historical emission debate. In short, this issue is not and never will be as simple as "China bad". Trying to pretend otherwise is nothing but an attempt at forfeiting a responsibility shared globally.
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u/ChillyBearGrylls 28d ago
They don't because they would rather embrace propaganda. It's 29% for the most recent year given (2016) and the cumulative CO2 paints a rather different picture.
2016: https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/
Cumulative: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1007454/cumulative-co2-emissions-worldwide-by-country/
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u/El_Pigeon_ 28d ago
China are also the number one investor in renewable energy in the world. And 26% of their electricity comes from renewable sources. Meanwhile, the USA the 'Greatest country in the world' can muster a measly 17%
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u/the_silent_kebabbaro 28d ago
They all sound like weak points or that just marginally related to army capacities.
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u/Fair_Control3693 28d ago
If there is a major drought, we will have several hundred million refugees.
The traditional word for this sort of thing is "Volkswandering".
Europe really needs to be worried.
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u/SailaNamai 27d ago
I know its a little picky but the german word is Völkerwanderung.
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u/hhenk 27d ago
"Volkswandering"
The ending on this word "ing" indicates a Germanic but not high-German origin of the word. My guess of the origin would be: Dutch, some other possibilities are low-German, Danish, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Yiddish.
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u/SailaNamai 26d ago edited 26d ago
Yeah, you are right. I didn't want to dive too deeply into it. Volkswandering isn't strictly speaking wrong but today is "often" used to describe a sport event where Völkerwanderung is commonly used to describe the mass migration of germanic tribes in the early middle ages.
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u/hhenk 26d ago
If there is a major drought
Where would this drought needs to be to have several hundred million refugees? I assume you refer to West Africa, since the previous droughts in Europe, east Africa and south Africa did not create large problems for "Europe".
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u/Fair_Control3693 26d ago
Problem drought areas usually are adjacent to existing deserts.
The area to worry about runs from Spain/Morocco to Turkey/Iraq to India.
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u/i8jomomma666 28d ago
Haha. They care about CLIMATE CHANGE because they don't want a mob of moons to call them names
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u/ikarusproject 26d ago
Rising sea levels will threaten military facilities in coastal areas.
Already happened in Germany. Increasingly high sea levels have delayed boarding and maintenance procedures. The reason being things such as loading ramps flooded and water levels so high ships didn't fit below cranes properly.
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