As Twitchy reported recently, a partisan debate was shaping up around funding for NASA, with Republicans favoring a budget focused on aeronautics and space exploration, and Democrats preferring to spend more on earth science; for example, investing in satellites that would monitor the planet for signs of climate change.
Climate change is so serious, it seems, it’s time to bring in armed reinforcements. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii on Tuesday called for the Department of Defense to turn its attention to the reality of climate change.
Disappointed to see House budget proposal for @DeptofDefense. DoD accepts facts of climate change & are addressing it. Congress should too.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 17, 2015
Last October, then-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel also adopted the #ActOnClimate hashtag, explaining that “a changing climate will have real impacts on our military and the way it executes its missions.”
We are already seeing the impacts of climate change: coastal erosion has damaged roads, seawalls, & runways at military bases. #ActOnClimate
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 17, 2015
Climate change contributes to global instability, causing drought, food shortages, water scarcity, and pandemic disease. #ActOnClimate
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 17, 2015
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The @DeptofDefense has to deal with the realities presented to it, and one of those realities is climate change.#ActOnClimate
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 17, 2015
We need to back our military while they work to understand threats and defend our country. #ActOnClimate
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 17, 2015
We’d argue that the military has its hands full at the moment with ISIS, but as Slate explained just this month, climate change itself helped to spark the existence of ISIS. Time to switch over to electric tanks?
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