According to an article by The Observer, the Pentagon commissioned a “secret report” on climate change but suppressed its release due to the dire predictions it contained. Normally I take alarmist stories of apocalyptic climate change with a grain of salt, but the officials involved in the preparation of the study are apparently well-respected climatologists, lending an air of credibility not normally associated with such scenarios. Some of the predictions really are disastrous:
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
… major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a “Siberian” climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
… abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
I saw this story a couple of days ago, so I’m surprised that the major news media hasn’t picked up on this, especially considering its political considerations. The document is obviously damning to W’s administration, whose ignorance of environmental issues borders on arrogance. The article reports that:
Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change.
Again, I really hate to seem alarmist about this, but if even some of the predictions in this report are valid, then efforts to prevent or at least mitigate the resulting climatic changes need to be undertaken now, that is if it isn’t already too late…
