{"id":332,"date":"2012-11-11T13:44:42","date_gmt":"2012-11-11T18:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/help-the-military-stop-climate-change-through-sustainable-renewable-energy.html"},"modified":"2012-11-11T13:44:42","modified_gmt":"2012-11-11T18:44:42","slug":"help-the-military-stop-climate-change-through-sustainable-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/help-the-military-stop-climate-change-through-sustainable-renewable-energy.html","title":{"rendered":"Help the military stop climate change through sustainable renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nIn memory of Armistice Day, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
\neleventh month, when World War I ended,
\nlet’s help the military get us off of oil
\nand to deal with climate change so fewer people will die in wars.\n<\/p>\n

\nJohn M. Broder wrote for NYTimes 9 November 2012,
\n
\nClimate Change Report Outlines Perils for U.S. Military<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nClimate change is accelerating, and it will place unparalleled strains on
\n
\n<\/a>
\nAmerican military and intelligence agencies in coming years
\nby causing ever more disruptive events around the globe,
\nthe nation\u2019s top scientific research group said in a
\nreport<\/a>
\nissued Friday.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe group, the National
\nResearch Council<\/a>, says in a study commissioned by the
\nC.I.A. and other intelligence agencies that
\nclusters of apparently unrelated events exacerbated by a warming climate
\nwill create more frequent but unpredictable crises in water supplies,
\nfood markets, energy supply chains and public health systems.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nHurricane Sandy provided a foretaste
\nof what can be expected more often in the near future, the report’s
\nlead author, John D. Steinbruner, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is the sort of thing we were talking about,\u201d said
\nMr. Steinbruner, a longtime authority on national security. \u201cYou
\ncan debate the specific contribution of global warming to that storm. But
\nwe\u2019re saying climate extremes are going to be more frequent, and
\nthis was an example of what they could mean. We\u2019re also saying it
\ncould get a whole lot worse than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n…\n<\/p>\n

\nClimate-driven crises could lead to internal instability or international
\nconflict and might force the United States to provide humanitarian
\nassistance or, in some cases, military force to protect vital energy,
\neconomic or other interests, the study said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nThis is in addition to the even more obvious
\nconnection between war and U.S. dependence on foreign oil
\n
\nwhich the veterans in Operation Free want to fix<\/a>
\nby helping us shift to clean renewable energy.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201cIn Iraq… the lines would stretch up to ten miles long under
\nthe hot sun, under constant risk of attack by extremists. I realized
\nthen just how vulnerable it makes any country to be dependent on
\noil, especially the United States, which uses nearly a quarter of
\nthe world’s supply.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWe also heard last year from
\n
\nCol. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) that the Marines in Afghanistan
\nrealized<\/a><\/p>\n


\nthe value of solar power as a way to avoid long convoys
\nof petroleum to run air conditioners in the desert.
\nThat got the military thinking about energy security
\nas assured access to mission-critical energy.
\nNot just for the military: for the U.S. as a country,
\nfor both transportation fuel and electricity.
\nMost fossil fuel (and nuclear and biomass)
\nelectricity production can be replaced by solar and wind energy
\ndistributed through a smart grid.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nIn case anybody has forgotten,
\n
\nMoody Air Force Base caused much of the population growth in Lowndes County<\/a>
\nand is still the largest employer.
\nMoody is
\nmoving ahead with solar energy<\/a>,
\nworking to meet an Air Force requirement of 25%
\nof facility energy use from renewable energy
\n(efficiency, conservation, solar, and wind) by 2025.\n<\/p>\n

\nNational security isn’t really about wars.
\nThat’s what we have to do when real national security fails.
\nWe can get on with
\n
\na real national security strategy<\/a>
\nwhich would start with education, continue with diplomacy,
\nand build on sustainable renewable energy and agriculture.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nWe must recognize that security means more than defense,” they
\nwrite. After ending the 20th century as the world’s most powerful
\ncountry, “we failed to recognize that dominance, like fossil fuel,
\nis not a sustainable form of energy.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAs Senator James Webb
\n
\nsaid 3 June 1990,<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe first is one our leaders should carry next to their breasts, and
\n
\n<\/a>
\ncontemplate every time they face a crisis, however small, which puts
\nour military at risk. it should echo in their consciences, from the
\npower of a million graves. It is simply this:\n<\/p>\n

\nYou hold our soldiers’ lives in sacred trust.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen a citizen has sworn to obey you, and follow your judgment, and
\nwalk onto a battlefield to defend the interests you define as worthy
\nof his blood, do not abuse that awesome power through careless
\npolicy, unclear objectives, or inflexible leadership.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nA real national security strategy starts at home, with education,
\nhealth care, and sustainable renewable energy and agriculture.
\nIf we beat some swords into solar panels and plowshares,
\nwe won’t need to fight nearly as many wars, and fewer people will die in them.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In memory of Armistice Day, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when World War I ended, let’s help the military get us off of oil and to deal with climate change so fewer people will die in wars. John M. Broder wrote for NYTimes 9 November 2012, Climate Change Report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,202,120,47,141,216,14,15,264,265,8,2,41,19,570,571,104,559,940,21,22,32,23,73,289,74,24,36],"tags":[8736,8750,1348,8738,8719,8745,8753,8704,8705,8754,8755,8701,8699,8718,8709,1350,8702,12,7,8783,8784,8737,8782,8810,8711,8712,8715,8713,8731,8758,8732,8714,6,8716,1349],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-biomass","category-climate-change","category-co2","category-coal","category-economy","category-education","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-georgia","category-government","category-health-care","category-history","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-nuclear","category-oil","category-pesticides","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-security","category-solar","category-wind","tag-activism","tag-agriculture","tag-armistice-day","tag-biomass","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-health-care","tag-history","tag-james-webb","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-military","tag-moody-afb","tag-nuclear","tag-oil","tag-pesticides","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-safety","tag-science","tag-security","tag-solar","tag-valdosta","tag-wind","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}