Spring is in the air, and so are chlorofluorocarbons, carbon dioxide, pesticides, benzene, formaldehyde and innumerable other human-produced pollutants. As if the sludgy green lakes, weird weather patterns and visible air pollution were not enough of an incentive, everyone now has another reason to act in an environmentally responsible way, and push for legislated environmental protection.
A secret report leaked in February by the Pentagon predicts the future of the planet if today's environmental trends are not reversed: world war, catastrophic drought and famine, all induced by rapid climate change.
The report, \An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and its Implications for U.S. National Security,"" was ordered by the head of the Pentagon's secretive ""Office of Net Assessment,"" which attempts to predict the future ""defense"" needs of the United States.
It suggests that wars in the near future will be fought over precious resources like oil, food, water, and minerals, instead of ethnic and nationalistic differences.
In the Pentagon's estimation the probable effects of drastic climate change will include:
- By 2007 violent storms may break dikes surrounding the Netherlands, and render much of its territory uninhabitable, while also breaking California's aqueducts that supply its citizens with water.
- Weather pattern changes may lower average temperatures in Europe and cause massive droughts from 2010 to 2020, while Great Britain's climate may come to resemble Siberia's.
- The United States and Europe may turn into ""virtual fortresses"" battling against violent influxes of homeless and hungry people from newly desolate regions.
- Shortages of water may become ""catastrophic"" and cause large scale war.
- China's massive population may look outside its borders militarily for resources that it will no longer be able to obtain internally.
Although the report is entirely hypothetical and tries to predict worst-case scenarios, it should still serve as a warning to apathetic citizens, that environment protection matters. If the Pentagon, the brains behind the brawn of the world's most powerful military, is devoting time to studying drastic climate change, one can bet that climate change will be a life-or-death issue in the present future.
The uncovering of the report is an important victory for environmentalists because it lends credence to what scientists have long known: Global warming is reality, and it must be dealt with as an absolute number one priority. No other issue affects every person in every country to the degree that this one does. Even terrorists could not dream of wreaking the kind of havoc that is possible if the issue of climate change is not addressed immediately.
Nevertheless, to despair upon reading this report and assume that nothing can be done would be wrong. Environmentalists and previously unconcerned persons alike need to view this rather depressing, and certainly frightening, report as a positive call for action rather than a handing down of the world's death sentence. Although every person can make a difference by consuming less and consuming responsibly, a more sophisticated approach is required.
Well-written, effective, legislated environmental protection policies are the only solutions that will save the world from a terrible future. While individuals are capable of reducing their personal contributions to the world's pollution problems, almost no one will do so when it costs them more, reduces their comfort level or impedes their ability to keep up with the rest of society. To trust individuals to personally modify their environmental behavior simply has not worked.
It is time for everyone, including the lead-by-example brand of environmentalists, to dismount from their moral high horses and vote, campaign and participate in bringing the rest of Americans out in favor of legislation that will reverse the trends that that have brought the world to what the Pentagon believes to be the brink of climate-change-induced disaster.
Environmentalism has been tagged as something activists and hippies are into, but as a result of the Pentagon's report it has new life and deserves a new name and more participants from every social group. It'll be called Habitat for Humans and if you are one you should be involved.
