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C.I.A. takes on climate change
‘Its charter is not the science of climate change, but the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources.’ -CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The CIA is planning to open a center with the aim of informing leaders about the relationship between security and climate change. The center will analyze environmental information and its effects on political, economic and social stability overseas.
According to a New York Times piece from the Green Inc. blog section, this has some Republicans up in arms. Apparently, conservative Senator John Barrasso does not see the connections between conflict, political instability and climate change and believes the two should be kept separate, at least on the level of national security intelligence. The CIA and others (including historians) obviously do not agree.
Read the Times’ ‘C.I.A. Climate Center Irks Barrasso’ blog here.
By Graham Land
Additional resources:
Official announcement on the opening of the Center on Climate Change and National Security from CIA website
Tags: C.I.A., CIA, Climate change, security
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