I sure hope this pentagon report is wrong . .

[350HP930]

Either way, if bush wins another term I would imagine he will ignore and/or dismiss it as much as he did the 'bin laden preparing to attack inside the us' memo that passed across his desk a few years ago.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that 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.

The document predicts that 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.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.

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.

Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.

A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.

One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible.

Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.

Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.'

Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.

'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.

'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.

Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.

Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'

Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.

'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'

So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign.

The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defence's push on ballistic-missile defence.

Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'

Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.

[on-ramp]

Bush's reply, probably, as in the past:

"all this doesn't matter, cause we'll all be dead by then"

[techweenie]

Sounds pretty hysterical for a 'pentagon report.'

I'll wait to see a second source on this one, thanks.

Anyone here old enough to remember the Club of Rome's "Limits to Growth" report from 1979? Google it.

And a partridge in a frikken pear tree.

I can only hope this happens. It will clear out some of you cradle to grave liberal jagoffs. Survival of the fittest will be the rule again....finally......

[speeder]

I have no way of verifying the accuracy of this article, but one thing in it is 100% true:

Environmental issues, (clean air/water/climate unchanged for food production/etc.), are WAY more urgent than terrorism in terms of threats to our way of life. We could have a 9/11 type attack once a year and it would not compare. The problem is that there aren't any powerful special interest groups/industries that have figured out how to profit from good policy to reverse these disturbing trends.

This is not the time in history for leaders who make huge miscalculations about where to concentrate our resources. (And that is putting it very kindly so as not to incite a flame fest).

[BlueSkyJaunte]

This is excellent.

I will continue to train in my sword art so after the hubbub has settled and all of the ammo is used up, I can continue to defend my turf!

[lendaddy]

"Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years "

You'de have to be an idiot, Oh wait.. nevermind

[ubiquity0]

I thought Britain's climate is fairly "Siberian" now?

[techweenie]

I'd put this one pretty far down on the 'threat index' compared with other possible events like the tsunami that would follow a landslide on Cumbre Vieja in the Carnary Islands.

As far as I know, nothing has been done to diminish that particular threat.

[lendaddy]

Does anyone know of a list of these crazy environmentaist claims which came and gone? I remember something about running out of oil by 2000 (in the early 80's), I had an interesting argument with one of my idiot teachers on that one. Someone must have compiled some of these.

[djmcmath]

This has been an imminent threat for years. I remember back in high school we used to use stuff like this in policy debate. The classic sequence started with "You implement the other guy's idea" (which was usually something innocuous like a cure for third world famine problems) and ended with global tsunamis (tsunamii?) of massive proportions, seas rising several miles, and global war resulting in the destruction of all mankind. (yawn) Now they're arguing that, while much arable land will be lost due to global warming and rising seas, more arable land will be created, so global warming is actually a Good Thing (tm). Go drive your SUV for the environment!!!

Cheers,

Dan

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by speeder
Environmental issues, (clean air/water/climate unchanged for food production/etc.), are WAY more urgent than terrorism in terms of threats to our way of life.

Unsubstantiated bull***** that only serves to drive up consumer prices, force businesses to close (outsource), raise taxes to penalize those of more credible environmental positions, and increase reliance on foreign energy.

This type of thinking renders impotent industry and economy, it is communism light.

Former Greenpeace director Patrick Moore, says the environmental movement has been hijacked by political activists. "They're using environmental rhetoric to cloak agendas like class warfare and anti-corporatism that, in fact, have almost nothing to do with ecology," Moore tells Stossel.

ABC

speeder...quit smoking the peace pipe, it is bad for your mental health.

[turbo6bar]

Originally posted by Mulholland
speeder...quit smoking the peace pipe, it is bad for your mental health.

Watch out. Last time I mentioned speeder and bong in the same sentence he tried to tear me a new one.

I'm still waiting for global cooling to finalize. It's been 30 years since those warnings. We're still waiting...
Jürgen

[Superman]

Dubya and his friends find ecology inconvenient. I'd be quite surprised if Dubya, assuming he is re-elected, does not rape the rest of our nation's environmental laws.

[lendaddy]

"Dubya and his friends find ecology inconvenient. I'd be quite surprised if Dubya, assuming he is re-elected, does not rape the rest of our nation's environmental laws."

Yes, the mean temp in the states has already risen 14 degrees since the beginning of his term and I believe there are 14 more species on the endangered list, black lung is making a comeback and fresh water is considered toxic in 45% of our inland lakes. Oh wait, no that's not right...forget all that.

run fer the hills

[island911]

So they're saying global warming will ease the nuclear winter?

[Aurel]

There are evidently two oppsing visions of the world and the policies that go with it. One is a short term view, that only worries about economic growth and control of the oil reserves, while wasting those very sources of energy. The impact of fossil fuels on the climate and the search for replacement energy are kept at a very minimum. This is because those in charge of these policies are filling up their pockets at such an obscene rate that their only concern is to remain in position of wealth and power. The other vision, that most european countries have adopted, is more thoughtfull and responsible. It is acknowdledging that a problem exists, and taking the measures to reduce emissions, decrease energy consumption, while seeking alternartive energy sources. I agree that these problems must be dealt with. Terrorsim is not the true problem. This is mostly a fabrication aimed at controlling the oil ressources, which in turn is a refusal of acknowledging the true problem.

Aurel

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
I'm still waiting for global cooling to finalize. It's been 30 years since those warnings. We're still waiting...
Jürgen

Well, you know, global warming is global cooling, which causes instant iceages and melting at the same time. You see, the ozone layer multiplier effect transposes multi-neurons onto the earth's atmosphere, causing massive amounts of oxybutinatordehydrogeinase receptors to coagulate exponentially x 1 million neurons...This basically juxtaposes the heat and cold to a multifactorial parallel that both freezes and melts the polar icecaps simultaneously.

So, to clarify, global cooling and global warming are two sides of the same theoretical bull*****.

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
Watch out. Last time I mentioned speeder and bong in the same sentence he tried to tear me a new one.

I would imagine speedo would let me slide on that one.