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{Nature_and_Environment.7.3}: Kai Hagen {kai} Tue, 24 Feb 2004 01:15:35 EST (56 lines)
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<b>Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us </b>

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

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

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.

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Read the rest here:<br>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153530,00.html

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