As we’ve seen on Terra Rossa this week, a group of admirals and generals recently released a report that advised taking action on climate change for national security reasons. What impressed me most about this report was that it is just another in a series of “Nixon goes to China” moments where unexpected groups and individuals have spoken out about the need to take action on global warming (which would almost certainly manifest itself, at least initially, in the form of lower carbon emissions).
Let’s look at some of the people who have advocated action in recent months: major military leaders, prominent “neocons”¯ like Paul Wolfowitz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, CEOs of major energy companies like ConocoPhillips and Duke Power, and even South Carolina Republican primary voters. This isn’t exactly a list of folks that are inclined toward radical environmental activism.
What is also impressive is the wide range of reasons that these groups give for supporting action: environmental stewardship, energy independence, energy security, economic competitiveness, job creation, technological innovation, and now, national security. When groups like these start advocating action for such a wide variety of reasons, it’s time for mainline conservatives to take notice.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 11:03 am and is filed under National Security, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
