氣候變化威脅國家安全

2015/05/28 瀏覽次數:19 收藏
分享到:

  NEW LONDON, Conn. — President Obama used a commencement address on Wednesday at the Coast Guard Academy to cast his push for urgent action to combat climate change as a national security imperative, saying that the warming of the planet poses an “immediate risk” to the United States.

  The speech was part of an effort by Mr. Obama to make a multipronged case for his ambitious climate-change agenda, which he has identified as a top priority for the remainder of his time in office and as a central element of his legacy. Instead of promoting his plan strictly in environmental terms, he has pitched it as beneficial for the economy, necessary to protect public health and vital to the nation’s security.

  “I am here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and, make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” Mr. Obama told about 4,200 people on an athletic field overlooking the water here, including about 200 graduates in crisp white dress uniforms. “And so we need to act, and we need to act now.”

  Mr. Obama repeated arguments he cites often to promote his climate change effort, including a litany of grim facts and figures about rising temperatures, swelling seas and vanishing sea ice, dismissing skeptics of the phenomenon or those who refuse to act on it as guilty of “negligence” and “dereliction of duty.”

  “I know there are still some folks back in Washington who refuse to admit that climate change is real, and on a day like today, it’s hard to get too worried about it,” Mr. Obama said on a sunny day cooled by a chilly sea breeze. “The science is indisputable,” he said. “The planet is getting warmer.”

  But on Wednesday, he coupled those well-worn arguments with a national security-themed call to action to Coast Guard graduates just minutes before they received their commissions. The president argued that climate change has set off dangerous domino effects around the world, prompting a severe drought in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram, and drought, crop failures and high food prices that “helped fuel the early unrest in Syria” before it descended into civil war.

  He told the graduates that their generation would have to invent, build and pioneer the energy-efficient technologies that would be needed to reverse the damaging effects of climate change. He said the Pentagon regarded the planet’s warming as a “threat multiplier.”

  “We all know what needs to happen — it’s no secret: The world finally has to start reducing its carbon emissions now,” the president said. “This is a place where we need you.”

  In March, Mr. Obama introduced a blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade in the United States by up to 28 percent from its level in 2005 levels. The plan, which hinges on new Environmental Protection Agency rules intended to drastically reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from cars and coal-fired power plants, will be the White House’s formal submission to the United Nations ahead of a summit meeting on climate change in Paris in December.

  Mr. Obama faces strong opposition on climate change efforts from many Republicans and coal industry officials, who say the proposal is a vast executive overreach and would devastate the economy. Facing such resistance, the president is working to build support in other ways, including his focus on national defense.

  “Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces,” Mr. Obama said. “Politicians who say they care about military readiness ought to care about this as well.”

  In a report issued on Wednesday, the White House said climate change would act as “an accelerant of instability around the world,” prompting water scarcity and food shortages that could escalate tensions and lead to overpopulation. It also said that rising temperatures would “change the nature of U.S. military missions,” increasing the demand for resources in the Arctic and coastal regions that would be affected by higher sea levels, and result in humanitarian crises that are larger and more frequent.

  The president said the conditions could create a global surge of “climate change refugees — and I guarantee the Coast Guard will have to respond.”

  Closer to home, Mr. Obama said the effects of climate change were threatening critical infrastructure across the United States, including military posts and training grounds.

  “Climate change, especially rising seas, is a threat to our homeland security — our economic infrastructure, and the safety and health of the American people,” Mr. Obama said.

  康涅狄格州新倫敦——周三,奧巴馬總統應用在海岸保鑣隊學院(Coast Guard Academy)卒業儀式揭櫫發言的機遇,請求采用緊迫行為反抗氣象變更,稱這是國度平安方面確當務之急,奧巴馬表現,環球變暖對美國組成“直接危害”。

  奧巴馬正在多管齊下,推進頗具大誌的氣象變更議程,這次演講只是舉動之一。奧巴馬將該議程視為殘剩在朝時光的重要義務,同時也是其政治遺產的重要元素。他沒有嚴厲地從情況角度推行本身的籌劃,而是傳播鼓吹掩護情況有益於經濟成長,是掩護"大眾,"康健所必須的舉動,對國度平安相當主要。

  “我本日要在這裏解釋,氣象變更對環球平安組成緊張威逼,給咱們的國度平安帶來直接危害,不要搞錯,這會對部隊守衛國度的方法造成影響,”奧巴馬在可以或許鳥瞰水面的運動場對約莫4200名觀眾說。“是以,咱們須要采用行為,如今就須要行為起來。”觀眾包含約莫200名身穿極新白色禮服的卒業生。

  奧巴馬重申了他推行氣象變更籌劃經常提到的來由,個中包含連續串與氣溫升高、海平面上升、海冰消逝有關的的嚴格究竟和數據,以為那些對此類征象持疑惑立場的人,和謝絕為此采用行為的人“忽視大意”,“玩忽職守”。

  在這個陽光亮媚、海風習習的清冷日子,奧巴馬表現,“華盛頓另有一些人謝絕認可氣象變更是真實存在的。我曉得在這類氣象的日子裏,人們很難擔憂這個題目”。不外,“科學是無庸置疑的,”他說。“地球正在變暖。”

  但在周三,除這些舊調重彈的概念以外,他還以國度平安為由,在海岸保鑣隊學院的卒業生收到任職令以前幾分鐘號令他們采用行為。總統辯稱,氣象變更在天下各地激發了傷害的多米諾骨牌效應,致使尼日利亞湧現緊張旱情,而恐懼構造博科哈拉姆(Boko Haram)則應用了這一點。幹旱、作物減產及昂揚的食品價錢“在必定水平上激發了敘利亞初期的動蕩”,動蕩厥後進級為內戰。

  他對這些卒業生表現,他們這一代將須要發明、增強並提倡節能技巧,節能技巧對付旋轉氣象變更帶來的損壞性影響是必弗成少的。他表現,五角大樓將環球變暖視作“威逼擴增器”。

  “咱們都曉得須要去做甚麽——這不是機密:全球終極照樣必需從如今開端削減碳排放,”奧巴馬說。“這便是咱們須要你們之處。”

  本年3月,奧巴馬提出了一項籌劃,即以2005年的排放程度為準,在將來十年將美國的溫室氣體排放量至多削減28%。白宮將在本年12月巴黎舉行氣象變更峰會以前,將該籌劃正式提交給結合國。該籌劃以美國國度情況掩護局(Environmental Protection Agency)的新劃定為基本,這些劃定旨在大幅削減汽車及燃煤發電站的二氧化碳排放量,而二氧化碳是致使環球變暖的禍首罪魁。

  奧巴馬在應答氣象變更方面面對來自許多共和黨人及煤炭行業高管的猛烈否決,他們宣稱該發起屬於偉大的過火行政幹涉,將會損壞經濟成長。面臨這些阻力,奧巴馬盡力經由過程各類方法追求支撐,好比誇大國防事情。

  “否定或謝絕應答這個題目的立場給國度平安造成傷害。這會減弱軍隊的戰備才能,”奧巴馬說。“那些宣稱關懷部隊戰備才能的政治人士也應當存眷這個題目。”

  在周三宣布的申報中,白宮表現,氣象變更會成為“天下各地不穩固局勢的催化劑”,激發水荒和食品缺乏,這會加重辯論,致使生齒多余。白宮還表現,氣溫升高會“轉變美國部隊義務的性子”,加大敗極和受海平面上升影響的沿海地域對資本的需求,激發更大範圍、加倍頻仍的人性主義危急。

  奧巴馬表現,這類情形會致使環球“氣象變更災黎數目激增——並且我肯定,海岸保鑣隊將須要舉行應答”。

  從海內來看,奧巴馬稱氣象變更帶來的影響對美國各地的癥結基本舉措措施造成威逼,個中包含軍事哨所和練習園地。

  奧巴馬稱,“氣象變更,特殊是海平面上升,對咱們的領土平安——經濟基本舉措措施,和美國國民的平安和康健造成為了威逼。”