Circles and Squares

“United States House of Representatives makes it explicit that Climate Change cannot be seen as a threat”

Emanuel Pastreich

May 31, 2014

This recent tale of the decision to block funding from the Pentagon for stopping climate change sums up the depth of the crisis that we face today in the United States, and around the world. After all, no one should be so naïve as to assume that institutional decay in the United States will not impact the rest of the world. If the United States pursues suicidal policies, it can easily drag many down with it. Moreover, we should not assume that because the facts are blatantly obvious that such a state of affairs will impede efforts of the blind to pursue the most narrow and short-term goals.

In the face of a growing consensus on climate change around the world, the House of Representatives of the United States has slapped an amendment on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that explicitly prohibits the Pentagon from using those funds to combat climate change.

The House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which prohibits the Pentagon from using its funding to combat climate change.

The champion of this amendment, House Representative David McKinley, argued that,

“Climate change alarmists contend that man-made CO2 is the cause of climate change. Most people may not realize that 96 percent of all the CO2 emissions occur naturally.”

This statement is blatantly misleading, and assumes that there are not causes of climate change. In fact, it flies in the face of whatAdmiral Samuel J. Locklear III, United States Commander of the Pacific Command noted in March, 2013, that “climate change is the greatest security threat of our age” and that it “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’

But clearly, major figures in the cesspool we call “Washington” have assumed the sacred mission of assuring each American the same fate as the original inhabitants of Easter Island. As one anonymous K Street insider once said, “The only threat to national security is a threat to my budget.”

Specifically, the amendment blocks the use of defense fund in this manner:

 “None of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to implement the U.S. Global Change Research Program National Climate Assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report, the United Nation’s Agenda 21 sustainable development plan, or the May 2013 Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive Order.”

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