The Pentagon, unlike Bush, actually has brains working for it

Despite the Bush administration's 8-year-long campaign of denialism regarding the very real problem of Global Warming, this hasn't been the case with the Pentagon. They very clearly understand how Global Warming will cause massive disruptions in global stability and alienate access to resources critical to many peoples' survival and well-being:

WASHINGTON — The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

An exercise last December at the National Defense University, an educational institute that is overseen by the military, explored the potential impact of a destructive flood in Bangladesh that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into neighboring India, touching off religious conflict, the spread of contagious diseases and vast damage to infrastructure. “It gets real complicated real quickly,” said Amanda J. Dory, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy, who is working with a Pentagon group assigned to incorporate climate change into national security strategy planning.

Always trust the establishment that holds contingency plans for everything from man-made climate change to an alien invasion. If these guys take the threat of Global Warming this seriously, it'd be good enough for me even if I didn't already recognize this reality.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)