For those concerned about the US economy or national security risks, T. Boone Pickens and data from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) show us that foreign oil imports should be at the top of our list. We rely very heavily on foreign oil and send a good chunk of our money to other countries to supply us with that oil — $25 billion last month alone!

Take a closer look.

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There is a good conversation going on over in another corner of the web about the key hurdles that the White House faces in getting climate change legislation through the Senate. One of the issues I raised in that context is that outside of the Northeast and West Coast, climate change is still a “granola” issue and that supporters will need to grab on to some other arguments (i.e., national security, peak oil and the economy, etc.) if they are going to get a win. That change in tone began in earnest with Sunday’s NYT front-pager, but just because it is smart politics does not make it good policy.

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Climate change? Not so much. If Jon Stewart is snoozing, we know that the rest of America - a goodly percentage of which is far across the spectrum from Stewart and outwardly hostile to climate change arguments - is tuned all the way out. That is partly because climate change, energy and the environment still are considered Birkenstock and granola issues. The Obama operatives that are still engaged on climate change have finally started to tweak the message in a way that might help sell a bill even to science skeptics and the generally apathetic.

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The hearing, entitled Climate Change and Global Security: Challenges, Threats, and Diplomatic Opportunities, was chaired by Senator John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts with John Lugar as the ranking minority member on the committee. Witnesses on the hearing panel included former senator John Warner of Virginia; Sharon Burke, vice president of the Center for a New American Security; retired Navy Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, a member of the Center for Naval Analysis Advisory Board; and retired Navy Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn, president of the American Security Project.

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Significantly for observers, commercial fleets are beginning to view the Northwest Passage as a viable option for getting from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

“The ice is more favourable than in past decades,” said Capt. Georges Tousignant of Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping, “It’s navigable, it’s not that high-risk.”

And it’s not just Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping that is interested in navigating the Northwest Passage, the Canadian Coast Guard has seen an increase in the number of ships that entered the Northwest Passage. The longer that good shipping conditions continue, the more companies that will view the Passage as a viable transit route.

Unfortunately for the polar bears and infrastructure built reliant on permanent ice in the north, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that ice melt rates have increased. In May of 2009, ice melted at a rate of about 54,000 square kilometers per day throughout the Arctic. Average May ice melt has traditionally been closer to 47,000 kilometers per day.

The implications of all this ice melt is that similar to the long-term melting of permafrost, there will be less of the dangerous multi-year ice that impedes shipping every year. And therefore every year there will be increased shipping, and increasing attention to the viability of the Northwest Passage.

With increasing attention being paid to the Northwest Passage, watch for its status under international law to become a point of contention along with other northern concerns such sovereignty and related territorial claims.

Image: ashatsea (Creative Commons)

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National security is big business, and no one has benefited more than Lockheed Martin. Approximately $105 from each US taxpayer goes to Lockheed Martin.  From defense contracts to supporting the invasion of Iraq, Lockheed Martin is in deep with the US government’s priority of national security.

Recently, Lockheed Martin announced that increasing the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies is just as important to national security as building fighter jets.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/16/lockheed-martin-national-securityrenewable-energy/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/15/the-environmental-cost-of-war-in-the-middle-east/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/15/the-environmental-cost-of-war-in-the-middle-east/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:12:17 +0000 Amiel Blajchman http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/03/15/the-environmental-cost-of-war-in-the-middle-east/ A new report on the environmental costs of conflict by the Strategic Foresight Group has highlighted the environmental damage in the Middle East due to constant conflicts and wars throughout the region.

While a sobering read, even more sobering to readers will be understanding how the environmental costs of conflict are not limited only to the Middle East, but that war costs the environment no matter where it occurs.

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[Creative Commons photo by Wolfgang Staudt]

The areas along the river are already suffering from drought, and getting at the resources there uses and pollutes the precious remaining water. Research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography estimates that the river could dry up in as little as 13 years.

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In a landmark case, the US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the US Navy can carry out sonar training exercises off the southern California coast, without safeguards designed to protect whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.

The decision is a major setback for environmentalists, who had hoped the Court would uphold an earlier injunction by a federal judge requiring the navy to take precautions while undertaking submarine-hunting exercises. Environmental groups originally launched the lawsuit claiming that the use of sonar can injure or even kill a wide range of marine species, including sea-lions and endangered blue whales.

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Washington, DC’s Metro system recently enacted a random police search policy for its riders, citing increased security concerns for the decision. But in reality, the new policy does nothing to protect people from terrorist attacks and pushes people away from public transit and into cars.

Which is the bigger threat: a terrorist attack on a train or the greenhouse gases that spew from cars stuck in rush hour traffic?

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In what could be my biggest personal revelation since diving into the world of alternative energy, it dawned on me last week that the “western” biofuel players are certainly the loudest kids on the block, but not really the most important.

I spent a large part of my time at the conference just trying to sort out which of the dozens of excellent forums on biofuels, energy, and environmental quality I should attend. The rest of my time was taken up with trying to keep my head together enough to make sense of it all so I could convey it in a way that’s meaningful to you, my readers.

But, while running around like a kid in a candy store, I became aware that my understanding of biofuels was decidedly myopic. Up until last week, I was squarely focused on U.S., E.U., and, to a smaller extent, Brazilian policies — quite naturally and unapologetically, I might add. After all, I am a U.S. citizen and I have a profound connection to my country and it’s cultural peers.

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The Supreme Court today began hearing a case that questions who (or what creatures) get dibs on the ocean waters off the coast of California, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

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For more, see today’s post: 2018: The Year of Petroleum Independence?

Or get involved with wecansolveit.org.

A new assessment by the National Intelligence Council — with input from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies — treats climate change as a security threat.

In a classified report, US Intelligence Agencies have suggested an indirect link between climate change and national security. As NPR news correspondents Ari Shapiro and Tom Gjelton discussed the report Wednesday, June 25^th they explained the “indirect link” and the classified status of the report.

The report suggests the U.S. is capable of handling the impacts of climate change and could even benefit in ways such as longer growing seasons for farmers. On an international level, due to humanitarian disasters and political unrest likely to be a result of climate change, our national security could be at risk.

Tom Gjelton reports that both Democrats and Republicans are trying to use the findings of this report to benefit each side of the political spectrum. Democrats using this as a way to strengthen their efforts to gain funding for programs that support alternative energy and energy independence. Republicans focusing on the speculation aspect of the report and the use of open source materials to do the analysis.

An important point to remember according to Mr. Gjelton is that analysis such as this one are done often by U.S. Intelligence Agencies. They regularly look at multiple scenarios to determine possible outcomes and our ability to respond. Diplomatic reasons are cited for the Classified status of the report, which is classified and the lowest level of classification. He stated that due to some harsh statements about some countries and their ability to handle the effects of Global Warming would be the probable diplomatic reasoning behind the classification.

Related Posts:

• Global Warming Threatens US National Security
• America Struggling to Respond to Climate Change
• McCain and Obama Differ on Energy

Photo Credit: Softpix Techie via Flickr, Creative Commons License