Suzanne Goldenberg’s article “Pentagon: global warming will change how US military trains and goes to war,” illustrates how even one of the world’s mightiest armies cannot evade the inevitable effects of global warming.
The military faces the daunting task of adapting to the increasingly changing climate of today, and the future.
Upon reading just the subtitle of this article, I was intrigued to see how the military must adapt to changing environments by making tactical decisions in regards to planning and operations, just as any business would need to in order to adapt to a changing market.
I recalled the concept of the triple bottom line, and its connection to the military’s aims for successful operations. Particularly, the military is just now coming to recognize climate change as a primary factor affecting pivotal budgeting and operational decisions, despite having established climate change as a “threat multiplier” for years. As a result, I believe by not preparing for the progress of climate change early on, the military wasted vital time in which they could have developed efficient strategies to ready their troops for changing climates. I feel the American military’s failure to consider the environment pillar of their triple bottom line shows how even having just one weak pillar of the three causes the bottom line as a whole to weaken.
When, alas, military officials finally realized that climate change “indeed is a risk today,” I would propose that their realization has come much later than needed, and now the military is faced with the challenge of re-vamping budgeting, operational, and field decisions as the clock is ticking and climate change is only increasing in severity.