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"Climate change threat is greater than terrorism"-- Pentagon

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:13 / 22.02.04

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

Holy fucking crap, frankly. Can't say I'm astonished at the news, but I am astonished that we've heard about it.

Spaniel

11:02 / 22.02.04

Ah, there's something nostalgic about the threat of armageddon. Reminds me of being a kid.

Suppose this is good new then, at least in the short term (somewhat bad in the long), at last the environmental lobby has some serious ammo.

Quireboy

12:04 / 22.02.04

This is the same "secret" report that BBC's Newsnight covered about a month ago. Time to start taking Spanish lessons and head for Barcelona by the sounds of things.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:33 / 22.02.04

Newsnight? Really? Bugger. All I get here is poxy CNN.

pachinko droog

18:19 / 22.02.04

Anywhere relatively safe, like Peruvian highlands maybe?

I could see myself herding llamas and playing one of those big pan-flutes. It wouldn't be such a bad life.

bjacques

16:31 / 27.02.04

Nova or Horizons covered this ages ago. Horizons also had a great show about the Honking Big Caldera Under Yellowstone Park and the Easter Island collapse (do I detect a ratings-grabbing trend here?).

The important thing about that sudden climate change report is not the effects, which are likely given the cutting of the Gulf Stream. The likelihood of that triggering event is unknown, but the consequences are severe enough to plan for. That's called a "wild card" scenario, like the earth getting socked by a big meteorite. More disturbing is that the Pentagon just assumes global civilization will just go down the drain and is planning accordingly. 20 years (the timescale given) gives a little time to try to make the world a better and thus more stable place. If it were happening within a GW/GW/Jeb/Jeb series of presidencies, the nukes would be flying in no time. And the missile shield won't be nearly ready.

ibis the being

17:05 / 27.02.04

Yeah, I read that article and freaked out for about five minutes and then it hit me that this is a Pentagon "leak," and that it's more than a little fishy that the conclusion drawn is we can't save the environment but must begin stockpiling weapons to defend ourselves against all non-Europeans & non-Americans, and that you pretty much know what's up anytime They compare something to Terrorism these days.

I'm not saying global warming won't cause an ice age of some kind, in fact scientists have been saying this for a while, but I am saying it's pretty fucking suspicious that the Pentagon chooses to present this environmental scenario as a super terrifying, super high level national security threat.

Nobody's girl

17:21 / 27.02.04

If you don't see the fnords, the fnords can't eat you....

pachinko droog

17:28 / 27.02.04

Isn't there some tiny island country somewhere that's already sinking due to rising ocean levels? (Maldives?)

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