Climate change a security threat
Military people are usually realists and pragmatists. The Australian Defence Force has listed climate change as a national security threat for the first time, in a document presenting the vision of Australia’s security threats and defence requirements to 2030. At least the ADF, unlike the current Australian Federal Government, have their feet on the ground.
“Launching the document - Joint Operations for the 21st Century - the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the military faced security challenges it had not envisaged before, specifically “climate change and the impacts of global demography”.
It is the first time a publicly released document from Australia’s security and intelligence apparatus has acknowledged the threat.
Analysts such as Professor Alan Dupont from the University of Sydney have argued that climate change has the potential to devastate the productive land and water supply in struggling nations across the region.
It risks overwhelming fragile governments, producing massive movements of refugees while unleashing civil strife and violence.
The defence force must adapt and jettison some of its orthodoxies to tackle the threat posed by terrorism, as well as the risk of pandemics and natural disasters, the document says.”