Climate Change = National Security

Yesterday, a bipartisan group of former senior government officials released a statement on the interconnectedness between climate change and national security:

Climate change is a national security issue. The longer we wait to act, the harder it will be to mitigate and respond to its impacts. U.S. leadership alone will not guarantee global cooperation. But if we fail to take action now, we will have little hope of influencing other countries to reduce their own contributions to climate change, or of forging a coordinated international response.

Here at home, we must cut our own carbon emissions, reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and develop and deploy clean, renewable energy sources that will generate economic growth. We must also help less developed countries adapt to the realities and consequences of a drastically changed climate. Doing so now will help avoid humanitarian disasters and political instability in the future that could ultimately threaten the security of the U.S. and our allies. But most importantly, we must transcend the political issues that divide us -- by party and by region -- to devise a unified American strategy that can endure and succeed.

We, the undersigned Republicans and Democrats, believe Congress working closely with the Administration must develop a clear, comprehensive, realistic and broadly bipartisan plan to address our role in the climate change crisis. WE MUST LEAD.

The former White House officials who put their names to it include national security advisers Samuel Berger, Anthony Lake, and Robert McFarlane; former Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein; former special counsel Ted Sorensen; and former CIA Director James Woolsey.

Former military officials: Former Defense Secretary William Perry; retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, retired Adm. Joseph Prueher; and retired Gen. Charles Wald.

Former diplomats: Ambs. Warren Christopher; Donald McHenry; Thomas Pickering; George Schultz; John Whitehead; and Frank Wisner.

Former representatives and senators: Lee Hamilton (D-IN); Howard Baker (R-TN); John Danforth (R-MO); Slade Gorton (R-WA); Gary Hart (D-CO); Nancy Kassebaum-Baker (R-KS); Sam Nunn (D-GA); Warren Rudman (R-NH); and John Warner (R-VA); Tim Wirth (D-CO).

Other notable names: Rita Hauser, chair of the International Peace Institute; Richard Leone, president of the Century Foundation; former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills; and former Govs. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) and Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ).