A video of Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has made the rounds recently as proof that she is off the mark on climate change. Instead, it proves she is perfectly on the mark, at least in the national security — climate change connection. This is the longer version of the video that people are writing about.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said on June 10, 2010: “Our national security experts tell us that carbon pollution leading to climate change will be, over the next 20 years, the leading cause of conflict, putting our troops in harm’s way.”

What she is referring to are the Pentagon and military reports that say the same thing.

Naturally, the deniers are out in force denigrating  her statement, calling her a “kook” and worse.  Boxer is only a kook if the Pentagon and the military leaders who are saying the same things are “kooks”.    Media Matters has much more on the right-wing uninformed*  reaction to her statements.  Maybe the entire armed forces is full of kooks? Because they know what the deniers don’t know. Climate change will be one of the biggest sources, if not the biggest source, of conflict in future decades. No one knows exactly when this will happen, but we’re not currently doing anything to stop it. It won’t be long before wars are being fought over oil (well, that’s already happened a few times) and natural gas, and pipelines (already happening) and water (also has happened) and food, and then we’ll have big migration issues as people will have to move from hotter countries to more temperate ones (like the United States).  Also, people will have to move from flood plains and coastal cities that are under sea level.  Any of these things might cause wars or conflicts,  related to energy and climate.  They can probably be mostly prevented if only Congress would act on an energy and climate bill this year.

This is from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, on the 2009 military report on climate change and conflict.

“U.S. military missions and operations

Climate change will influence where, when, why, and how the U.S. military operates. First, military facilities and personnel will be directly impacted: Sea level rise and taller storm surges will encroach on important coastal installations around the world. Increasing land area under drought will affect how and where U.S. forces acquire and transport water to support operations. Weather conditions will become more extreme in places where the local climate already presents serious operational challenges.

Second, climate change portends a rise in the frequency of natural disasters. U.S. Navy ships provided critical logistical assistance in the aftermaths of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, and calls for such assistance are likely to increase, both at home and abroad. Third, climate change will create new theaters of operation. For instance, the opening of the Arctic, which is rapidly losing sea ice, will force the U.S. military [...]