26/04/2003 - 00:00
A Pentagon report published in UK newspaper The Observer sketches an apocalyptic scenario if the effects of so-called climate change are not halted. The consequences of failing to prevent the Earth from overheating could suppose a threat as serious as that of terrorism, to use US defence department language. The report, written in devastatingly stark language, which has alarmed media and NGOs, predicts that that disasters caused by climate change could plunge the world into war and conflict. Energy supply, access to water and food are the key questions around which international policy would revolve in such a situation. Some examples: by 2007, the Netherlands may be partially flooded and Great Britain suffer temperatures similar to those in Siberia.
The report summarised in the Observer has initially been suppressed by the US authorities. The content of the document throws a shadow of unpredictable consequences over the US electoral process, even more so when the study was commissioned by Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. Climate change "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', warn the authors, Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall.
The graph below, reproduced from The Observer, shows the risk areas and situations over the coming years.
