Obama tells Coast Guard grads climate change threatens U.S...

[posty 2,856]

Poor grads...

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/obama-tells-coast-guard-grads-climate-change-threatens-013014197--finance.html

 

NEW LONDON, Conn. (Reuters) - Rising seas and thawing permafrost caused by warmer global temperatures threaten U.S. military bases and will change the way the U.S. armed services defend the country, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

 

In a commencement address at the United States Coast Guard Academy, Obama underscored the risks to national security posed by climate change, one of his top priorities for action in his remaining 19 months in office.

 

"The threat of a changing climate cuts to the very core of your service," Obama told the 224 graduating cadets, who studied the impacts of global warming as part of their curriculum.

 

"It will affect everything that you do in your careers," Obama added, noting that sea levels were expected to rise by 1 to 4 feet (30-120 cm) in the coming century.

 

The Pentagon is assessing the vulnerability to climate change of its 7,000 bases, installations and facilities, many of which are on the coast, the White House said.

 

Obama highlighted damage to the navy and air bases at Norfolk, Virginia, from increasing floods.

 

Coast guard operations in Alaska have already begun dealing with changes, Admiral Paul Zukunft, commandant of the Coast Guard, told cadets.

 

Obama pointed to severe drought in Nigeria as creating instability that was exploited by militant group Boko Haram, and said crop failures and high food prices in Syria fueled unrest that led to civil war.

 

"Around the world, climate change increases the risk of instability and conflict," he said. "Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country. So we need to act, and we need to act now."

 

"Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security," he added. "It undermines the readiness of our forces."

 

Obama has been trying to build support for an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Global talks on the deal are slated for Paris in December.

 

This summer, his administration will finalize regulations to cut carbon emissions from power plants, a step that has been opposed by Republicans who control Congress.

 

Likely Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush said of Obama's comments: "If the president thinks this is the gravest threat to our national security, it seems like he would say, Lets expand LNG (liquefied natural gas) as fast as we can to get it into the hands of higher carbon-intense economies like China and other places.'

[RLLD 4,283]

That Floridiot politician is not going to like this.

[NewbieJr 541]

Is he supposed to keep it a secret?

[lickin_starfish 2,040]

Wow. This guy is just plain looney.

[RLLD 4,283]

Is he supposed to keep it a secret?

 

Isn't the standard line to pretend its all just part of the natural flow and to ignore it? Why plan for potential outcomes when you can laugh at the people trying to warn us and call them crazy.

[NewbieJr 541]

 

Isn't the standard line to pretend its all just part of the natural flow and to ignore it? Why plan for potential outcomes when you can laugh at the people trying to warn us and call them crazy.

lol The hatred from the right is hilarious. Let's pretend that science is wrong.

[hoytdwow 202]

Um, it does. It's called sea-level rise. Actually apropos for a Coast Guard setting.

[Eaglesin14 12]

Um, it does. It's called sea-level rise. Actually apropos for a Coast Guard setting.

I recall Obama claiming when he was elected that was when the rise of the oceans would stop, and the planet would begin to heal.

 

WTF has he been doing for the past 7 years?

 

 

[posty 2,856]

I recall Obama claiming when he was elected that was when the rise of the oceans would stop, and the planet would begin to heal.

 

WTF has he been doing for the past 7 years?

 

 

Playing a lot of golf and going on late night television shows...

[RLLD 4,283]

I recall Obama claiming when he was elected that was when the rise of the oceans would stop, and the planet would begin to heal.

 

WTF has he been doing for the past 7 years?

 

 

 

Paying off all those mortgages that the poor black folks had to endure under whiteys opression.

[NewbieJr 541]

 

WTF has he been doing for the past 7 years?

 

 

Curbstomping Republican opponents

[Greedo 13]

Is the assumption, Eaglesin14, that Obama can single-handedly out maneuver all the wingnuts in congress that pretend global warming doesn't exist and are actually in charge of funding government programs?

[Reality 3,139]

Is the assumption, Eaglesin14, that Obama can single-handedly out maneuver all the wingnuts in congress that pretend global warming doesn't exist and are actually in charge of funding government programs?

 

 

Whoa, this guy, look at you..

 

[Greedo 13]

[jerryskids 7,210]

lol The hatred from the right is hilarious. Let's pretend that science is wrong.

Science is cool. Blaming climate change for Boko Haram, not so much.

[rholio 340]

I like Jeb's idea.

 

Likely Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush said of Obama's comments: "If the president thinks this is the gravest threat to our national security, it seems like he would say, Lets expand LNG (liquefied natural gas) as fast as we can to get it into the hands of higher carbon-intense economies like China and other places.'

 

[jerryskids 7,210]

I like Jeb's idea.

 

Good idea. I'll take climate change more seriously when

1. The people who claim we are approaching Armageddon actually propose feasibe, helpful solutions like this, and

2. Those same people stop flying private jets to their Escalades to their climate change conferences.