Despite ClimateGate, US creates NOAA Climate Service & Pentagon Lists Global Warming as a National Security Threat

Sadly, instead of working on solutions or legislations, the world of climate change has focused on skepticism. In the US, concern for climate change has dropped in the past month. Major news networks are flooding the print and online media with titles such as The New York Times' "U.N. Climate Change Panel and Its Leader Find Their Credibility is Under Siege" to the Guardian's "Part one: Battle over climate data turned into war between scientists and sceptics." Instead of a war on climate change, there's a war on climate change scientists. Both sides: skeptics or scientists are fervently accusing the other of misinformation. Last month Phil Jones, the scientist at the center of the Climategate scandal of hacked climate scientist emails, was accused of withholding climate data. The fire was stoked when it was discovered just last week (Feb. 1, 2010) that his Climatic Research Unit was missing key data from a study that concluded anthropogenic warming in East China.

Perhaps to combat climate change skepticism, the Obama Administration created the Climate Service on February 8, 2010. Announced by the Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Chief, the service will provide "One-stop shopping in the world of climate information." NOAA has reported that the warmest decade in recorded history was from 2000-2009; a record previously held by the 1990s. Lubchenco said climate information is vital to renewable energy industries, coastal communities, and public health officials. "More and more people are asking for more and more information about climate and how it's going to affect them" (NYT, 2010).

One global institution concerned over climate change effects is the Pentagon, who earlier this month (Feb 1, 2010) announced that global warming is officially a national security threat. For the first time it has ranked climate change as a destabilizing force, likely to increase conflict abroad. "While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world," reports the Guardian on a report draft. A common scenario is an attack on supply convoys, which will gain frequency and significance as poorer nations destabilize during food and resource shortages brought on by warmer temperatures. More directly, sea level rise threatens 30 US bases. The CNAS (Center for a New American Security), which studies the Pentagon's views on climate change, reported last year that changes in ocean chemistry brought on by climate change wreaks havoc for submarine sonar (Guardian, 2010).

The votes are in: the Pentagon, NOAA, scientists across the globe state climate change is real and rogue politicians/skeptics claiming it is not. Since the failure at Copenhagen little has changed.

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