WH: Climate change poses national security threat to US

Climate change poses a great threat to US’ national security interests and may lead to a spike in poverty and terrorist activities besides political instability growing out of conflict over basic resources, the White House said in a report released on Wednesday.

“Climate change poses immediate risks to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters and resulting in humanitarian crises, and potentially increasing refugee flows and exacerbating conflicts over basic resources like food and water,” the White House said.

<g data-gr-id="17">It also aggravates</g> issues at home and abroad, including poverty, political instability and social <g data-gr-id="18">tensions ?</g> conditions that can fuel instability and enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence, the White House said ahead of US President Barack Obama’s major speech on climate change.

Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to the US national security, contributing to increased weather extremes which worsen refugee flows and conflicts over basic resources like food and water, it said.

The national security implications of climate change reach far beyond US coastlines, further threatening already fragile regions of the world, it noted, adding that increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure and property.