Maine veterans say national security at risk with climate change

Climate change is a national security issue, according to two Maine military veterans who served in Iraq.

Andrew Campbell of Portland was part of a group of military veterans who toured the country promoting clean, sustainable energy as a matter of national security. During his deployment in 2004 and 2005, the six-year veteran of the Army National Guard served in Mosul, Iraq as a logistics specialist with Maine’s 133 Engineer Battalion.

"As a logistics specialist in what was essentially a construction unit, I was able to pay attention to the money we were spending to support these operations over the course of a year," Campbell said Thursday during a Portland press conference hosted by 1Sky, a national coalition urging climate change legislation in Congress. "It took several million dollars to support the unit for one year, when it came to construction supplies, water, maintenance supplies, food, and a lot of that on oil."

Campbell noted that the United States spends over $1 billion on oil every day.

A disapproval resolution from U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who wants to limit the federal government's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, would run counter to initiatives by federal defense agencies, he said.

"I think it's a very poor bill from a Department of Defense standpoint because it's tantamount to saying that all these senators don't believe climate change is an actual threat to our national security. This is coming at a time when the Department of Defense just released their quadrennial report saying that climate change is, indeed, a national security threat.

In its recent quadrennial review, Pentagon officials concluded for the first time that climate change will act as an “accelerant of instability and conflict,” ultimately placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.

As early as Feb. 25, the resolution can be introduced for a vote and needs only 51 votes to pass, 1Sky reported.

Campbell is a member of Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security organizations who have come together because they believe climate change is a serious threat to the country's national security.

Rep. Alex Cornell du Houx, D-Brunswick, agreed with Campbell that personal experience in Iraq offered perspective on the need for a clean-energy economy in the United States.

"This is something that I saw first-hand when I was deployed in 2006 with the Marine Corps in and around Fallujah. We came across a line of cars, trucks and tractors that really went out as far as the eye could see in 130-degree heat, and we finally made it to the front and realized that they were waiting for gasoline and diesel and to the point where we had to break them up for curfew and they were rioting against us," du Houx recalled.

"It really struck be how this country was so dependent and crippled because of a single source of energy, and likewise America is dependent on a single source of energy," he said.

He also agreed that defense agencies are ahead of Congress on tackling climate change.

"Our national security organizations are leading on this issue, and we want to see Congress lead as well. The unfortunate reality of the Murkowski amendment is that it sends a message to the world and the United States that climate change is not a threat that needs to be addressed," du Houx said. 

du Houx and mroe than 100 Maine legislators signed a letter joining more than 1,000 state legislators from across the country calling on the U.S. Senate for action on clean energy jobs legislation.

1Sky, which claims 500 allied organizations, 174,000 climate advocates and 2,200 volunteer "Climate Precinct Captains" covering more than 380 congressional districts in 50 states, reported that Maine's U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have not signed on to the Murkowski resolution.