The CIA believes in climate change

[Lostviking]

CIA spies global warming
Commentary: Climate-change analysis does impact national security

By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The Central Intelligence Agency is opening a Center on Climate Change. Its mission is to examine the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts and heightened competition for natural resources.

Such a mission is certainly needed. Many of the world's conflicts begin as natural-resource disputes. The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, began as a fight over water between farmers and ranchers; the rebellion in Nigeria is over oil and the distribution of profits; the clashes in Congo are over mining and mineral sales. The list goes on to include energy and the Middle East and deforestation and landowner rights in Central and South America.


Job growth in green sectors
At the World Business Forum in New York, Columbia University Economist Jeffrey Sachs tells WSJ's Kelly Evans where to expect job growth.

Natural-resource conflicts will only flare more hotly as climate change worsens atmospheric conditions. So it makes sense that the CIA would want to begin a centralized climate-change analysis.

"Decision makers need information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security. The CIA is well positioned to deliver that intelligence," said CIA Director Leon Panetta in a statement announcing the center's opening.

He's correct, of course, but the center isn't quietly beginning to operate; it's drawing critics.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., says the center is the wrong priority. "The CIA should be combating terrorists, not spying on sea lions," he says. A formal statement on his Web site says the freshman senator will fight the center's funding.

"The CIA is responsible for gathering foreign intelligence information for the United States. I don't believe creating a center on climate change is going to prevent terrorist attacks," Barrasso says.

OK, let's start at the beginning. The CIA says national security is the focal point of the center. "Its charter is not the science of climate change," the agency says. "The center will assume responsibility for coordinating with intelligence community partners on the review and declassification of imagery and other data that could be of use to scientists in their own climate-related research. This effort draws on imagery and other information that is collected in any event, assisting the U.S. scientific community without a large commitment of resources."

It's the commitment of resources that has critics such as Barrasso concerned.

"Questions remain. Is this climate change center going to make demands on the current CIA bureaucracy? Will someone sitting in a dark room watching satellite video of northern Afghanistan now be sitting in a dark room watching polar ice caps?" asks Barrasso. "We have boots on the ground in the Middle East. Diverting resources to polar ice cap surveillance squanders concentration on national security. The CIA claims to have scarce resources and competing priorities. Let's focus on the safety of the American people."

Safety first

But analyzing climate change is focusing on the safety of the American people.

In a macro sense climate-change analysis can help predict population trends, resource scarcity and the economic fallout from having too many people chasing too few resources. On a micro level there is reason to analyze climate change as well.

Take the pirating off the coast of Somalia, which is essentially terrorism on the high seas. Pirates interrupt sea traffic, hold crews hostage, and disrupt trade. They may even be aligning with al Qaeda.

Lieutenant General Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified in a congressional hearing that "propaganda from both al Qaeda and the Somalia-based terrorist group al Shabaab highlighting their shared ideology suggests a formal merger announcement is forthcoming."

As the Voice of America news explains the situation off the coast of Somalia: "Two years ago, climate change is thought to have played a part in driving the fish deeper into colder waters and away from fishing nets. Overfishing in some areas may have also contributed to the decline in catches."

The decline in fishing is what many of the Somali pirates blame for causing them to turn to pirating.

See the connections? The CIA should be able to conduct this type of analysis. They might even stumble across it ... while spying on sea lions.




Copyright © 2009 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.
al exchange time. Real-time last sale data provided by NASDAQ.

[vonnegut]

Originally Posted by Lostviking

Take the pirating off the coast of Somalia, which is essentially terrorism on the high seas. Pirates interrupt sea traffic, hold crews hostage, and disrupt trade.....
The decline in fishing is what many of the Somali pirates blame for causing them to turn to pirating.

See, this is a perfect example of nature's equilibrium. The pirates have kept global warming at bay for so long. Now, with global warming on the rise, the pirates must return to combat it.

Praise FSM.

[Lostviking]

Originally Posted by vonnegut

See, this is a perfect example of nature's equilibrium. The pirates have kept global warming at bay for so long. Now, with global warming on the rise, the pirates must return to combat it.

Praise FSM.

Amen sister.


( You win bonus points for why I selected this article, see me after the show. )

[vonnegut]

Well, your av makes it pretty obvious