The University of Arizona has announced new research about how climate change may be impacting the world’s largest employer: the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). According to UArizona, the study was funded by the defense department’s environmental science and technology program, executed in partnership with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The results of the study are published in the journal Climate Services, which develops and provides science-based information relating to past, present, and potential future climate.
In UArizona’s press release, the researchers stated that with a budget larger than many countries, the DOD has the potential to serve as an example when it comes to climate adaptation and climate change mitigation strategies.
“I think the involvement of the Department of Defense could be a true game-changer for the whole process of climate adaptation in our society, for at least two reasons,” said Don Falk, who is a professor in UArizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment and co-author of the study.”They are so large, with a gigantic energy and resource footprint, and anything they do is going to have a ripple effect. Secondly, the military has credibility. When the military comes around on something, people listen.”
Researchers set out to understand how climate change might affect defense department facilities and activities across the globe, and what actions the DOD can take to respond to climate-related threats and reduce its contributions to climate change.
Other co-authors of the study include UArizona’s Katharine Jacobs, Christopher O’Connor, Arin Haverland, Jeremy Weiss, Adriana Zuñiga-Terán, and the late Raphael Sagarin, who served as principal investigator (PI) on the project until his passing in 2015, Anna Haworth and Alastair Baglee from a risk management consulting firm in Cardiff, Wales, and Jonathan Overpeck at the University of Michigan.
“The DOD will need to adapt to climate to protect its own facilities, activities, resources, and infrastructure,” said Falk. “The department has recognized for a long time that climate change is serious business.”
In addition, the researchers found that climate change commitments by officials don’t always get translated to action on the ground. Another issue is insufficient training, capacity, and incentives to integrate climate information into short-term and long-term planning.
“The department’s way of thinking is all about ensuring mission preparedness, and so that’s the doorway to working on climate adaptation strategies with them,” said Garfin, who is also the director of science translation and outreach for the Arizona Institutes for Resilience and an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Some of the easiest changes will likely be operational, say the researchers. For example, aircraft use huge amounts of energy and produce huge amounts of pollution, Falk said, so bases might consider operating solely on electric vehicles.
“As a climate scientist, it was really refreshing to find that at the federal level, the DOD had made many clear, unambiguous fact-based statements about climate,” Falk said. “Their job is to recognize threats and concerns that involve the security of their facilities, activities, and the country at large.”
The researchers believe their findings can be applied to other large organizations, or even cities, that are facing similar pressures and challenges related to climate change.
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