Panetta: Climate change a national security threat
by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer
(from The Washington Examiner H-T to T. Hilla)
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat yesterday during a speech before an environmentalist group in Washington, D.C.
"The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security," Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund last night. "Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief."
The Defense Secretary must have missed Examiner Columnist Mona Charen's recent piece on how symbols of global warming aren't working out the way environmentalists predicted.
For instance, The United Nations climate change panel "admitted that the melting Himalayas prediction was not based on science but on a 1999 media interview given by one scientist," Charen observed. "They said they regretted the error. Now, a study in nature, based on satellite imagery, has shown that some melting of lower altitude glaciers is taking place but that higher glaciers have been adding ice."
With reference to the story of an apparently-marooned polar bear floating on an ice floe -- puzzling, as polar bears can swim for hundreds of miles -- Charen cited a new Canadian study showing that the polar bear population is on the rise.
"Oh, and the
scientist for the Department of the Interior whose 2004 work on drowning polar
bears inspired Al Gore and others has been placed on administrative leave for
unspecified wrongdoing," she added.
Following the above story we have a rebuttal from a United States Senator...
from CNS News
Senator: Panetta Wasting His Time Promoting 'Obama's Global Warming Fantasies;' 'He Has A Real War To Win'
Inhofe, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Senior Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today responded to remarks made this week by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at an event sponsored by a far-left environmental group.
Secretary Panetta reportedly said, “In the 21st century, reality is that there are environmental threats that constitute threats to our national security” and vowed that the Pentagon will take a leading role in shifting the way the U.S. uses energy.
"I've always thought a lot of Secretary Panetta – therefore, I can't believe he caved in to President Obama in trying to legitimize global warming alarmism,” Senator Inhofe said. “Every assertion he made is right out of Al Gore's now debunked science fiction movie.
In his response, Sen. Inhofe says the true threat to national security is the administration's efforts to reduce the ability of the U.S. to defend itself - and that the Defense secretary shouldn't be wasting his time waging a war on affordable energy:
“The real threat to national security are policies that force DoD to expend increasing amounts of its scare resources on extremely expensive alternative energy, when President Obama has gutted the defense budget by a half trillion dollars over the next ten years.
"DoD is already drastically cutting its personnel, the number of brigade combat teams, tactical fighters, and airlift aircraft. It is cutting or postponing programs such as the C-27, Global Hawk Block 30, C-130 avionics modernization, the F-35, the littoral combat ship, the next generation ballistic missile submarine, and ground combat vehicles. Forcing DoD to expend more money on expensive alternative fuels further exacerbates its budget issues.
“The far-left green energy agenda being carried out at the Pentagon by the Obama administration is clearly in need of Congressional oversight. In the coming days and weeks, I will be working to put the spotlight on this radical agenda, which further drains our defense budget and puts our military at risk.
“I don't mind President Obama writing press releases for the rest of his lackeys but Secretary Panetta has an important job and doesn't need to waste his time trying to perpetrate President Obama’s global warming fantasies or his ongoing war on affordable energy. He has a real war to win."
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