Global warming is called a national security issue

NEW YORK — Growing concern surrounds a new national security threat, an insidious trend that could foster terrorism worldwide and draw our armed forces into messy regional conflicts in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

No, it isn't nuclear proliferation. Nor is it a new brand of religious fundamentalism.

It's global warming.

In the last few weeks, several groups — including the U.S. Congress, a panel of retired top-ranking military officers and the U.N. Security Council — have considered the possibility that global warming may be a significant threat to peace and security in coming decades.

"Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world," the former military leaders warned in a report released this month by the CNA Corp., a nonprofit research consultant to the federal government. "The increasing risks from climate change should be addressed now because they will almost certainly get worse if we delay."

Droughts, crop failures and tropical disease epidemics caused by global warming could destabilize already fragile governments in Asia, Latin America and especially Africa, creating the kinds of "failed states" that harbor al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Sea-level rise could scatter refugees by the millions from low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, putting stress on both them and their neighbors.

A day after the report's release, diplomats were discussing global warming in a special session of the U.N. Security Council, a body more accustomed to considering war crimes and weapons of mass destruction than carbon dioxide levels and crop yields.

"This is an issue that threatens the peace and security of the whole planet," said British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

But some members of the Security Council, as well as many developing countries, objected to the discussion. They argued that global warming would be better addressed by the General Assembly — a more democratic but less powerful arm of the United Nations.

"Climate change may have certain security implications, but generally speaking it is in essence an issue of sustainable development," said Chinese ambassador Liu Zhenmin.

The next day on Capitol Hill, before the inaugural hearing of a special new House committee dedicated to global warming and energy policy, Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin expressed similar skepticism.