Leading America through the Climate Crisis
January 2024
The climate crisis represents one of the top threats to American national security. It directly endangers Americans’ lives and economic livelihoods, foments global conflict and compounds other foreign policy challenges, and endangers our military readiness. We have no time to waste in combating this crisis.
President Biden recognizes the enormity of the challenge and has made the largest investments in history to not only meet it, but enhance our competitiveness and security along the way.
Donald Trump remains determined to bury his head in the sand and actively damage efforts to act in the short window we have, leaving all Americans less safe.
TALKING POINTS:
Climate change is a top tier national security threat, directly threatening Americans’ safety, homes, and livelihoods, multiplying other threats to our security, and endangering military readiness.
Increasingly extreme weather events–from wildfires to floods to deadly heat waves–directly threaten Americans’ lives as well as the resilience of our critical infrastructure. Climate change is now costing the U.S. economy around $150 billion per year.
Rising temperatures and their associated effects–including resource and water shortages–also exacerbate armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, the spread of infectious diseases, and more, multiplying the many global challenges the U.S. faces.
At the same time, the climate crisis threatens military readiness, from impacting functionality at bases to putting service members at risk to threatening key supply chains.
The vast majority accept these realities, including nearly three quarters of Americans. Nearly 90% of Americans have experienced extreme weather in the last 5 years, and 63% of Americans think that climate change is going to get worse in their lifetimes. The military and intelligence community have also been clear eyed about the threat for more than a decade, with the latter declaring, “We assess that climate change will increasingly exacerbate risks to US national security interests as the physical impacts increase and geopolitical tensions mount about how to respond to the challenge.”
The science is clear: there is no time to waste. The world needs U.S. leadership, both at home and abroad in order to stave off the worst outcomes. The top scientists in the world have collectively underscored that we have less than a decade to dramatically cut global emissions or else lock in the drastic impacts that come with 1.5℃ or 2℃ of warming. And not only must the U.S. continue to cut emissions at home, but given that the climate crisis knows no borders, our national security requires that we use our global leadership to spur other countries to act and support developing countries as they do the same.
President Biden recognizes the existential threat of climate change and, as a result, has been a game-changing leader both at home and around the world.
At home, President Biden passed history’s biggest climate and clean energy investment – the Inflation Reduction Act – and has taken a range of executive actions – including drastically slashing methane emissions – to curb emissions and address pollutants that endanger Americans. These steps not only create more good jobs but increase our national competitiveness.
When it comes to China–the world’s largest emitter, which continues to build new coal plants – President Biden has been unafraid to press for more action, all while refusing to compromise on other foreign policy priorities. President Biden’s domestic investments in clean energy have also enhanced our competitiveness vis-a-vis China’s own industrial sectors.
As President, Donald Trump undermined America’s ability to address this national security threat and he has expressed no interest in changing course if reelected. The world’s ability to meet this crisis is at risk if we let him torpedo our efforts again.
The Trump administration saw a complete abdication of domestic and global leadership, from leaving the Paris Agreement, suppressing his own government’s scientific analysis, denying the findings of his own federal agencies on the gravity of the threat, and eliminating over 100 federal environmental regulations.
Trump still does not take global warming seriously. In December 2023, Trump said the only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about is nuclear global warming, and that we need to prioritize “firing up our factories'' while criticizing solar and wind energy.
Project 2025, a 900 page document drafted by hundreds of former Trump administration officials and conservative think tank scholars and created to guide a second Trump administration, describes how to convince allies to use and produce more fossil fuels, roll back Biden administration climate progress, and facilitate more drilling in Alaska.
The Trump years represent time we will never get back. There are no more years to spare. We cannot afford to let him imperil our future again.