National Security Threats

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Some threats are real, and some are worse than others.

Last week “national security” was mentioned in different contexts. Sofi, a 3-year-old child taken from her grandmother and kept in a concentration camp by agents of the Border Patrol, was said to be a national security threat.

Threats must have solid evidence of the source, magnitude, impact, and likelihood to occur. Everything else is just a rumor. Federal security agencies are trained to distinguish rumors from threats.

Last fall, the White House asked the Pentagon for military options to strike Iran in response to a harmless attack by militants on the Baghdad US Embassy. The Pentagon was highly concerned. John Bolton, head of the National Security Council, is a hawk on Iran.

Noam Chomsky says a nuclear war and the runaway climate disruption are existential threats. Existential threats risk all life on Earth. An attack on Iran could trigger an immediate response escalating to an all-out nuclear war.

The climate disruption is a National Security threat

The May 2015 report The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate says, “Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our National Security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water. Present-day effects of climate change are being felt from the Arctic to the Midwest. Increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure, and property. In turn, the global economy suffers, compounding the growing costs of preparing and restoring infrastructure.”

The response of the current administration has been subsidies for coal, oil, natural gas (methane), and liquified natural gas, with laws to prosecute people protecting life. The continued denial, misinformation, and ridicule have weakened public access to information and severely distorted the language. References to climate change, clean energy, and climate adaptation, have been deleted from government websites.

Not silenced, not fooled

Some people pretend all is good, they do not dare to think about heat waves or floods. They know what they want to know, it is their choice.

Scientific knowledge is power. “No evidence for globally coherent warm and cold periods over the preindustrial Common Era,” a July 25, 2019, Nature report, found compelling evidence that anthropogenic global warming is not only unparalleled in terms of absolute temperatures but also unprecedented in the worldwide scope within the past 2,000 years.

The city of Berkeley in northern California, is the first in the country to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings.

Is the U.S. Economy a National Security threat?

Last week, to avoid a government default, the Treasury got Congressional bilateral approval to borrow a massive amount, while the F-35 fighter program has significant safety problems. The Pentagon will get $1.48 trillion over the next two years. The rest of the government, including the Veterans Administration, will get $1.3 trillion.

The U.S. military spends more than 10 times more than Russia’s military, a clear sign of waste and inefficiency. Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War said, “This is a continued orgy of unprecedented, wasteful, and obscene spending at the Pentagon.”

Budget deficits increase the public debt with no plan to repay it. Our children will inherit a barely inhabitable planet with an impossible debt. How is this a roaring economy?

Our dysfunctional government has to change. Waiting until the last minute to request additional money is a game, not a threat. Our government is not working for the people. Wars and weapons are the norm.

Post Carbon Economy

There is a lot of work ahead and many problems to solve, from waste disposal, to roads and bridges, vaccines for new viruses, and new thinking and new solutions to reduce the energy imbalance. Along with a circular economy and creative systems thinking, microbiology, stem cells, tissue engineers, and many other sciences will be the key to survival.

Enjoy life, it’s worth living

“Dare to live until the very last. Dare to live, forget about the past. Dare to live, giving something of yourself to others. Even when it seems there’s nothing more left to give.” Dare to Live – Andrea Bocelli, Laura Pausini

Dr. Luis Contreras