Thread by @nickbuxton

Among the announcements on Biden's #ClimateDay is a prominent commitment to consider climate change "as a national security issue" as @SecDef below asserts. But is that a good thing?

https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1354566928438878208

It's certainly not a surprise. It was a major focus for Obama too. In fact just before he finished office, he instructed every federal department to consider climate change through the lens of climate security. Trump ended this immediately. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-offi…

Biden wants climate change to be part of national security planning, put his climate envoy @SecKerry on the National Security Council and requested a National Intelligence Estimate on the security implications of climate change. But apart from emphasis little is new.

The military & security agencies have been looking at national security implications of climate change since early 2000s - & continued even under Trump. The bigger concern is implications of their assessments. Whose future & whose security are they really concerned with?

Having examined their strategies for many years, my conclusions are 1) they are mainly concerned about implications for military assets, in particular their sprawling empire of bases threatened by sea level rise and the operationability of troops in extreme weather conditions

2) In as much as they consider those most impacted by climate change, they are almost entirely seen as threats. People who may cause 'social instability' or become migrant 'waves' that could overwhelm countries like the US tni.org/en/article/sec…

3) They therefore demand more resources for military and security agencies, calling climate change a 'threat multiplier'. They provide the bloated US military with ammunition to argue for more funding when we need instead to divert military resources to fund #GreenNewDeal

4) Worse of all, by portraying the victims of climate crisis as threats, they deepen the injustice inherent in climate change, that those least responsible for the crisis suffer the most impacts. And now thanks to the politics of climate security, are treated as threats too

5) We see approach already in border policies practiced by both Republican and Democrat govts which have continuously militarized border against migrants, creating a lucrative market for border industries and untold suffering for migrants tni.org/en/morethanawa…

Interestingly, one of today's #ClimateDay announcements points to a different route. The declaration calls for new policies to 'address the disproportionate health, environmental, economic, and climate impacts on disadvantaged communities.' But it limits this to domestic policy

If Biden administration was to internationalize this approach, it would realize national security approaches to climate crisis have disproportionate impact on vulnerable. Environmental justice globally is incompatible with a national security approach.

Instead of talking of US national security, we need to talk about global cooperation, justice and prioritizing the most vulnerable. The climate crisis requires #defundingmilitary and refunding international cooperation and collaboration

@TNInstitute brought together activists and researchers to examine the dangers of securitizing climate change in 2010 & 2011. Read the book tni.org/en/publication…