On 28 October 2015, the Australian Climate Security Panel at the Australian Defense Force Academy discussed the security threats of climate change. Australian Defense Forces are increasingly working with the U.S. and U.K militaries on this issue.
In the panel, Will Steffen, a leading climate change expert , expressed his opinion about the tight link between food systems and security systems He brought the examples of Arab Spring and Syria crisis cases by the impacts of climate change. The crises are caused from unstable of food security to become the vast crises that we all knew about.
In the same panel, Rear Admiral David Titley, USN (Ret.), a member of ASP’s Consensus for American Security, believes that “climate is security” and “risk is accelerating today.” The retired U.S. Rear Admiral stressed that the risks from climate change are enormous, and climate is a security risk that is going to accelerate.
Continuing with the panel, Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, RN (Ret.), another friend of ASP, who acted as the UK Government’s Climate and Energy Security Envoy, emphasized that the way to alter the climate change issue was to “talk about opportunity and not just the threat of climate change.” The opportunity is about increasing new environmentally friendly energy sources, rather than dealing with climate change to just prevent the threat of climate change. It is likely comprehended that climate change is an opportunity for us to inspire a new living behavior, but it is not only for us to face the threat of climate change by living green.
Lastly, Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret.), the co-chairman of the summit, addressed in his speech that climate change could cause a crisis in the fields of energy, water, food, health, security and uncontrolled mass migration. He presented the real problem that countries are facing up today on the impacts of climate change. It related to a chain of crisis from agriculture, to human mobility, and it resulted to a threat of homeland security in other regions.
Australia is threatened with climate change because it threatens food security in the region. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has an unstable food security because of the impacts of climate change. The villagers’ lives are put at risk when the lack of drinking water due to a lengthy drought, and unpredictable weather leads to crop damages. Australia’s Defense Force has acknowledged the impact of climate change is a threat multiplier, which needs the compact from U.S. and U.K militaries to ensure a stable life for the civilians in its nation.
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