Climate change poses 'significant risk' to US military, report says

Sept. 9, 2016: South Korean and U.S. Marines aim their guns as they participate in the 66th Incheon Landing Operations Commemoration ceremony in waters off Incheon, South Korea. (AP)

U.S. military officers and national security officials reportedly believe climate change pose a very real threat to U.S. military operations and could increase the danger of international conflict.

A Washington-based think tank, the Center for Climate and Security, said in a statement that climate change “presents a strategically-significant risk to U.S. national security, and inaction is not a viable option.”

According to Reuters, the statement was endorsed by more than a dozen former senior military and national security officials. The group wants the next president to create a cabinet position to deal with climate change and its potential impacts on national security.

The Center for Climate and Security published a separate report, arguing that “extreme weather” poses a threat to coastal military bases.

"The complex relationship between sea level rise, storm surge and global readiness and responsiveness must be explored down to the operational level, across the Services and Joint forces, and up to a strategic level as well," according to the report.

Another report revealed earlier this year that faster sea level rises in the second half of the century could make tidal flooding a normal occurrence for some military installations.

Climate change hasn’t been a major focal point of the 2016 campaign. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called global warming a concept "created by the and for the Chinese" to hurt the U.S.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wants to have the U.S. use 50 percent cleaner energy by 2030 and promised heavy fracking regulations.

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