While the political debate over climate change is stuck in the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Defense has been busy playing a forward-looking role in addressing the security implications of climate change, and enhancing U.S. national security as a result. The latest in those actions includes the recent release of the Department of Defense’s FY2012 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap, or CCAR.

As highlighted by the folks at the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP):

To help DoD move forward strategically in its climate change adaptation efforts, the CCAR outlines four broad goals: (1) define a coordinating body to address climate change; (2) utilize a robust decision making approach based on the best available science; (3) integrate climate change considerations into existing processes; and (4) collaborate with Federal agencies and other key partners on challenges of climate change. The Roadmap also provides an analysis of climate change risks and opportunities, outlining climate change phenomena and the resultant potential mission vulnerabilities, and identifies ongoing work throughout the Department to better understand and address climate change risks and opportunities.

Our military leaders are not just reading about, or discussing, climate change. They are doing something about it. Read the full CCAR here.