Home » Posts tagged 'homeland security' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: homeland security
Climate Change in FEMA’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan
In case you missed it, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released it’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan on July 15th. This comes on the heels of the release of the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) by FEMA’s parent department, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to the summary by FEMA, the plan “reflects objectives the Agency will accomplish to provide the best possible support to the American people before, during, and after disasters.” In addition to a strong focus on risk management and preparedness, the strategic plan includes explicit mention of the risks related to climate change and the need to better integrate those risks into the Agency’s plans. (more…)
Quadrennial Homeland Security Review: Climate Change Poses Strategically Significant Risk
The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) was released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on June 18, and it takes a hard look at the security risks of a changing climate.
Most significantly, climate change appears in the QHSR’s section on “Prevailing Challenges that Pose the Most Strategically Significant Risk” on page 28. In that context, “natural hazards…with increasingly variable consequences due in part to drivers such as climate change and interdependent and aging infrastructure” (more…)
Marqusee and Titley: Learning Security Lessons from Hurricane Sandy
There is a lot we can learn from what went right and what went wrong in our preparation and response to Hurricane Sandy. Two former Department of Defense officials, Jeff Marqusee, former executive director of the DOD’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, and retired Navy Rear Admiral David Titley, director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State, recently penned an op-ed for the Virginian-Pilot highlighting what we can learn from the military. Their points are specifically in regards to Hurricane Sandy, but the lessons they draw demonstrate how the “military planning community” is and will be a vital actor in preparing and responding to climate change-associated risks of all kinds. (more…)
Iceland’s Message to US: Look To the Arctic
In a recent CNN interview by Jason Miks, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland, went into great detail about the changing geopolitical conditions in a melting Arctic and the distinct role of the United States in the region. Iceland, an Arctic nation which recently rebounded from a severe economic shock, can certainly teach us something about balancing domestic and international security priorities (Iceland’s security is also entirely handled by the U.S. military, so its perspective on this issue is quite consistent with that of our armed forces in the region). (more…)