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Weekly Wisdom: Yogi Berra on the Future
Yogi Berra, the famously philosophical former American baseball player, once noted that: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
And he was right. Our present is the future Berra was talking about, and in terms of the climate, it “ain’t what it used to be” for at least one million years. NASA scientist Dr. Charles Miller highlighted the unprecedented levels of CO2 emissions now in the atmosphere, which have been at and above 400ppm for the last several months – levels that humanity has never experienced before. (more…)
Weekly Wisdom: Vice Admiral Truly on the Thin Blue Line
At the end of every week, we’ll be posting words of wisdom from the climate-security field. Today, we have an old gem from Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.), Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command:
One of the things that struck me on my first day in space is that there is no blue sky. It’s something that every human lives with on Earth, but when you’re in space, you don’t see it. It looks like there’s nothing between you and the surface of the earth. And out beyond that, it looks like midnight, with only deep black and stars.
But when you look at the earth’s horizon, you see an incredibly beautiful, but very, very thin line. You can see a tiny rainbow of color. That thin line is our atmosphere. And the real fragility of our atmosphere is that there’s so little of it.
Quote found in: CNA, National Security and the Threat of Climate Change. (2007).
Colleton and Shepherd: Next Commerce Secretary Must Understand Climate Change and Weather Risks
Nancy Colleton, president of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and Marshall Shepherd, President of the American Meteorological Society, recently penned a very interesting piece calling for a new Secretary of Commerce that understands the risks extreme weather and climate change pose for businesses, and economic security more generally. They state: (more…)
Hurricane Sandy, Climate Change and National Security Round Up
As Hurricane Sandy rolled into the East Coast, she cut a swathe of destruction that has claimed lives, and crippled some critical infrastructures. She has also stirred up quite a discussion about climate change, resiliency and preparedness, as citizens, policy-makers and thought leaders try to determine how to better prepare for future climate events. (more…)