The Pentagon is shifting their funds to a green agenda, due largely in part to a 2003 climate change study that linked climate change to national security, the Washington Times reports.
The study made several scary predictions, including that by now, "California would be flooded by inland seas, The Hague would be unlivable, polar ice would be mostly gone in summer, and global temperatures would rise at an accelerated rate as high as 0.5 degrees a year."
Of course, none of that has so far happened.
Yet the 2003 report, "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security," is credited with kick-starting the movement that, to this day and perhaps with more vigor than ever, links climate change to national security.
The report also became gospel to climate change doomsayers, who predicted pervasive and more intense hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts.
"The release of this report is what likely sparked the ‘modern era’ of security interest in climate affairs," said Jeff Kueter, president of the George C. Marshall Institute, a nonprofit that examines scientific issues that affect public policy.
The shift in funding at the Pentagon is troubling to some experts.
The Times asked the Pentagon whether it is basing climate change spending on alarmist reports.
A spokesman said: "The Department is incorporating consideration of likely future scenarios in planning to mitigate risk. Its responses to climate change range from the DOD Arctic Strategy — which is focused on increased engagement and stability in a region that is already seeing increased activity — to a new floodplain-management policy that directs minimization of new construction in floodplains. Even our approach to energy efficiency is focused on mission benefits and monetary savings, with carbon reductions as a side effect."