Military Officials: “Unimaginable” Refugee Crisis From Climate Change

At a time when climate change appears to be occurring faster than what many predicted a few years ago, senior military officials worldwide are warning about a massive refugee crisis. “We’re going to see refugee problems on an unimaginable scale, potentially above 30 million people,” Major Gen. Munir Muniruzzaman, chairman of the Global Military Advisory Council on climate change, told The Guardian. Similar warnings are voiced by military officials from a number of countries, as well as a coalition of U.S. military and security officials that includes advisers to both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Among alarming climate change indicators is a recent period of unseasonable warmth in the Arctic, with sea temperatures averaging nearly 4 degrees above normal. U.S. Brig General Stephen Cheney calls climate change an “accelerant” of instability, linking it to the Arab Spring, the war in Syria and Boko Haram, and says that he expects senior military officials to try to influence President-elect Donald Trump regarding the issue. Meanwhile though, the man Trump has appointed to lead his EPA transition says he believes the whole case for global warming is silly and claims, incorrectly, that the majority of scientists agree with him.