VIDEO: Susan Rice on How Donald Trump is Putting America’s Security at Risk by Denying Climate Change
Washington D.C. – Today in a new video, Former Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor Susan Rice warned that President Donald Trump is putting our country’s national security at risk by ignoring climate change threats. The video from Rice is part of a series of Climate Power 2020 featuring elected leaders and experts from across the country focusing on the importance of immediate climate action.
“I’ve been privileged over the years to work with many of our nation’s top national security professionals. Men and women whose job it is to keep our country safe. These patriots track risks of all sorts to our national security, and they are as concerned as anything about climate change,” said Rice. “When Donald Trump took office, these very same professionals tried their utmost to sound the alarm and make it clear to him that climate change was among our top national security concerns. Unfortunately, our experts learned early on that, rather than tackling problems, Donald Trump very often aims to make them worse… that is the case, especially with climate change.”
Donald Trump’s own defense industry has called climate change a ” threat multiplier.” In comparison, Trump calls the crisis a “hoax.” But if the U.S. fails to act, more than two-thirds of the military’s “operationally critical” installations will face threats from climate change. A Pentagon assessment of 79 Army, Air Force, and Navy installations found that 53 face threats from flooding, 43 face threats from drought, and 36 face threats from wildfires.
Extreme heat impedes military testing and training, as more outdoor exercises and events are suspended, delayed, or canceled due to climate change. Without action, Trump’s climate denial will continue to threaten our national security.
The Rice video is the latest in a series that includes Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) , and Founder of Fair Fight and the Southern Economic Advancement Project Stacey Abrams.
Transcript
Hi everybody. This is Susan Rice.
I’ve been privileged over the years to work with many of our nation’s top national security professionals. Men and women whose job it is to keep our country safe. These patriots track risks of all sorts to our national security, and they are as concerned as anything about climate change. When Donald Trump took office, these very same professionals tried their utmost to sound the alarm and make it clear to him that climate change was among our top national security concerns. Unfortunately, our experts learned early on that, rather than tackling problems, Donald Trump very often aims to make them worse. And that is the case, especially with climate change.
Donald Trump went to war against renewable energy seeding the global market to many of our foreign adversaries. He stripped budgets of money desperately needed to attack extreme weather here in the United States, putting many of our military bases at risk.
Climate change is what we call a national security threat multiplier. And Donald Trump is a threat multiplier all of his own. This president is indeed threatening the safety and the security of the American people. We cannot afford to wait any longer to tackle the climate crisis. It’s time we all act.