The military now says that climate change will be damaging for this country and our national security.  According to a recent article in the NYT, "a growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest. . . Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response."

The military and policy leaders who believe that the United States need to lead and lead quickly on climate change believe that the potential impact of environmental devastation caused by increased floods, water and food shortages and drought will create security challenges that the U.S. military will have to address.  Senator John Kerry, a strong proponent of connecting the dots between climate change and national security gives the example of southern Sudan.  Kerry says that the continuing conflict there, "which has killed and displaced tens of thousands of people, is a result of drought and expansion of deserts in the north".  He says that we will see the impact of the effects of climate change over and over and "on a much larger scale".