US military grasps effects of the rising tide

The Global Warning project reports that "climate change is fast becoming one of those security threats, according to U.S. and Bangladeshi officials, who have concluded it will help create new conflict hotspots around the world and heighten the tensions in existing ones".

"Some say climate change as a national security threat has yet to trickle down to the operational and planning level [in Bangladesh]," says Malathi Nayak in a report for Global Warning, an initiative of the Medill National Security Reporting Project.

"You may see it come out at a war game in the war college or being discussed in academic circles," said Maj. Luke Donohue, who heads the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. But, he said, "it's not the issue of the day."