US: Climate change a national security issue, say local and national leaders from Pacific Northwest

Effective adaptation requires understanding how climate change will impact a specific place at a specific time. Some impacts are relatively easy to model, like mean sea level rise, said Commander John Marburger of the US Navy’s Task Force Climate Change. The trouble is, “nobody gets mean weather, and nobody gets mean sea level – you get the extremes.” Planning must therefore account for “episodic risks,” which can get complicated, reports News Security Beat, the blog of the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program.