To: The United States Senate
U.S. Senate: Save the military's climate change program from House Republicans!
Please maintain funding for the new Department of Defense climate directive. Reject House legislation blocking funding for climate change adaptation and resilience (House Amendment 1195).
Why is this important?
The Department of Defense (DOD) has identified climate change as an "urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources (like water)."
To help prepare for the growing threat of climate change, the DOD adopted a "climate change adaptation and resilience" directive earlier this year. Top officials were assigned jobs of determining how climate change should shape everything from weapons acquisition to personnel training.
But House Republicans just passed an amendment to the defense spending bill that prohibits the DOD from spending money on its climate programs.
Andrew Holland, who works at the American Security Project, said, "It's actually crazy to me, and it should be crazy to anyone in the military, that Congress is telling them not to do this." (1)
In addition to climate planning, the DOD has been leading clean energy research and deployment, in order to reduce the need to go to war for fossil fuels, to save lives lost while transporting fuel for battlefield operations, and to help prevent climate chaos.
Given the high costs--in lives, dollars and climate instability--of fossil fuel dependence, the military’s climate and clean energy programs should enjoy strong bipartisan support, not ideological opposition rooted in climate denial.
The U.S. Senate maintained funding for the DOD climate directive in its defense spending bill. Senators on the conference committee reconciling the Senate and House bills can remove the anti-climate action amendment from the final legislation.
Please sign the petition to tell senators to reject the short-sighted, "crazy" House legislation that would stop the DOD’s new climate change program.
(1) http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/06/republicans-trying-to-stop-pentagon-climate-plan-000149#ixzz4D6Dc1WRo
To help prepare for the growing threat of climate change, the DOD adopted a "climate change adaptation and resilience" directive earlier this year. Top officials were assigned jobs of determining how climate change should shape everything from weapons acquisition to personnel training.
But House Republicans just passed an amendment to the defense spending bill that prohibits the DOD from spending money on its climate programs.
Andrew Holland, who works at the American Security Project, said, "It's actually crazy to me, and it should be crazy to anyone in the military, that Congress is telling them not to do this." (1)
In addition to climate planning, the DOD has been leading clean energy research and deployment, in order to reduce the need to go to war for fossil fuels, to save lives lost while transporting fuel for battlefield operations, and to help prevent climate chaos.
Given the high costs--in lives, dollars and climate instability--of fossil fuel dependence, the military’s climate and clean energy programs should enjoy strong bipartisan support, not ideological opposition rooted in climate denial.
The U.S. Senate maintained funding for the DOD climate directive in its defense spending bill. Senators on the conference committee reconciling the Senate and House bills can remove the anti-climate action amendment from the final legislation.
Please sign the petition to tell senators to reject the short-sighted, "crazy" House legislation that would stop the DOD’s new climate change program.
(1) http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/06/republicans-trying-to-stop-pentagon-climate-plan-000149#ixzz4D6Dc1WRo