US ropes in CIA, Pentagon on climate change

The measure would also order the Pentagon to undertake a series of war games to determine how global climate change could affect US security, including 8220;direct physical threats to the US posed by extreme weather events such as hurricanes.8221;

The growing attention to global warming as a national security issue could open new avenues of support for tougher efforts to limit greenhouse gases, according to specialists.

8220;If you get the intelligence community to apply some of its analytic capabilities to this issue, it could be compelling to whoever is sitting in the White House,8221; said Anne Harrington, director of the committee on international security at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

In 2003, two Pentagon analysts wrote a provocative report on the possible national security implications of an abrupt change in the climate, citing, among other outcomes, the prospect of nuclear powers struggling to feed their people and being forced to fight over shared rivers.

8220;With over 200 river basins touching multiple nations, we can expect conflict over access to water for drinking, irrigation, and transportation,8221; the analysts wrote.

8211;BRYAN BENDER