Climate security

US intelligence chiefs break with Trump on climate threat

In their new annual assessment of global threats, US intelligence agencies warned Tuesday that climate change and other environmental trends “are likely to fuel economic and social discontent—and possibly upheaval—through 2018,” reported Inside Climate News.

While there may not be any hints of abrupt and cataclysmic events on the immediate horizon, worrisome climate impacts are already apparent, the agencies said in a joint statement to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing where the Trump administration’s top intelligence chiefs testified. The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community contrasts with the Trump administration's National Defense Strategy and its National Security Strategy.

in that the latter two do not even mention climate change. The intelligence community, instead, aligned itself with the National Climate Assessment produced by federal scientific agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.