Climate change will become one of the principal threats to our national security. The likelihood of climate-related events happening is very high, and we have already seen that the direct and indirect consequences are severe.

It will create instability over crops and water sources. It will destabilize the Arctic and even threaten the preparedness of our troops.
Climate change will likely trigger large-scale instability as heat, floods, drought, ocean acidification and rising sea levels disrupt local and global food markets, fresh water sources, and the very existence of low-lying nation states. In 2010, droughts and heat waves reduced wheat harvests in Russia, Ukraine and Australia. This forced a rapid rise in wheat prices that, which exacerbated pre-existing grievances about poor governance to set off the Arab Spring, with security consequences we are still dealing with today. As Anne-Marie Slaughter stated in 2013, “The consequences of climate change are stressors that can ignite a volatile mix of underlying causes that erupt into revolution.”