Climate Change And National Security By Dr. David Titley

For the 2015 Hancock Symposium, one of the sessions I attended was Climate Change and National Security by Dr. David Titley. In his talk, he outlined why climate change is becoming an increasing threat to our national security in the United States. Though we have known about climate change for decades, there has been little domestic nor international headway in trying to solve the intangible issue. Some countries have taken steps in combating climate change, but most of these countries are not western democratic. In contrast, democratic countries have bolstered little in their efforts in confronting climate change, some of which even pollute more today than they ever have. This characteristic of liberal democracies undermines the security of the respective nation and the good of the global society. Climate change will cause significant changes to our world that will pose a whole new set of security questions if

Its founding premise is that power should reside in the people of a society. While democratic societies bring with them many benefits, being ruled by the people has some major drawbacks in the context of solving climate change. When a society is driven by the people, it is more prone to being driven by human nature. Unfortunately, human nature is fundamentally flawed. We have an overwhelming tendency to focus on our short term goals that benefit ourselves rather than long term ones that are more productive for the collective good. Climate change, unlike major issues of our time, cannot be solved in a few years. It will take decades to rectify the problem. It is difficult enough to get people to act on something that they will not see results from in a few decades. Add a generation gap and it becomes incredibly difficult to get people to change their ways when the benefits of their actions will go towards someone they will never be on this planet with at the same time