What Roger Revelle could have taught the HegSeth secretary on climate change – San Diego Union -Tribune

The new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, recently rejected research on climate change with a rather coarse term.

Robert Salesses, deputy director of the Ministry of Defense, said that the Pentagon “would cease unnecessary expenses that made our soldiers back up under the previous administration, including through” climate change “and other awakening programs.”

If Roger Revelle was alive today, he would probably like to have a few words of choice with these guys.

At least 70 years ago, the famous oceanographer and climatologist, thus identified with the Institution of Oceanography scripps at the Jolla, was one of those who determined global warming and would have radical impacts – on the world and humanity but also on operations and military facilities.

The concerns and data on global warming exist much longer than most people think. The American navy and its affiliated scientists were at the forefront of this research.

Revelle, who died in 1991 at 82, urged a Congress Committee to finance climate research in 1956 – 1956! – and connected global warming to competition between the United States and the former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War

“The Arctic Ocean will become navigable and … then the coast of the Russian Arctic will be really free enough for shipping …

Revelle said the United States was “now the largest maritime nation on earth … If the Russian coast increases by something like around 2000 miles, the Russians will become a great maritime nation,” noted Neta C. Crawford, an American political scientist at the University of Oxford, who wrote a lot about climate change and the military.

It was foresight. Global warming already melts artistic ice, which makes the region more and more navigable. The widely accepted scientific projections suggest that it will become more in the future.

Russia – a long -standing American opponent, although this status seems to change under President Donald Trump – plans operations in the artic through the prism of climate change. For the United States, ceases to do so would be an insane strategic setback – not only in the Arctic Ocean but around the world.

Dr. Ravi Ravi Chaudhary, former Air Force Air Force Secretary for Energy, Installations and the Environment, recently told CNN that climatic programs are not only important to give the American army an advantage over rivals like China and Russia.

“Inaction at this stage will put our preparation and the life of our troops and their families more at risk,” he said.

Making more resilient military facilities on extreme weather conditions could save the pentagon from billions in the coming years while forest fires and hurricanes become more intense. In 2019, the Air Force asked for $ 5 billion to rebuild two large bases after hurricanes and floods caused serious damage.

Chaudhary noted other American military problems caused by climate changes: forest fires affecting launches in the bases of spatial force in the United States; Melt the permafrost in Alaska affecting the tracks; Build artificial reefs around installations to protect the basics of storm overvoltages.

It is not yet clear how Pentagon’s plans to sabotage climate research contracts will affect in progress military efforts to adapt to global warming.

In San Diego, the navy has been working for local governments for a long time to take into account the future effects of climate change. The Association of Governments of San Diego, the regional planning agency, has collaborated with the Southwest Navy region on “military installation resilience”. This project includes, among other things, which transport corridors could be affected by the rise in sea level, such as state roads 75 and 282 in Coronado, Imperial Beach and San Diego.

In addition, climate research can assess how future conditions, such as aggravation of drought, can contribute not only to migration but also to political upheavals that could affect military operations.

Administrator Samuel J. Locklear III told Boston Globe in 2013 that political instability resulting from climate change “is probably the most likely thing that will happen … This will paralyze the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often speak.”

This does not mean that climate research or any other program should not be reassessed and abandoned if it is found ineffective. The Pentagon and the Federal Government as a whole certainly waste a lot of money. But there was no in -depth analysis of what is precious research for the army and what is not by the new administration.

Revelle served in the Navy during the Second World War and after and was a key figure in the Office of Naval Research. He documented the effects of nuclear weapons tests from 1946 to the bikini atoll on fish and waves.

He could be struck to speak and some thought that he may have failed in diplomacy in the fight to create UC San Diego at Jolla. This can prevent him from becoming the first chancellor of the school, who opened in 1960. However, the oldest residential college in the UCSD was appointed Revelle College.

It would have been interesting to see how Revelle would have answered Hegseth, who recently declared on X: “The @Deptofdefense does not do climate change. We do a training and war fights.”

Revelle’s research, of course, was guided by science, and not no kind of “awake” sensitivity, because it is used with derisory in the context of today.

The American army, for all of its study and planning concerning climate change, is in a particular place. It is a leader in fossil fuels emissions that contribute to global warming – And By adapting. Revelle and her colleagues have greatly pleaded to reduce emissions while preparing for the effects of climate change.

Today there is a broad agreement worldwide that must be done. But not everywhere. Trump called climate change a hoax.

Revelle may also have wanted a word with him.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.