Climate change is a threat to U.S. national security and homeland security.  In fact, the impacts of climate change are a threat to the health, security and economic vitality of all nations.  These statements are consistent with and reflected by the findings of the 2010 and 2014 Defense Quadrennial Reports, numerous Government Accountability Office reports, the World Economic Council's Global Risk Report, the National Climate Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Migration and displacements of large bodies of people is one of the most concerning impacts of climate change.  Developing countries around the world and communities with the least resilient and most aging infrastructure throughout the United States are prime candidates for these impacts.  We have seen these devastating consequences in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the middle east uprisings after record famines impacting wheat and potato crops grown in Russia and China caused basic food staple prices to go through the roof, and more recently, as Brookings reported last year, heavily contributed to the migrations we’ve seen from Honduras.

Agencies at all levels of government charged with the mission of protecting borders, infrastructure, public health and economic vitality, and those charged with conducting emergency management activities, need to be able to model and plan for these impacts, and develop strategies and policies for meeting these unprecedented challenges that climate change is already posing to our communities today, and will increasingly pose to our communities in the future.

— Daniel Kreeger, Executive Director, Association of Climate Change Officers