The navy preparation for local weather disasters will restrict the scope for CO2 financial savings – watts with that?
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Jacob Parakilas of The Diplomat makes a good case for why greening the military is a logistical absurdity. Unfortunately, Jason doesn’t follow suit and applies his own logic to accommodate all other needs.
Preparing the US military for climate change
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By Jacob Parakilas
February 04, 2021
A few weeks ago, I was asked to contribute to a new Diplomat Risk Intelligence report that examined a number of risk scenarios for the Biden administration in the Asia-Pacific region over the coming years. The scenario I wrote about was a typhoon, aggravated by warmer water, that flooded the Philippines and Taiwan. The disaster in this scenario was not only humanitarian but also geopolitical: the storm strikes during a major PLA military exercise, causing significant damage to the Taiwanese Navy, leading to an urgent call for American aid.
The scenario is fiction. However, the vulnerability to extreme weather is very real. In 2018, the main training base for the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fleet was hit directly by Hurricane Michael, causing millions of dollars in damage. The 2011 tsunami flooded an entire squadron of the then newest and most expensive fighter jets in Japan. And in 2019, Offutt Air Force Base – the command center where President George W. Bush was evacuated on Sept. 11 – was inundated by floods after an increasingly frequent inland hurricane.
… One of the crucial things the military must be prepared for in times of climate crisis is a faster pace of humanitarian relief efforts. But Such operations require a large standby force of strategic and tactical airlifts, transport helicopters and large transport and amphibious ships – None of these can easily be converted into a climate-neutral drive. It is the air conditioning paradox on an incredibly large scale. The military can stand ready to help the victims of a growing number of climate disasters, or it can reduce its own contributions to those disasters. It cannot do both effectively without a miraculous short-term technological breakthrough.
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Read more: https://thediplomat.com/2021/02/prepping-the-us-military-for-climate-change/
The apparent contradiction between the greening of the military and the military’s ability to conduct any type of operation is a reflection of the damage top-down climate action will do to society as a whole.
People embrace new technology when they are ready, without government incentives or constraints.
Milk delivery trucks, the few that are still in use, have mostly been battery powered for over 100 years, as electricity is a good choice for this application. A slow, predictable journey over short distances with frequent stops and the need to keep noise down.
For longer journeys at unpredictable distances where cost is a factor or time is a factor, carbon-friendly technology options are an inconvenience or a deterioration. Just ask John Kerry.
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