Challenges to Military Readiness Posed by Climate Change

Wednesday, November 30, 8:30–11:45 am

Georgetown (Concourse Level)

Chair:  Mr. Jonathan Weiss, OSD Directorate for Training Readiness and Strategy / ManTech International Corp.

Keynote:  Mr. Gerald "Fred" Pease Jr., U.S. Department of the Interior – Immediate Office of the Secretary

Description:  Military activities and the infrastructure that supports them are impacted by the vagaries of weather. Climate change, however, poses unique challenges to military readiness. The combination of climate trajectory changes and variability, and secondary effects such as changes in sea level, can significantly impact DoD’s ability to access and use training and testing areas. For example, thawing permafrost may reduce access to training lands in Alaska, increased flooding in coastal and other areas puts infrastructure at risk, increased heat and humidity could reduce the number of available training days in the Southeast, and prolonged drought in the Southwest may exacerbate air quality issues related to fugitive dust and reduce habitat for listed species, which may further constrain training and testing activities. This session investigated the potential challenges to military readiness posed by climate change and also outlined potential metrics that could be tracked over time as indicators of the effects on readiness.