In this session we presented the study, Global Warming Could Have a Chilling Effect on the Military recently completed by Rear Admiral Richard F. Pittenger, USN (Ret) and Robert Gagosian. Admiral Pittenger was formerly Oceanographer of the US Navy and is now Vice President at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Gagosian is President of the Institution.

Debates over potential climate change have focused on the build up of industrial greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leading to a gradual increase in the earth’s temperatures. As such, it has not been on the radar screen for military planners. But there is evidence that the earth’s climate repeatedly has changed in time spans as short as a decade or even less and that it may well be ready to do so again. Abrupt climate change has had considerable impact on societies in general and even on a military’s effectiveness in specific. Historians can cite a number of examples of militaries that have suffered from, or exploited, abrupt climate change. Admiral Pittenger will review the trends Wood Hole has been tracking in the global ocean circulation system and review reasons why the military, the navy in particular, should be prepared to adapt to the possibility of an abrupt change in climate.