Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumSec. Pete The Drunk Orders DOD To Stop Work To Protect Military Bases From Rising Seas, More Intense Storms
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Florida is home to more than 20 military installations, most of them scattered along our coastline. Near Fort Walton Beach theres Eglin Air Force Base, the largest air base in the world. In Tampa, theres MacDill Air Force Base, which is headquarters for the U.S. Central Command and the Special Operations Command. In Jacksonville, the Mayport Naval Station is home to the Fourth Fleet. So, its not like weve got a bunch of rinky-dink spots theyre important. But as a report noted last year, many of the same factors that make Florida an attractive location for military presence and training are the same factors that make it vulnerable to climate change.
Those Florida military installations were doing their best to counteract the degradation of their bases from climate change. Then former Fox News TV host turned newly minted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told them to cut it out. Last week Hegseth, who seems more familiar with bourbon than battalions, ordered the Pentagon to cut about $50 billion from its Biden-era programs. That way the money can instead be funneled to the current administrations top priorities, which include defending our border from frightened people fleeing violence in their own countries. The list of programs on the chopping block, USA Today reported, will include so-called climate change and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy, a Defense Department statement said.
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But unless the military gets back to work on how to cope with higher sea levels, hotter temperatures, and other symptoms of our warming world, they wont be ready to defend themselves, much less the rest of us. Climate change simply isnt a political or cultural issue, retired Adm. Kevin Green of the American Security Project told me. Its a practical issue.
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For example, Glickman said, look at what Hurricane Michael did in 2018 to Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City. Michael was one of a series of hurricanes that sucked up power from our over-heated Gulf of Whatchamacallit I guess it was still Mexico then. Thats how climate change made these storms far more powerful and faster than they might have been. As a result, Michaels 160-mph Category 5 hurricane-force winds slammed into the 29,000-acre installation and left behind little besides piles of rubble. The military has been rebuilding the base to better withstand another such onslaught. But Hegseths goofy order seems to be telling Tyndall to stand down. Just rebuild what was there before and stop worrying about future hurricanes knocking it down again.
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https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/02/27/new-defense-secretary-doesnt-recognize-the-danger-climate-poses-for-floridas-military-bases/

lapfog_1
(30,751 posts)whatever "woke" is...
Science is not "woke"
Climate change is happening whether you kill NOAA and NASA or not.
I see on tiktok and doom scrolling youtube shorts some 'scientist' going on and on about how we shouldn't be concerned about CO2 levels because there have been times in the geological past where the CO2 level was much higher blah blah blah.
He is correct, but in NONE of those eras did mankind either exist, or if there were people around, we certainly did not have 9 billion people or an industrial based society. At best there may have been a million or so people, migrating from place to place or living in the forests. I guess he thinks that 1 in 100,000 of us should survive and 99,999 of us should just die.
GiqueCee
(2,078 posts)... the simple-minded Nazi-loving drunkard spewing whatever idiocy his psychotic boss relayed from Putin, has never bothered to learn the definition of that all terrible word, "WOKE".
Yo. Hegseth, you slobbering souse, let me enlighten you: [To be] aware of, and actively attentive to, important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)
If Hegseth takes issue with this fundamental guideline for behaving as a responsible human being, then he is an abject failure at that most basic task, and by no means capable of assuming the awesome responsibilities that come with the office he is currently defiling.
He, like every other unqualified fraud Trump has appointed to destroy the country, is an irredeemable piece of shit who should and ultimately will die in prison. His crimes will never be forgiven, nor should they be.
AltairIV
(815 posts)At some point this reputedly alcoholic should be charged with gross dereliction of duty and made to pay the price for his weakening and demoralizing of US Combat Forces.
SheltieLover
(65,844 posts)