The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, says the climate crisis will drive instability in some global regions. The Defense Department has several climate initiatives underway.
- John Conger, former principal deputy under secretary of defense (comptroller) and director of the Center for Climate and Security, said one should think of climate change as a factor that interacts with all other threats rather than a separate problem.
- Conger said climate change is changing the chess board between the United States and its opponents and that Russia has put a lot of thought into the changing environment.
- Conger said the military should assume weather-related damage will definitely occur in the future and plan accordingly.