Report: Implications of Climate Change for National Security

Long-term changes in the climate will produce increasingly more extreme weather events and put greater stress on critical Earth systems such as oceans, freshwater, and biodiversity. These in turn will almost certainly have significant effects, both direct and indirect, across social, economic, political, and security realms during the next 20 years. These effects will be all the more pronounced as people continue to concentrate in climate-vulnerable locations, such as coastal areas, water-stressed regions, and ever-growing cities.