New article on National Security and Climate Change
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Tom Harris
Mar 18, 2026, 8:26:30 AM (14 days ago) Mar 18
to Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC)
Hi
My latest article on climate change and national security is now up on Substack: https://drtomharris.substack.com/p/the-perfect-storm-accelerating-climate
A triple whammy of security threats is lining up to hit us over the next 24 months. Accelerating climate change is likely to be boosted by a strong El Niño event which would be bad enough. The Israeli-US war on Iran just made things a lot worse.
In this article I look at the threat multipliers that climate change brings to national security, not just on the borders but internally. Food insecurity is a main focus, with the potential for civil unrest, political radicalisation, violent crime and equally violent crack downs. The fragility of the global food system is frightening - even in the UK there are just 131 food hubs feeding 70 million people.
Traditional military approaches to national security often worsen the climate situation with emissions higher than air transport or international shipping. Once at war, the emissions and rebuilding carbon depts increase exponentially.
When the expected El Niño bringing new record high temperatures and weather extremes hits an agricultural system reeling from hiked fertiliser costs and poor productivity, food price spikes will be inevitable and hit societies already struggling with a cost of living and energy price crisis. The true security costs of accelerating climate change will become obvious, and our woefully inept actions to date brought into sharp focus.
In this article I look at the threat multipliers that climate change brings to national security, not just on the borders but internally. Food insecurity is a main focus, with the potential for civil unrest, political radicalisation, violent crime and equally violent crack downs. The fragility of the global food system is frightening - even in the UK there are just 131 food hubs feeding 70 million people.
Traditional military approaches to national security often worsen the climate situation with emissions higher than air transport or international shipping. Once at war, the emissions and rebuilding carbon depts increase exponentially.
When the expected El Niño bringing new record high temperatures and weather extremes hits an agricultural system reeling from hiked fertiliser costs and poor productivity, food price spikes will be inevitable and hit societies already struggling with a cost of living and energy price crisis. The true security costs of accelerating climate change will become obvious, and our woefully inept actions to date brought into sharp focus.
I don't mention SRM this time, but the drivers could be useful for making the case for urgent research.
Thanks,
Tom
Anton Alferness
Mar 18, 2026, 11:00:24 AM (14 days ago) Mar 18
to Tom Harris, Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC)
It's a good write up, Tom. I really like the additional YouTube links for people to dig deeper.
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