Nineteen years ago, on this day, April 15th,
CNA’s Military Advisory Board finds that climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability and poses a serious threat to America’s national security.
https://www.cna.org/analyses/2007/national-security-and-the-threat-of-climate-change
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 384ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that the idea that climate change would have profound geopolitical implications goes back to the late 50s. Then in 1980 you have William Barbat’s essay in “resource wars” in the CO2 newsletter.
The specific context was that the climate issue had broken through again because of Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, which had been published in February. The negotiations that were hotting up for a UNFCCC COP in Bali, at which “a roadmap to Copenhagen” (where everything would be sorted out) was to be agreed. These are the lies we tell ourselves.
What I think we can learn from this is that identifying a threat is one thing, doing anything about it is something else entirely.
What happened next: We went from Copenhagen to Paris to wherever the next “last chance to save the world” is supposed to be but I think actually, everyone’s kind of realised that the game is up. The cops will keep happening, sort of, but no one’s heart is in it.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 15, 1965 – Murray Bookchin warns about carbon dioxide build-up
April 15, 1974 – war criminal Henry Kissinger gives climate danger speech