The National Security Implications of Climate Change: Environmentalist Bill McKibben

Intelligence Matters

CBS News

(154991), News, Cbs, Politics, Government

4.6 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews author and environmentalist Bill McKibben about the national security implications of climate change, including how current trends, if unchecked, could lead to future catastrophes. McKibben explains why taking certain actions immediately and for the next ten years is crucial in order to forestall mass migrations, crop shortages and deadly droughts. He shares his views on the troubling parallels between climate change and certain accelerating technologies like genetic modification.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Intelligence Matters ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:05.6	Download the app today.
0:09.0	This is Intelligence Matters, with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morel.
0:14.1	Brought to you by Lockheed Martin.
0:16.3	Your mission is ours.
0:19.4	When did we realize that we had a problem with greenhouse gases and then where are we
0:26.3	today?
0:27.4	In the 1980s, scientists really began to be able to tackle this problem.
0:33.3	What we now know is that the fossil fuel industry had known about this in that same time period
0:39.1	in the 1980s.
0:40.4	What they didn't do was tell the rest of us.
0:42.9	They engaged in a massive project of disinformation across the industry.
0:48.6	And so we've wasted 30 years in this completely pointless debate about whether or not climate
0:55.0	change was, quote, real unquote, but debate that both sides knew the answer to it at the
0:59.8	beginning.
1:00.8	It's just one of them was willing to lie.
1:06.0	We've seen big shifts in how water moves around the planet so that because warmer holds
1:12.9	more water vapor than cold.
1:15.0	And as a result, we see big increases in drought in dry areas and with it, these massive
1:22.4	and wicked wildfires.
1:24.6	And then we see big increases in precipitation, downpour, flood in wet areas.
1:30.4	And all those things are combining already to produce big human costs, including the
	...

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