Why the Global Warming Debate Is Important

The reason why the debate over global warming is important is because it all boils down to the power of the state:

British armies must ready for global warming

LONDON (Reuters) - Global warming is such a threat to security that military planners must build it into their calculations, the head of the armed forces said on Monday.

Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff, said risks that climate change could cause weakened states to disintegrate and produce major humanitarian disasters or exploitation by armed groups had to become a feature of military planning.

But he said first analyses showed planners would not have to switch their geographical focus, because the areas most vulnerable to climate change are those where security risks are already high.

"Just glance at a map of the areas most likely to be affected and you are struck at once by the fact that they are exactly those parts of the world where we see fragility, instability and weak governance today.

"It seems to me rather like pouring petrol onto a burning fire," Stirrup told the Chatham House think-tank in London. ...

... He said the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington showed the devastation that attacks fuelled by political, economic and social deprivation could achieve.

"Now add in the effects of climate change. Poverty and despair multiply, resentment surges and people look for someone to blame," he said.

(Wait a minute. I thought they attacked us because of our freedom. Oh, well.)

That's it in a nutshell. If war really is the health of the state, then what could be healthier than a global catastrophe?