{"id":16441,"date":"2022-04-17T14:23:02","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T14:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/04\/17\/climate-change-damaging-us-military-bases-in-the-arctic-report-warns\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:23:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:23:45","slug":"climate-change-damaging-us-military-bases-in-the-arctic-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/energy-and-environment\/2022\/04\/17\/climate-change-damaging-us-military-bases-in-the-arctic-report-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change damaging US military bases in the Arctic, report warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. military bases in the Arctic and sub-Arctic are failing to prepare their installations for long-term climate change as required, even though soaring temperatures and melting ice already are cracking base runways and roads and worsening flood risks up north, the Pentagon\u2019s watchdog office said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report from the inspector general of the Department of Defense provides a rare bit of public stock-taking of the military\u2019s state of readiness \u2013 or lack of readiness<\/a> \u2013 for the worsening weather of a warming Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. military long has formally recognized climate change as a threat to national security<\/a>. That\u2019s in part because of the impact that intensifying floods, wildfires, extreme heat and other natural disasters are having and will have on U.S. installations and troops around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FILE – In this Oct. 11, 2018, photo, an airplane hanger at Tyndall Air Force Base is damaged from hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla. (David Goldman\/AP, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Increasing hurricanes, flooding, storms and wildfires in recent years have caused billions of dollars in damage to Florida\u2019s Tyndall Air Force Base<\/a>, Nebraska\u2019s Offutt Air Force Base<\/a> and other U.S. military installations, and interrupted training and other operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, laws, presidential orders and Pentagon rules have mandated that the military start planning and work so that its installations, warships, warplanes and troops can carry out their missions despite increasingly challenging conditions as the use of fossil fuels heats up the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While even acknowledging climate change was a career risk for administration officials under former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden directed faster, more sweeping action on climate change by the Department of Defense and other agencies as one of his first acts in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Biden\u2019s emphasis, inspectors visiting the United States\u2019 six northernmost military bases last June and July found none were carrying out the required assessments and planning to prepare their installations and operations against long-term climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, \u201cmost installation leaders at the six installations we visited in the Arctic and sub-Arctic region were unfamiliar with military installation resilience planning requirements, processes, and tools,\u201d the inspector general reports said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior officers told the inspector general\u2019s inspection team<\/a> that their operations lacked the training and funding to start the required work on hardening their bases. Some saw requirements for that kind of long-term planning as assembling a \u201cwish list\u201d that would go up against competing priorities, the officers told the inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. The inspector general report cited Defense officials as saying that the Biden administration has finished or is working on many of the report\u2019s recommendations to better incorporate climate preparations at bases and across military branches, and would increase resources to bases to make that possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the bases is in Greenland and the other five in Alaska: Thule Air Base, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Clear Space Force Station, Eielson Air Force Base, Fort Wainwright and Fort Greely.<\/p>\n\n\n\t