Trump’s Defense Secretary Cites Climate Change as National Security Challenge

James Mattis, then the secretary of defense nominee, arrives at a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on Jan. 12, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

propublica.org - by Andrew Revkin - March 14, 2017

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has asserted that climate change is real, and a threat to American interests abroad and the Pentagon’s assets everywhere, a position that appears at odds with the views of the president who appointed him and many in the administration in which he serves.

In unpublished written testimony provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee after his confirmation hearing in January, Mattis said it was incumbent on the U.S. military to consider how changes like open-water routes in the thawing Arctic and drought in global trouble spots can pose challenges for troops and defense planners. He also stressed this is a real-time issue, not some distant what-if.

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