Transcripts For CSPAN Discussion Focuses On National Security Implications Of Climate Change 20170610

Of good afternoon. Good afternoon, i am to theed to welcome you National Security of implications of Climate Change. Were honored for this briefing to happen and this very timely point in time as well as abilities important issues and i want to express my gratitude and enthusiasm for the partnership that we have in terms of bringing you this briefing with the partnership of the Jackson Foundation and i wanted to be sure to mention we are joined by the foundation today including the president on the other board as well as the foundations executive director so oh thank you very much for your support for your long understanding and visionary approach to carry out that legacy for whom the foundation was set up in the areas which he for so long that he was your in the congress or in the senate where he chaired that Energy Committee but took an important leadership role with International Affairs and education environment and Natural Resources and bill whole role of public service. Also thinks to the center for climatic and security but we will be hearing from a number of people who have a long history and have given much thought to this issue of planet what does this mean . And to start a first went to introduce colonel lots in for the director of Governmental Affairs for the center of climate and security. [applause] the center for climbing and security is delighted to cosponsor this even today. And for the hard work to put this together. Well also like to thank you for joining us today for the National Security implications of Climate Change. As a threat multiplier in a geopolitical landscape and the implications for National Security. This planning consideration with the department of defense as it seeks to maintain readiness to bolster resilience. We think it is informative on this issue. With his distinguished derisory board with the millets hire Foreign Security experts some are here today is part of the panel. So with the climate landscape that facilitates the dialogue like todays panel as well as providing analysis conducting Research Acting as a hub in the security field. It is now my pleasure to introduce your moderator for the event. Member for the Senate Advisory board in addition an independent consultant and then nonresidents Senior Advisor for International Studies the comptroller provides advice to the secretary of defense under budgetary and financial matters also receiving Energy Installation with the assistant secretary of defense and environment as the acting deputy undersecretary environment as well as the Deputy Assistant secretary. Including a professional staff of those International Relations Committee Prior to that employed in the private sector as a defense analyst has multiple degrees from m. I. T. And a masters from George Washington university it is my pleasure to introduce your moderator today. [applause] edits day of literally a little bit warm you would keep the door open for some air flow but we will have some background noise that is a tradeoff. Thanks for being here it will be enlightening discussion and you heard how we reference towel tied me this was thanks to President Trump for making news on this topic but nonetheless as we go forward with the changes in the administration the apparent change of opinions on Climate Change we cannot help but wonder if this is what they will care about whether this is just politics or if there is a core National Security issue to drive interest in the impact of Climate Change. A preliminary answer to that is President Trumps secretary of defense by greed the effects of bakelite changing climate with maritime Impact Security situations. In to conduct operations today and in the future so that is of bottomline there will adapt to changes in the climate led dod knows what they are doing but there was a lot so we have a group of experts with the board of the visors and each a uniquely qualified talk about why dod still cares about Climate Change and the ability to carry out the future i would introduce everybody to call on them for some opening comments and questions and answers they can talk about any facet that they which but one starting question is the essence of politics how would dod approach this issue . And their resistance to focus on a by president john. And i will go through and introduce everybody sold immediately to my left a member of the Advisory Board part of this rule ceo and president and Senior Vice President and general counsel and corporate secretary. And before that said deputy ender secretary for Environmental Security and you have done more for that seminal series of reports with the threat tough Climate Change n chairman of the military Advisory Board. And with that Sea Level Rise issued by climate in security there should be copied on the front table. The general is a fourstar general retired from the air force a command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours in flight aircraft and has seen as commander confronting the impact and then dr. Galloway for the center of Advisory Board and coauthor on Sea Level Rise in professor of engineering on Water Resources and working on urban flooding United States. Joining the faculty in a universe in a row at maryland after returning is a general serving it eight additional years in the government. That the Industrial College in with the military academy at west point professor of geography. The we are admiral phillips and previously she had a 31 year career as an officer and the Expeditionary Strike this is the navy Climate Change taskforce after retirement kerry the Infrastructure Group with a resilience so now i will turn over to sherry. Edits is great to be here with you today to the Rockefeller Foundation for organizing this. You would remember when we could hardly fill a room on the subject line alone standingroomonly. Thirty years ago i was the youngest and only female on the Senate Armed Services committee. And those who just became chairman the Armed Services committee senator warner from virginia there were many days and many times when there is no different of democrats or republicans. So i speak to you about this subject of a bipartisan tradition that is the hallmark of National Security of practice in this country that has been around for decades which i think it is incredibly important with that National Security that is highly polarized but what was more common previously that i could barely spell the word environment. As most of my colleagues year. And at that time we were working on things like Nuclear Weapons in arms control and military readiness. So early in the early post cold war period we begin to understand a the practices for those environmental challenges in the Armed Services committee on poolsides in the Iowa Republicans and democrats as cylinder worse today so this is very important with those underlying factors that science, Research Technology development and innovation is a core component of everything we do as americans and National Security understanding what our threats are because it starts from what are your threats . In the nuclear age we understood the Nuclear Threat with americas gdp to defend antiturbot we considered to be the highest consequence are lowest probability pratt confront threat from the soviet union. Now with Climate Change and equally high a consequence and higher probability threat. But we think of it in terms of risk then we plan and program and budget accordingly to reduce the risk to operate around the world. So there are many threats of terrorism with russia and raising china and among those threats is Climate Change. So that environmental considerations and has always been a bipartisan consideration starting with how to address those in our mental problems during the cold war in the early postwar period there are a number of programs there are generals and admirals here to clean up military bases in comply with environmental law and a few challenges the merge reproach each one in its own right and over the last chip decades it is clear that Climate Change is a significant threat to americas National Security and that is why ted years ago we formed the military Advisory Board that the general has served on that many other leading generals and admirals in the Armed Services have been associated with to understate and what are the National Security implications of Climate Change . As a threat multiplier for instability and we see it and how the geostrategic posture is affected by Climate Change. Take the arctic we have an old mitt a holding ocean created as a result of the rapid melting of sea i. C. E. So now we have to begin to have more capability to operate in the arctic marine need a potential rush for resources as there is more access, opportunities for navigation, of fishing, transport, tourism but also comes with risks. That is one way that Climate Change changes our world as we know it and how we have to position in the armed forces for those capabilities. Second, extreme weather events we see that there are more extreme weather events and that now we have to position our forces to respond to increase typhoons come of weather events particularly in the asia pacific of that region where there are extreme risks combined with urbanization with People Living in very low lying areas like bangladesh to the philippines that the increasing risk with an extreme storm sea level why is and with people who need assistance. I want to leave some time for the subject for my fellow panelist at also affects our military posture at home and as our installations are risk from a combination of sea level rising and coastal erosion and that is not a partisan issue. Wherever the coastal military installations are located if we want to continue to operate we have to address the infrastructure that the administration is talking about. And military bases that need to be hardened against the rising sea so much of this connects the communities wherever there are military bases that brings us into building a more Resilient Community store in north pole where people cannot get to the base because of the flooding that is a risk for the military and also the community. We see these extreme weather events and draw out in particular that underlying drought was a source of conflict and a source of instability in both syria and the arab spring uprising that was well documented by the Research Done by other scholars that we need to better understand how a drought is a source of instability in the future as the world experience is more water scarcity aggravated by Climate Change and mismanagement. These are all nonpartisan and bipartisan issues through the capabilities and know all of you cannot be working on the Armed Services committee for those that spend budgets and jurisdictions and the Research Done including the department of defense and department of energy is allimportant as well as moving the nation forward we have that opportunity now while caring for those to make that transition but as the maker country and world more secure, it will be increasingly important we have the ability to do that we see that already with the department of defense looking towards the future everything from solar and wind so they can be more resilient and operate more securely. General prexy so having said all that me answer the question. Number one we would be enjoying a renaissance in that causes us problems and a number to will probably have more money to work on these issues but the real question is even though we live in these communities we after a uniform with our profession, we not necessarily known as a tree hugger or the environmentalist but the reason we care is three things. The first thing is Mission Effectiveness to know and do what we have to do when she calls upon us to do so we have to be able to train in test and mobilize and deploy and operate and reach back of those things in the face of what could happen. This somebody cuts a wire or throws a satchel over a fence horsey levels rise we need to be able to do that. Is Mission Effectiveness. Second is battle space awareness. Somehow i think this confuse this people were not focused on Renewable Energy your Climate Change. We dont let dad each threat individuaindividua lly as a program but a threat that would be impact to where we train just like with combat. Will the convoys be exposed . Or will we have problem with the disease with intellectual and intelligence focus and then we have a turn that is called survive to operate because in our line of work when we get we will still have to operate there is the term that we cleaned during war for Chemical Warfare twosuiter up hope you did not pass out from heat we would continue to fly airplanes if you go back to the first goal for you can see the pictures of people Walking Around in these suits. So those things that will prevent us the floods will cover the runways will the wildfire knockout the grid and we can get the electricity . Mission effectiveness sore about space awareness. So what are the effects . The fire season has gotten longer, you dont want to put people on the fire line that is dangerous business of they are trained to be on the fire line than they are not trained whenever they came in for. If we do more swift water rescue that is thy hand coordination and you have to know you are doing or you will be swept away. And looking at the changes in climate looking at vectors of disease we will have to have more of those airplanes those other space stowe and colorado with day aring gauged in that mission . What about a Hurricane Hunters . If we dont think we will get that many more people than we have to make some hard choices. So when youre doing these you can be so involved the National Guard is primary than someone decides to do something in north korea or afghanistan that is dark and dusty and dangerous places around the world your forces split and when we talk about a humanitarian crisis we talk about over there but we are approaching it will be sheer. Go lookout west in the ocean and how low it is go to diego garcia and Langley Air Force base that is where our raptors live it is a jewel in our crown and it doesnt have to grow 3 feet maybe four or 5 inches or four or 5 miles across the wind comes and we have a lot of water. I was there in 84 commanding a fire squad. We had four or five hurricanes come through the talks of damage and some water but weve made some changes looking at combat command we had just one noreaster with three or 4 feet of water on the road outside of my quarters and people were scrambling because just in that amount of time so that it is we start to look at how bad could it be . So what could happen . How bad could that be . In some cases we will grit our teeth your trained to do that. But if it is so bad we cannot stand it so what technologically do we have to know . So it is a matter of how bad can it be . Is that affordable or accessible for us to change it . What it really doesnt get that bad . How much money is pumped into what we are planning on doing finding a we really didnt need to do that . Now weve still done something now helps of battle space awareness and helps us survive to operate that is the reason why the military cares because it is our job to be ready and mobilize and deploy when you call us on the phone you expect someone to pick up the other end some people say give me an example of where a disaster has happened. Not really. Not yet. That is the whole point i want to wait when you call to stay on top of our house we wanted chopper to come rescue us i would say i would like to do that but they are up to this kid in water themselves. So the other thing to close is that is here in United States that is a catalyst some places wont have as much water or grow as much food with the communitarian crisis or a huge migration and as some point we would get the call to go help or too much water i have been involved from zimbabwe where they have flooded the whole country is that is more likely than we will have to respond so not only are we getting more work for the United States and outside the United States now is a matter of competing priorities. So that is the reason were focused on it and has been for a long time. Go to the web site 2003 with the very First Official look at what Climate Change will do to west as 1984 commanding year for space we were doing search and rescue exercises and back then we were talking about when the lanes start to open up we will have more shipping and Better Communications and better cooperation the, etc. Me have seen this coming but it is painfully slow. It is interesting you ask the question what it would be like if politics were not here . The military would be doing the exact same thing. Go back to the field manuals in 1980 the terrain is most difficult aspect of combat whether a the runway to be opened or the open seas but if they are in changing and they are the military is concerned about that. It has an interest in dealing with this to forecast what could have been. Have been during World War Two they had to cross the rhine river we could secure the bridge that became a famous movie but all that time getting ready for the negative into germany the military forces with the climatologist and intelligence people determined what does germans and the nature could do to make it fled it was critical to what general eisenhower was planning to understand what would happen on the ground. We have seen that in sell many ways overseas with the place we have been to can be carried out that military operation so all Services Care about being ready so you expect us to be able to go. I am an engineer i have worked on strategy as a threat multiplier where people rushed to the city is in under Climate Change we could have significant problems. The sea level is rising in singapore there dealing with it because they recognize they have to plan 50 years out of other countries cannot do that and it will be a significant challenge but are we ready . Web would talk about quickly is the entire issue of training the base is are not able to provide the platform we have already seen the challenges going to the red caucasian woodpecker that stopped training in many areas or parts of the National Training center or for what is on the endangered species list as the temperature rises that will cause major movements were we have to deal with these issues. Our country is responsive to that. What is the temperature going to do to the troops to train . All of those things have to be taken into account moving forward the other issues are how we test the equipment . We have new methods of acquisition of the combat vehicles the ships and planes have to be prepared to operate. My experience was if you put them down consistently and you create severe problems. If temperatures are very different than we planned they cannot go to certain elevations so we have to you think about what will we require . Guest test to be ready to go . You cannot operate with the last wars equipment it is important of military consider what is on the horizon. Looking at the pacific operating on islands in the pacific this Sea Level Rises can we still land where we used to be able to land . And can our vessels be sure the Landing Craft can move this applies . You would expect them to do that. It is only when there is interference that people say dont do it or dont think the swayback the military will push back to say we have to be ready for the eventuality is. We dont just live on military installations we get supplies from all over the world in 2011 the area north of bangkok a great Industrial Power manufacturing parts and systems being used we discovered later in the United States that is under water for justintime manufacturing we have to be aware of that. Last year there was flooding in north and South Carolina interstate 95 for a shutdown for about one week you cannot move large amounts of material when the roads are under water. Military installations have ties to the neighboring communities are they all working together for when the time comes to have a major event . You have seen 1,000 year floods and the disastrous storms that is what the military is trying to do to look ahead and can we be ready for the future . And do that in coordination with our neighbors . We found there interesting challenges because now we have military personnel off post and those that man the installation that need to get to the post we need them to support what were doing as to deal with Climate Change. Rigo for Natural Systems and new ways to do it the military is at the forefront to deal with these challenges coming back that we will not be any different because the military is focused on having the military ready to move to think through the hazards and the risks and the strategies we will use. Midafternoon. Thanks for your kind introduction in and to all of you tolerating such a tight room. Hydro ships 31 years and like my peers here today and operator. I am trained to view a mixed commission is strategic tactical terms to do is required to prepare and execute the nizolek the mission i do with no political focus i do a job and i know how to do that. Taking climb impact seriously that is risks and instability. This is a real threat is not imaginary political agenda we have an inherent responsibility to execute during mission that drives serious consideration for Climate Change as we see more impact in our daily lives and as we operate overseas so that requires the whole government approach with that opportunity to execute as implied without a constant shifting of perspective or strategies or impediments to execute the mission we know what we need to do so allow us to plan and evaluate and operate with the National Security mission to fulfill the unchallenged the you heard from coastal military installations but no more so than right live to be on the front lines of Climate Impact were experiencing Sea Level Rises twice the rate of other occasions second only to new orleans because we dealing with roads in the Hampton Roads area it is a regional and National Military raid readiness there over 29 separate federal entities within the region and of the is the largest percentage our department of defense and twothirds of those are Navy Including National Assets arguably the Largest Naval station in the world and the only Aircraft Carrier and only one into submarine construction facilities major Army Logistics bases and keep Training Facilities largest nato command outside of europe jaffa certain labs and mainly in the fourth largest commercial port on the east coast to help to support the economy of the country and virginia. Fortyfive of Regional Economic Development Based on federal facilities as well as Critical Infrastructure so whole community is impacted by what happens here in its ability to support the military those who live in the 17 cities and municipalities travel to another city to work so and it cannot be limited just to any city it has to be the whole community. I often encounter people who share their experiences one family and that at a Christmas Party she cannot wait to spend the next 30 minutes telling me about her life dealing with water she had to learn how to drive a fourwheeldrive vehicle and think about the high tides to get in and out different ways to get places just to go to the store were executed her daily life. People i know in Virginia Beach have to decide what vehicle to take to work and when to leave based on the tide cycle there should be limited only to raise significant storm but it should be the only but now with this normal. I know those who live in a prominent local neighborhood who openly discuss their concern they have to abandon their home because of cost of letting that makes it difficult to get in and out even though it does not directly impact their house. People change their lives every day just to execute whatever they need to do and many are involved in supporting the military and families of Service Members were stationed in the region. See you can see this is a crucible for a large number of facilities now we hear constantly dealing with water on a routine basis and we will have to deal with them into the future but in that context the department of defense believes that has an inherent responsibility to take this very seriously to implement and interact and share data so we can plan regionally and execute National Security strategy. will sum up to the answer the question that i posed what amounted this is politics and what would happen regardless . It sounds like it would be regardless of politics things will happen in there are two main categories one is on mission and the other is on infrastructure. First with Mission Going back to the quotation where he says say the that impacts the security situation may be a couple of comments of what is going on today that it is exacerbated by clement . Said those in the field have to Pay Attention with regard to changing climate or sea levels that affects preparations for their job to trade in the field today. There is a lot of discussion whether the drought has exacerbated the situation or the arctic how could that change the future profile . The easy one is the arctic we know the problems as it opens up there are more people so now theres more opportunity for more mischief for accidents but going north we dont have a good picture so having bad intelligence up theres a you know, what is going on and so the coast guard can see. Sea you have to make sure you have those capabilities when something happens they are notified so that is the approach what do we have to do when you can no longer walk across the you can sail across . If people dont have enough water and they will not find it either you go in with palates of plastic bottles for canteens or that apparatus to use the destalinization or other systems that we have to reclaim water . So from the air force standpoint are the base is going to be tenable . Well be a big piece of concrete in some cases they may be under water or maybe we cannot operate. Not from the air force standpoint. Just to add of permafrost is shrinking very rapidly so we have to relocate are ticked and alaskan villages because of a combination of sinking from frost and coastal erosion and rising seas and in addition there is new opportunities for Energy Exploration which will bring risk and reward. Area for a variety of reasons last year there was a 4,000 passenger cruise ship in the u. S. And american arctic is planned to travel again this summer. Its going to be a matter of time before there is an incident that requires a significant search and rescue. They are already preparing for such eventualities and as a result looking for additional types of communication maritime domain awareness capabilities and so this region of the world is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on the planet now and is putting others in the world to see other new opportunities to obtain other opportunities that will be the there. Its forcing us to shift how we look at the priorities for that region compared to other places throughout the world. Dod needs to plan in advance for the missions they will have to fulfill and there will be new missions to think about. In a given location of the worlds changing and is going to affect those things we cant move at least not easily. You just finished a report. Can you summarize the findings of the report briefly . The challenge we identified as we are seeing coastal erosion, the sea level ris seald the challenge of increased numbers of large storms. The defense structure is looking at ways to put concrete help. The other challenge is to recognize it will be phased over time to deal with this and consider what the challenges are and develop a plan to get to this step is. We use the bases overseas where we rely on somebody else to get the support. They have the same sort of problems on the coastal areas especially to create even more problems. So the challenge becomes one of developing a plan to let us get from here to carry out the missions assigned in the celtic planning and resource is eventually to do that. The intergovernmental relationships, health o to the local municipalities deal with the bases and can you characterize these requirements. Its like frontline of this issue but theres other places where there are municipalities on other issues. It will plan to adapt the next period of time to make those plans. How does that compare with what the cities are looking at and thinking if it is the same standard where they will find the infrastructure roads and highways and utilities will need to be upgraded based on one set of circumstances but it is using a lower sealevel rise then they wont be prepared. We found that there were not a lot of structured ways in which that takes place. There appear to be a lot of Detailed Planning infrastructure updates and meetings, memorandums of understanding that there will be sharing with information on a routine uses that was puzzling for the storm water engineers. They had actually never met and during the course of the working group they couldnt figure out how to get it. Theres a greater interest in the policies, plans, procedures. The other challenge is budgets. The Budget System doesnt align with the others for making all those together to execute things thats difficult and i think the last thing i would say when we look at florida planning in this country, Flood Insurance maps the system and we look at what is Critical Infrastructure. If its critical or noncritical and what you expect to happen right now today. We have to change how we think about that because we are planning 50 years into the future. It will have the lifespan and build 3 feet above what we have today because in 50 years there wilitwill be a different baselie elevation is about as a paradigm shift in the way we think and plan. And by the way it goes out. This is an everybody is you how to prepare for that and we will challenge. They all had to collaborate. Its fascinating and it will be a great challenge for the future. Before we go to questions from the audience i could somebody that handed the a piece of pape paper since they had the forethought to do that they can go first. The president s executive orders in the military say for example i called the adaptation. Does anybody have any words on that . They say you cant spend money on that. The military has been effective saying we are not spending this on Climate Change or Renewable Energy but missing effectiveness. Its hard for someone to come into a commander and say you cant spend this money to make the bass mor race more resiliend this money on the port to make it more effective and so i thi think. People can say generally it is an unfunded mandate. People come in and say you have to do this. So we have to take very precious money from Something Else in order to do the mandate. We are too far down the road and we understand this in a very granular level and can make the case that you dont do this it will be the effect and we wont be able to apply. If you look at the blockhouses out on the beach you can see how undercut the er by coastal flooding from storms that before but never even reach halfway up the beach and you understand we have to spend money or lose hundreds of millions. My experience is that makes sense, but its not democrat, republican, liberal or conservative. Its climate, its Mother Nature who doesnt belong to a party she just travels along. This is tied to the standard that was promulgated by the last administration and its clear everything we talked about takes that into account just as you said if you are rebuilding and its focused on rebuilding putting its not where you were but where you may be in the future. With the height of the levee focused on the location of the 2015 acacia makes a lot of sense why put yourself in a hole the day after you finish the project and so i believe that the people thinking about the Infrastructure Program we will see in the next week or two recognize if you are going to build, build for the future. My hope is we will continue on the path of the federal congress. I have some folks that work in the Insurance Industry and youre not going to be able to get any kind of insurance because like the folks in miami, miami has looked at this and said holy smokes, the road is fairly close just behind the beach and they started raising the road and have a suitable system to allow the water and onto washed up from xbox to walk up and it will come out. But when it gets so high it doesnt go either way in the stock is so people that have all these nice houses on the other side of the road cant get insurance because the first floor is now classified as a basement so theres unintended consequences but its commercially driven if youre not going to be able to get injured and then you will think about going to your Insurance Company saying how could i get injured and even if im not mandated federally can i do something to protect myself from a catastrophic loss so i think some of these things will weigh in on this and more or less force us to do the right thing without governmental rules and regulations. We have a wandering microphone goofing around and if you could wait to ask your questions. The Risk Mitigation as a whole in terms of mitigating the impact is that a language aspect to not create barriers to what you can do internally or is it the impact on the environment . The it was about money and not emissions are. That is and why we are doing what we were doing. Does anybody have any thoughts they want to add. You may have heard that old song that goes around and says the department of defense is the largest single user of energy in the United States. The percentage of that is 1. 7. We run on the equivalent of about 350,000 barrels i think it is a day versus the 20 Million Barrels a day. If the dod goes out of business tomorrow we dont move the needle on mitigation. We will try to be good stewards and apply the airplanes and sailed ships. We are going to do all those things because it makes sense. We can show why its important that we dont have the market throw or the volume to make it happen so from the mitigation standpoint, we will do what we can do and we will do the right thing but that isnt going to fix it because you will still have 98 of the budget that needs to be picked to. When the military vote over as its Carbon Footprint they have technologies and innovation throughout the years. In the transition from coal to oil, nuclear, the United States military was at the forefront of leading those massive transitions of energy. The u. S. Is among those to diversify its energy mix. Of course it will continue in the foreseeable future. Everybody else built their budget to do whatever they needed and then if the price of fuel has gone up it was an extra cost so there was a direct incentive from the military Readiness Training and other Operations Equipment and at the same time being more innovative and efficient there is the energy brazilians. Thats why the secretary of defense was commanding the forces in iraq said only shots from the fuel and that doesnt mean from fossil energy but at least from the long supply lines that are putting the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines at risk and in those ten years since they made those comments the military has gotten very busy and diversifying being able to reduce the burden on the forces on the supply lines. The militaries of the example of partners overseas. Words do matter in my personal opinion is the claimant recognize when you go overseas base a door with it. They take the position dealing with Climate Change across the board so i dont think we ought to forget that even though we are going to pursue i would argue the military will pursue active actions but at the same time will be listening to the allies. Thank you for speaking with us. I have a question about the relationship between congress and the dod. Are there particular Things Congress can do outside of the allocation of funding to help mitigate some of the risks youve spoken about today . Thats one of the highlights we prefer to talk in al an office l and open testimony does not enthrall me and i dont think most people are involved with open testimony because all of you understand it is high theater sometimes. But we need to get down to talk about why we are doing what youre doing and why we need these believe it is the right thing to do and we have it in front of us so now we are on the news. Ask them why they do this. I think everyone would be happy to do that. If you need to build them hire, buthat is a discussion that we should be able to have. Its one of those things the unthinkable happened even if you dont think about it, so we need to think about and talk about it and i think someone should be able to say i dont want you talking about that. Tie had a plan that we are mitigating the resiliency. Right now there is some doubt. We have the opportunity to have the conversation. The implication to throw a clarifying note out there. There are plans to execute that has nothing to do with the political discussion. It would be interesting to ask the members. What are the adaptations that they have to take together ive met people that spend a lot of time with their members and others as you said where we dont have the two working together and the congress can be a great spur to have that joint effort to look at the future. I think we have time. I see a hand up in the back. Youve talked a lot about the effect we are seeing with the link between Climate Change and rising sea levels. I wonder what are we seeing away from those coastal areas . Everybody is close to a river as we learned we are seeing challenges across the nation with the effect of larger storms and more intense storms. All you have to do is go to houston or baton rouge or other cities the same thing can happen to the military installations so it had not been a problem and its now become a big problem. We are working on the challenge of urban flooding in the United States which is hardly ever seen because it doesnt last. But the same thing if you have older barracks and military installations and get these intense rain falls or the temperature rise. Its not just coastal. It can be a problem when you get the temperature too high. Bisbee air force base into the air National Guard both of those were focused on drought. Theres a whole different set of circumstanccircumstance and thel rise and flooding so three different regions and the challenges, all of them claim is driven. That reminds me the aquifer was drying up and then we go through this dance of the mountain home. At ththe services were looking t surveying the basis. You have saltwate salt water inn and that is a whole another set of problems for the highlands how do we create that and then we look at the National Standpoint and in some areas we have way too much water and other areas we havent got enough but that is the water we were planning on so weve got to start looking at those kind of things and again, it goes back to how bad can it be we need to look ahead. I think, as sherry has said, we have spent a lot of brainpower looking at this. I think we are a pretty good example of how to look at this and think about how to move ahead. Saying when we were theing on Renewable Energy, dig only for fossil fuel, that doesnt solve our problem. If you have to get five miles to fill your tank, you start to get five miles deep. A commander wants to fight letter home saying i was so enthralled with Renewable Energy that i got your mom got your they aren there and dead. We dont want that. By the same token, i dont want to write that letter and say i didnt focus enough on people availability and i got your son or daughter into the valley of death and i got them killed. This is not academic, these are real people, shedding real blood in faraway places and we have to make sure we have the capability to keep them as wellequipped, well led and well protected as we possibly can. We had three minutes left. I see a hand picking up. If it is a short question, you can do this. To feel like that agenda or budget may hamper you in certain ways . Clarify that nobody here is in the department of defense right now and it might be a challenge to answer that question. If anybody wants to take a wet data, they can. It is a good question. The challenge right now is that there is a lot of uncertainty about the extent of which, the extent of planning preparation for resilience for it varies from training to operation to installations, it can continue to go forward. That is because of the actions of recent weeks. Think secretary matuss statements on the record are very important. He needs to follow through throughout in these be communicated throughout it needs to be communicated throughout. It was reflected in the statements by the new director of National Intelligence when he was up here on the hill, testifying not long ago about recognizing Climate Change as a threat. It needs to continue to be heard at all levels of command and all parts of the services. Throughout the u. S. Government so that the agencies that have been doing the where and the universities and others that have been supporting network can continue to plan and a responsible way and protect the american people. Build a new i will building and i decided not to build it in a floodplain, is that Climate Change spending or was i going to do that anyway smart it is how i am spending my money rather than what money i am spending. They need to take risks into account. That is the crucial point. Dont make me do something stupid on either side of the equation. Waste a lot of money. If i can avoid a risk spending my money smarter, if i need to replace a. Longer, whyasts would i be able to do that . That is more what it is all about. We are at the end of our time. Awill give our panelists lastminute opportunity to give a 32nd closure and we will end. Everybody wants to be finished up. Carol, for you going to give closing comments . I have it on my agenda. Thank you very much. Please feel free to follow up at the center of the esi in terms of any other questions and issues. These issues are profoundly important and we need to be about problemsolving. Together, in the suit thank you again for coming. Thank you you wonderful panel, terrific. On newsmakers this weekend, our guest is a ohio congressman steve stiles. 2018 midtermt the elections and the special elections happening this spring and summer. Including one in georgia later this month. Watch the interview tomorrow on cspan. Senate minority leader Charles Schumer addressed the American Jewish community earlier this week in washington dc