Ryan Lorig - Coast Guard Calls for White House Attention to Climate Change

It is very troubling to think that climate change was more relevant in the 2000 election cycle than it is right now in 2018. To me, it seems that climate change debate and conversation has been on the decline, especially since President Trump took office. In addition, it feels like the Trump administration has made mention of climate change a taboo, and Martin DeBourmont and Dan DeLuce of ForeignPolicy.com would agree. However, Adm. Paul Zukunft of the U.S. Coast Guard has made headlines by not shying away from the consequences caused by that little two-word phrase. While Zukunft admitted he would not assign causality, he did say that he and the Coast Guard have to deal with the consequences of rising sea levels and the mass rescues that accompany this. With the rise in frequency of tropical storms and hurricanes the Coast Guard is becoming responsible for attending to more and more disasters and with the Coast Guard facing a $1.3 billion budget cut in the Trump administration’s 2018 budget plan, Zukunft knew the Coast Guard would not be able to sustain the needed resources to keep up the effort. As of May 4, 2018, Zukunft’s persistence in Congress has allowed for the Coast Guard to acquire a small budget increase and has requested a $1.9 billion increase for the 2018 fiscal year; a major turn-around from the Coast Guard’s fate less than a year ago. Zukunft also is extremely concerned about what he calls the “fourth coast” in northern Alaska, where indigenous colonies are being swept away by melting ice. It is not a commonly discussed subject, but the fact of the matter is that Americans are losing their homes. This is often overlooked as massive storms like Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Harvey receive the bulk of media and Coast Guard attention. Zukunft explains that these foreign nations require the attention of a power as great as the U.S. Coast Guard in times of crisis, which is a role the United States has been more than willing to play in recent history. But with irregular weather patterns and natural disasters becoming more and more powerful, Zukunft says it is time to start for the White House looking at climate change and the root causes because it is affecting others outside the realm of the continental U.S. He argues it has become an issue of national security and with the Trump administration making national security a top priority, it looks like the President is going to have to answer to his military leaders in the near future.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/04/the-head-of-the-u-s-coast-guard-isnt-afraid-to-talk-about-climate-change/