Climate Change as a Military Threat Multiplier: Guam's Typhoon Mawar highlights Dangers for US Programs in Pacific

 

Typhoon Mawar's image released by National Weather Service of Guam
Image Credit: Google

A Category 4, mighty Typhoon Mawar hit Guam on 24^th of May, 2023, the US territory in the Pacific. The impacts of climate change are seen everywhere but some places are more vulnerable and being considered as the avenues to welcome greater environmental tragedies.

The typhoon Mawar drew attention towards an alarming fact of United States’ strategic plans and policies. It was observed that majority of the America’s most strategic assets are installed and deployed at places which are extremely vulnerable to climate change. These places are threatened by;

• Extreme Weather Events

• Rising Sea Levels

• Overall consequences of climate Change

The Navy moved the ships out to sea before the storm hit the region. This is set as the standard procedure when bases prepare for hurricanes.

The typhoon generated winds of 225 kilometres per hour under which the National Weather Service’s office were “vibrating” with the waves of ocean at least 40 meters. The official said.

The sudden storm surge is expected to cause:

• Significant Flooding.
• Worsening the danger of residents.
• Putting the new demands on the military.

Climate Change and US military installation:

US Department of Defense report on “Climate Impacts” revealed that repeated flooding at Naval Base at Guam had already put US operations and activities for the Navy Expeditionary Forces Command Pacific, submarine squardons, telecommunications, and numerous other tasks relating to operational execution.

Guam as the Operational Base of United States:

Guam has one of the most critical US military installations in the South Pacific.

The island has extended US sovereignty of 125 years over 12,800 km from Washington. The island is 3,380 from North Korean Capital Pyongyang. It is closer to Taiwan, which is the territory US President Biden had pledged to defend against any attack.

Bruce jones, who is Director of the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brooking Institution has remarked that “By virtue of having an American territory in Guam, it gives the United States the ability to operate on home soil, two third across the reaches of the Pacific.

Shortly, it was termed that Guam has for decades helped protect the international order and remained “essential operating base for US efforts to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The Pentagon wrote in its 2022 quadrennial National Defense Strategy. In January, the Marine corps opened its first new base in 70 years on the island, which was part of an agreement to reduce U.S Military presence in Okinawa, Japan.

It was also added further by him that it becomes hard to mobilize a military response if your most important logistic base id under three feet of waters.  

“These kinds of events, if they’re not adequately defended against and recovered from, really throw a spanner in the works in terms of our ability to respond to crisis scenario in Asia.”

 Image Credit: Google

Bases already got damaged due to Climate Disasters:

The massive damage was caused by mammoth storms including:

North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune: it suffered a damage of $3.6 billion due to Hurricane Florence in 2018.

Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base: a Category 5 Hurricane Michael created a damage of $5 billion.

According to Sherri Goodman, who serves in Wilson Centre and Centre for Climate and Security “The challenge with planning on climate is that one cannot predict future nor can take evidence from the past”.

She also termed Climate Change as a military threat “multiplier”. Storms are getting mightier, with higher winds and more rains and floods.

The Pentagon Initiatives:

The US defense Department, commonly known as Pentagon is encouraging planner to contemplate more seriously about climate rist in order to evade damage from its disasters.

The Pentagon budgeted last year about $3 million in Wargame Incentive Fund to release this amount for five war games primarily focusing on Climate Related Crisis in South and Central Asia.

This was also designed to help Indo-Pacific Command that includes Guam, particularly in identifying and adjusting potential weaknesses.

The month in April 2023, the military opened its DOD Climate Assessment Tool which is called as DCAT. The invention took place with allies in Europe and Asia.

The program entails Climate Models to simulate potential changes at 23,00 DOD site globally.

The Navy also conducted training and exercises about the global planning mechanism and guidance on how to build, train and fight under changing circumstances.

These efforts have also been accelerated with fast climate impacts. The United States President signed an executive order that built climate change formally into national security strategy.

According to Jones, they knew about this debate which sooner or later had to start. So, what they have done, we will see in the aftermath.

(Courtesy: Japantimes)