Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he disagrees with the Pentagon’s assessment that climate change is an urgent and growing national security threat.
Cruz, confronted by a climate activist while he was talking to people at a New Hampshire campaign stop, was asked if he agreed with a 2004 Pentagon assessment of climate change during the Bush administration. The climate change doubter said he did not.
“I think we should follow the science and follow the evidence,” Cruz said. “The satellite data shows no reported significant warming for the last 18 years.”
Pentagon officials have called climate change a “threat multiplier,” meaning that it makes other threats to the United States’ national security more serious.
Many scientists believe man’s burning of fossil fuels, subsequently releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causes climate change.
The satellite data Cruz refers to have been called misleading. That period begins in 1998, an abnormally warm year caused by a strong El Nino. Critics say using any other year as a starting point would show a consistent warming trend up to the current day.
Cruz said the Pentagon’s assessment of climate change as a threat was a result of it being overly politicized, even during the President George W. Bush years.
“The Pentagon has been overly politicized and it is a mistake and it’s not doing the job it should protecting this country under this administration,” Cruz said.
“There are a lot of mistakes the Bush administration made that I disagree with,” he added.
A statement from billionaire environmental activisit Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate said Cruz’s stance makes the country less secure and called on more GOP candidates to come up with plans to address climate change.
“As someone seeking to serve as commander in chief, Senator Cruz’s refusal to acknowledge this threat is reckless and irresponsible,” said Michael Breen, president and CEO of the Truman National Security Project. “Nonpartisan military experts from the Pentagon agree: climate change is a grave threat to our national security, and transitioning to clean energy will keep our country safe.”
