Sec. Pete The Drunk Orders DOD To Stop Work To Protect Military Bases From Rising Seas, More Intense Storms

[hatrack]

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Florida is home to more than 20 military installations, most of them scattered along our coastline. Near Fort Walton Beach there’s Eglin Air Force Base, the largest air base in the world. In Tampa, there’s MacDill Air Force Base, which is headquarters for the U.S. Central Command and the Special Operations Command. In Jacksonville, the Mayport Naval Station is home to the Fourth Fleet. So, it’s not like we’ve got a bunch of rinky-dink spots — they’re important. But as a report noted last year, “many of the same factors that make Florida an attractive location for military presence and training are the same factors that make it vulnerable to climate change.”

Those Florida military installations were doing their best to counteract the degradation of their bases from climate change. Then former Fox News TV host turned newly minted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told them to cut it out. Last week Hegseth, who seems more familiar with bourbon than battalions, ordered the Pentagon to cut about $50 billion from its Biden-era programs. That way the money can instead be funneled to the current administration’s top priorities, which include defending our border from frightened people fleeing violence in their own countries. The list of programs on the chopping block, USA Today reported, will include “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy,” a Defense Department statement said.

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But unless the military gets back to work on how to cope with higher sea levels, hotter temperatures, and other symptoms of our warming world, they won’t be ready to defend themselves, much less the rest of us. Climate change “simply isn’t a political or cultural issue,” retired Adm. Kevin Green of the American Security Project told me. “It’s a practical issue.”

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For example, Glickman said, look at what Hurricane Michael did in 2018 to Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City. Michael was one of a series of hurricanes that sucked up power from our over-heated Gulf of Whatchamacallit — I guess it was still “Mexico” then. That’s how climate change made these storms far more powerful and faster than they might have been. As a result, Michael’s 160-mph Category 5 hurricane-force winds slammed into the 29,000-acre installation and left behind little besides piles of rubble. The military has been rebuilding the base to better withstand another such onslaught. But Hegseth’s goofy order seems to be telling Tyndall to stand down. Just rebuild what was there before and stop worrying about future hurricanes knocking it down again.

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https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/02/27/new-defense-secretary-doesnt-recognize-the-danger-climate-poses-for-floridas-military-bases/