Brigadier General Steve Cheney, USMC (Ret.) and ASP Policy Analyst Nick Cunningham coauthored an OpEd that ran in Stars and Stripes today. The article, “Strategic Bases Vulnerable to Climate Change,” describes that rising threat from climate change to dozens of military installations both at home and abroad. Rising sea levels, coastal erosion and severe storms put U.S. military bases at risk, a threat that will only increase over time. From the article:

According to the Department of Defense 2012 Base Structure Report, the U.S. military manages property in all 50 states, seven U.S. territories and 40 foreign countries, comprising almost 300,000 individual buildings around the globe. These buildings are valued at $590 billion. The Army alone has more than 14 million acres of property, 2,000 installations and 12,000 historical structures.

Climate change puts these installations at risk. For example, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew nearly wiped out Homestead Air Force Base, Fla., and Hurricane Katrina destroyed 95 percent of Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. These bases were rebuilt, but it took millions of dollars to do so.

To read the full article, click here.

The OpEd was adapted from ASP’s Policy Brief on the topic, which you can find here.

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