Issues Paper Aggregation

INFORMATION PAPER

SCJ453

7 NOV 2013

SUBJECT: Caribbean, Central and South American Militaries Environmental Concerns Collaboration

1. Purpose: Provide a baseline of information sharing on relevant regional environmental concerns for the militaries in the Americas (to be completed with input from PN MIL reps – this content is still subject to review)

(information for the items in blue will be inputted, collaborated, and/or provided by Partner Nation (PN) colleagues)

2. Facts: SC J45 (Engineers) will work with and collaborate with numerous partner nations in the Caribbean, Central and South American Militaries on Environmental common concerns.

3. Background (USSOUTHCOM provided): The following information is the baseline US information being shared in order to start the facilitation of the collaboration with our Partner Nations:

“The security threats, concerns, and other challenges in the hemispheric context are of diverse nature and multi-dimensional in scope, and the traditional concepts and approaches must be expanded to encompass new and nontraditional threats, which include political, economic, social, health and environmental aspects.”[1]

Gradual but significant environmental variability constitutes a slow moving emergency that all nations will be compelled to respond to both proactively and reactively – now and into the future. The extent of the impacts will vary depending upon the magnitude and intensity of exposure in addition to the capacity of individual states to mitigate and respond to the impacts of environmental shifts. All nations should expect a continuing and increasing interplay between climate, land, water, food, migration, and urbanization, economic, social, and political factors.

It is ill-advised for national security discussions to be confined to traditional topics and notions of security that have traditionally centered around the axis of state on state conflict. Environmental factors such as; natural resources scarcity (e.g. clean water), environmental degradation (e.g. deforestation, water contamination), chemical spills/hazardous wastes, extreme weather/catastrophic events (e.g. tornadoes and hurricanes) and infectious diseases (i.e. pandemics) must be understood as serious hazards to national and international stability. A new framework of understanding is needed – one that incorporates environmental variability considerations into the regional and nation-state security calculus.

All states of the Americas have experienced locally severe economic damage, plus substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent weather-related extremes, including hurricanes, severe storms, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires. Over the past several decades, economic damage from severe weather has increased dramatically, due largely to increased value of the infrastructure at risk. Annual cost to North America for example has reached tens of billions of dollars in damaged property and economic productivity, as well as lives disrupted and lost. ^[2] These emerging realities will compel governments throughout the Americas to reassess national security priorities and to develop strategies to improve national resiliencies in the face of intensifying environmental variability.

This information paper provides a synopsis on some prominent environmental related impacts on four Western Hemisphere sub-regions – the Caribbean, North America, Central America, and South America. It does not aspire to provide a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts on the entire region, but rather expose impacts of environmental challenges on a set of representational countries. This will inform conversations on how regional militaries can be better prepared to support civilian authorities to mitigate the effects of the “slow moving emergency”, as well as maintaining resiliency and readiness.

Relevant Environmental Issues by Region:

Central America

Caribbean

South America (Equatorial Region)

South America (Southern Cone)

North America

“The melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic plus the frequency and intensity of weather events in this hemisphere, with the corresponding need for military humanitarian assistance missions, calls for a greater attention to the security implications of climate change” ^[3]

Though North American states (i.e. Canada, the United States and Mexico) are generally more capable of mitigating and responding to the potential and actual impacts of changes in the environment, factors such as; topography, national capacities and human geography will make some countries more susceptible to the effects of specific environmental factors than others. The following is a short list of some of the impacts environmental variability is already having on North American states.

• Due to sea level rise, increase in inundations, and storm surge flooding, shoreline erosion. This will affect the people living in the coastal ecosystems like salt marshes.
• Wildfire and insect outbreaks have been increasing and are likely to intensify.
• Increased risk of deaths due to heat waves, water-borne diseases, and degraded water quality, respiratory illness, and vector-borne infectious diseases.
• Due to diminishing snowfields, the availability of water has become a major issue. This will add to the pressure on the availability of groundwater.

Canada, the United States and Mexico, in the recent past, have all experienced economic damage, plus substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from weather-related extremes which include hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires. Further, economic damage from severe weather has increased dramatically, due largely to increased value of the infrastructure at risk. For example, annual costs to North American states have now reached tens of billions of dollars in damaged property and economic productivity, as well as lives disrupted and lost. ^[4] Extreme events, from natural disasters to severe droughts, will become increasingly more common requiring that sustainability and resilience become essential elements of national security strategy of North American states. ^[5]

Extreme weather phenomena like Hurricane Sandy that affect large populations capture international attention due to the rapid onset of the impacts. However, slow moving environmental impacts like polar ice melt can be just as significant. Over time seemingly small changes like global temperature rise can lead to unforeseen geo-political tensions and new vulnerabilities. The polar ice melt for example has resulted in the opening of previously frozen waterways compelling the Canadian government to more actively engage other arctic states like, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden in order to resolve long standing maritime border disputes before they play out on the high seas.

Further south in Mexico, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in Latin America, longer and hotter periods are being experienced leading to more droughts, more intense rains with associated frequent floods and mudslides. According to the World Bank, if climate change is not addressed, the Mexican economy is expected to decline by between 3.5 and 4 percent and suffer significant costs of up to 6.2 percent of GDP. ^[6]

It is becoming increasingly understood by all national security stakeholders that environmental variability related impacts will be destabilizing factors throughout the region and must be addressed in the short term to prevent long term damage to the natural environment and to regional human security.  

Relevant Environmental Issues by Country:

Chile

Colombia

El Salvador

Trinidad & Tobago

USA (I still need to prepare this piece)

Relevant Environmental Issues for the Armed Forces

Chile

Colombia

El Salvador

Trinidad & Tobago

USA

Our leadership in the Department of Defense (DoD) has been considering different aspects of environmental and energy issues and potential effects on US Military facilities, operations, training and missions we undertake.

Over the last five years, US national security and defense guidance have highlighted the potential effects of environmental stressors in the future security environment. Physical pressures such as population, resources, energy, climatic and environmental, could combine with rapid social, cultural, technological and geopolitical change to create greater uncertainty.[7] Subsequent guidance brought attention to the uncertain effects of climate change to the physical environment and the relation to the military missions. While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world. [8]    

Environmental factors have the potential to directly affect our military forces as we are supported by the physical environment in which we operate. Here are some examples of environmental factors that DoD is looking into from a risks/vulnerabilities assessment perspective[9].

Facilities:

• precipitation patterns affect water availability
• storm frequency and flooding affect maintenance costs for roads, utilities and runways
• storm frequency and flooding affect flood control and erosion control measures
• rising temperatures increase energy costs for building and industrial base operations
• coastal flooding and storm surge affect coastal infrastructure and cost of infrastructure reinforcement and other modifications
• coastal flooding affect the demand for surface water resources and associated cost of saltwater intrusion countermeasures
• inland and coastal flooding may affect future land availability and siting of new construction

Operations

• high temperatures may affect airlift capacity and change operational parameters for equipment
• higher temperatures increase operational health risks
• precipitation patterns affect land carrying capacity for vehicle maneuvers
• increased storm frequency and intensity may cause temporary or prolonged disruption of operations
• flooding disrupts access to water crossings and river operations
• flooding increases transportation infrastructure damage
• coastal flooding and storm surge may have impacts on supply chain from potential shipping interruptions

Training:

• high-heat days cause training day limitations
• rising temperatures reduce live-fire training
• changes in precipitation patterns affect availability of training lands
• coastal flooding and storm surge impacts littoral and shore training and ranges

Missions

• environmental degradation may increase the potential for conflict or humanitarian crises
• extreme weather events may lead to increased demands for defense support to civil authorities for humanitarian assistance or disaster response[10]

To maintain military resiliency and readiness, DoD has started to look into mission sustainability. This is in compliance with US Government policy for agencies to become more efficient in the use of energy, greenhouse gas emissions, use of water resources and management of waste.[11]   The DoD’s vision of sustainability is to maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline – either in the mission or in the natural and manufactured systems that support it. Many key issues facing DoD can be addressed through smart investments that improve sustainability as well as promote the mission, such as using energy and water more efficiently, acquiring more energy from renewable sources, designing buildings for high performance, reducing the use of toxic and hazardous chemicals, and optimally managing solid waste[12].

The DoD Services has initiated plans and actions to become more sustainable and resilient. The following information is as reported in the 2012 DoD Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan:

Army: The Army conducted a comprehensive review of environmental programs in FY 2011, including an evaluation of environmental staffing levels across the Army, to ensure that Army organizations are successfully postured to support both the mission and sustainability goals. The Army also merged its energy and sustainability governance structures in October 2011 into a single Senior Energy and Sustainability Council that serves to institutionalize energy and sustainability in doctrine, policy, training, operations and acquisitions across the entire Army enterprise. The Army incorporated sustainability as a “foundation” concept embedded across the Army Campaign Plan strategy map, where one of the objectives is to “achieve energy security and sustainability objectives.” Finally, the Army launched its cross-cutting Net Zero Initiative in April 2011, a holistic approach to energy, water, and waste that directly supports the Army's energy security and sustainability objectives.

Navy: In the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) Energy and Environmental Readiness Division was created in May 2010, combining the existing OPNAV Environmental Readiness Division and the Navy's Task Force Energy. Since then, the division has developed many cross-cutting sustainability initiatives, such as the incorporation of sustainability considerations into ship and weapons system design processes and promoting sustainability through Navy outreach efforts. The Department of the Navy (DON) is in the process of revising its Environmental Readiness Program Manual (OPNAV Instruction 5090.1C) to specifically include information on sustainability and the DoD SSPP. The revision is expected to be published in FY 2013.

Air Force: The Air Force has moved to Sustainable Infrastructure Assessments, which combine energy and water audits, facility condition assessments, space optimization assessments, and High Performance and Sustainable Building assessments into a single activity. In October 2011, the Air Force issued its Environmental Management System Standardization Methodology and Approach policy memo, and in November 2011 updated its Environmental Management Instruction. These actions formally establish environmental management systems (EMSs) across the enterprise as the core framework for continual program and process improvement to achieve and attain sustainability and compliance goals. Later in FY 2012, the Air Force will issue a policy on achieving a “net zero” posture for Air Force installation water, energy and solid waste. The net zero actions will build upon and complement the new EMS policies and ES-2 other existing Air Force strategic sustainability policy and goals, providing a systemic, cross-cutting blueprint that embeds sustainability into Air Force operations.

In a regional context, we recognize that with the promotion of sustainability practices we contribute to international resiliency and the Department’s goal of conflict prevention as outlined in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. [13]

Prepared by:

Myrna I. López / 305 437-3441

Environmental Security Specialist

US Southern Command, J45

Approved by:

Richard Dominguez / 305 437-2281

Deputy Command Engineer, J4