Big Data, Climate Change and Geopolitical Threats

I was intrigued by an opinion piece in the November 5^th edition of the Boston Globe titled: “The Pentagon’s new threat” .  The article is written by Juliette Kayyem, a Globe Staff member, who comes to journalism by way of government service, including, most recently,  Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.

The subtitle is “As weather worsens, environmentalists and the military find common cause”.   And it connects some dots that most of us have probably not given much thought: how do the impacts of climate change draw the military into action by creating unforeseen geopolitical impacts?    

If you followed the news around Hurricane Sandy, you probably saw that the military was hauling in massive generators and transporting power grid repair trucks from California to New Jersey.   You know that the National Guard was called up to help.  And there were lots of specific examples where military personnel were praised for helping to distribute food and help with cleanup: “Marines push into NYC to help with Sandy relief”.