In the Wake of ISIS Gains in Iraq and Syria, POTUS Says Climate Change Poses 'Immediate Risk to Our National Security"

The threat of terrorism in the homeland ranks pretty low in this president’s list of issues to be concerned about. In case you haven’t noticed.

“Climate change” is apparently the national security threat that keeps Obama up at night. And those who refuse to act on this crucial national security issue are guilty of “a dereliction of duty” and should be denounced for undermining American readiness.

Reporting for The Guardian, Lauren Bambino spiced up her coverage of the president’s speech at the US Coast Guard graduation ceremony by using the words “deny” and “deniers” to describe anthropogenic climate change critics and skeptics. But it should be noted that those are her words — not the president’s.

American politicians who deny that rising seas, thawing permafrost and longer wildfires are the crippling effects of global warming pose a serious threat to US national security, Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

The US president issued a forceful call to action to combat climate change, framing global warming as a national security priority, at the commencement ceremony – or graduation – of the United States coast guard academy in New London, Connecticut.

In his speech, Obama detailed the ways the US military would be forced to respond to climate change in the future. He called refusing to act “a dereliction of duty” and said it undermined American readiness.

“This is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world,” Obama said. “Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and make no mistake: it will impact how our military defends our country.

“We need to act, and we need to act now,” he said.

Would that he had that much resolve in the fight against the Islamic State.

“Politicians who say they care about military readiness ought to care about this as well,” Obama said of the climate deniers.

Several times Obama lambasted those who refused to endorse the science of climate change.

Watch the video below to the end for the one bright spot. As is usually the case when he speaks in front of a military audience, the president received only a light smattering of applause when he concluded.