Documentary Reveals How Climate Change Upsets National Security

“Extreme Realities” debuts nationally Dec. 15 on PBS.

December 8, 2014

Frank Senso and panelists sit at a long table discussing climate change

SMPA Director Frank Sesno discussed the "new normal" of national security in the wake of climate change with panelists Sherri Goodman, Marilyn Weiner, Ghassem Asrar and Hal Weiner.

By Brittney Dunkins

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has gained favor with farmers by protecting their poppy fields—a crop the government banned because it is used to produce opium and heroin. Since it is the only crop that grows on land parched by drought, farming communities welcome the Taliban’s security and ignore the terrorist organization’s violent agenda.

In the lowlands of Bangladesh, monsoons continue to grow in intensity and are projected to dump rains that will cover 60 percent of fertile farmland, displacing 30 million people. In response, India has erected a barbed wire fence on the India-Bangladeshi border to keep out potential refugees. The barrier is known as the “wall of death.”

Though seemingly unrelated, these events reveal the “new normal” of U.S. national security interests in the wake of climate change. The examples and others are chronicled in “Extreme Realities: Severe Weather, Climate Change, and Our National Security,” a new Screenscope documentary that was previewed Thursday evening at the George Washington University’s Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre.

The film will debut nationally Dec. 15 on PBS.

Climate Change & National Security: A Look at the Pentagon's New Roadmap and Beyond from GW's Elliott School on Vimeo.


“The defense community has examined scenarios of how climate change can impact national security for several years now,” said Marcus D. King, director of the Elliott School of International Affairs M.A. in International Affairs program. “What has changed is that the CCAR [Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap] has recognized climate change as an immediate threat—not just to military operations but to stability in nations of concern to the U.S.”

The film, narrated by actor Matt Damon, is the final episode of “Journey to Planet Earth,” a 13-part series developed by Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Marilyn and Hal Weiner.

The Weiners joined Sherri Goodman— former U.S. undersecretary of defense and current senior vice president and general counsel of military advisory group CNA—and Ghassem Asrar — former director of the World Climate Research Program and current director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute—for a panel discussion on the film moderated by GW School of Media and Public Affairs Director Frank Sesno.

Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Marilyn and Hal Weiner said the documentary is a "bipartisan view" of the new threats to United States national security concerns due to climate change. 


“There are a million stories that we could have put in the documentary,” Ms. Weiner said. “All you have to do is pick up a newspaper, and every day there is another story of how climate change is affecting us….  At this point the debate on whether climate change is real is over.”

Mr. Weiner added that the goal of the film is to “reach across the aisle” and create a bipartisan look at the link between extreme weather due to climate change and national security. The documentary includes field observations and analysis from experts including Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, James Woolsey, former CIA director, and Carol Browner, former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. 

“The flipside of climate change is how we use energy,” Ms. Goodman said. “Coal-state and fossil fuel-state members of Congress are less likely to be in favor of change, and it has a lot to do with jobs that are tied to those industries.”

“Eventually we’ll get over it, and we won’t be the only major capital in the world that doesn’t recognize that climate change is happening,” she added.

Dr. Asrar suggested that rather than debating climate change, the United States should focus on combatting its effects with “technology, engineering and ingenuity.” The effects of climate change, he said, will continue to affect the earth for at least the next century.

His comments echoed the sentiment expressed in the film—that in the future the power of nations will be determined by their ability to respond swiftly during natural disasters to provide humanitarian relief. Those actions could block terrorist groups from gaining a foothold in poorer countries.

“Recognition of the problem is greater in Europe and other parts of the world,” Dr. Asrar said. “But 30 to 40 percent of those at risk have no capacity to deal with it because it requires investment of time, money and resources.”

Added Ms. Weiner: “We’re the only country that doesn’t really want to talk about it.”