News

Hegseth’s first words to the over 700 generals and admirals, sitting quietly before him at last month’s emergency gathering, were “Welcome to the War Department because the era of the Department of Defense is over. Your only mission is ‘warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising.” Hegseth cast a glowing view of the past to the generals, most of whom had more military experience than he did. He claimed our period of peace, ignoring the Vietnam and Iraq wars, was brought about by the warrior ethos that has been lost.

Warnings about climate change are not new. In the late 19th century, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would create a greenhouse effect, altering the surface temperature of the earth. By 1938, the English engineer and inventor Guy Callendar noted that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere would cause global warming.