Vice Admiral McGinn – Why climate change is a threat to global security

In the 3rd episode of the 2nd season of Planet A, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dennis “Denny” McGinn, a retired Vice Admiral from the United States Navy, about why climate change is a threat to global security and stability. 

Prior to his retirement, Vice Admiral McGinn served as the Commander of the 3rd US Fleet and as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. He crowned a distinguished military career by working as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 2013 to 2017. In this capacity, Vice Admiral McGinn led the ‘greening’ of U.S. naval installations toward greater resiliency to climate change. 

He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the American think-tank “The Center for Climate and Security”. 

Vice Admiral McGinn explains how a group of retired high-ranking officers first raised political awareness in the US about climate change as a national security threat. Their 2007 report “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change” was seminal in portraying climate change as a “threat multiplier” for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.

McGinn argues that climate change is a threat multiplier that exacerbates existing challenges like resource conflicts, food security and cross-border migration and points to the conflict in Syria as an example of this.

Moreover, he points out that climate change is not just changing the geography by creating droughts and new shipping routes, but is also altering the foundations of geopolitics with widespread ramifications for the Arctic and the relationship between the great powers. 

He portends that the development is making “soft power” more important and set limits for traditional “hard power”, such as the use of military force. In McGinn’s view, NATO and its member states are currently insufficiently prepared to handle this change.

The Vice Admiral also talks about his work to make the US Navy more resilient to climate change and to reduce its carbon footprint.