Climate Change Didn’t Pause for COVID-19: Implications for Military Readiness

May 18, 2020 | Joan VanDervort
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As COVID-19 continues to hammer the nation, approximately 61,900 Department of Defense (DoD) personnel (45,600 of which are made up of National Guard) have been called on to support the national response.

“With COVID-19, it’s like we have 54 different hurricanes hitting every state, every territory, and the District of Columbia — some are Category 5, some are Category 3, and some are Category 1,” Gen. Joseph Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a recent statement.[1]

But its more than that – not only is DoD supporting the response to the “54 different hurricanes,” but they are fighting the pandemic internally as it begins to degrade readiness from impacts on the pipeline for new recruits to delays in deployments, pauses in training, and cancelation of major exercises. As Joan VanDervort argues, climate change, like COVID-19, has the ability to degrade readiness over time giving our adversaries greater opportunities unless DoD adapts quickly and decisively to this long standing threat.  Not to take quick and decisive measures leaves our readiness and national security at risk.