US military organises their version of 'Shark Tank' to deal with military issues

The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the world. A March heat wave that hiked Arctic temperatures 50 degrees (30 Celsius) higher than normal stunned scientists.

Of 79 U.S. military installations overall, the Department of Defense says two-thirds are vulnerable to worsening flooding as the climate worsens and half are vulnerable to increasing drought and wildfires.

The U.S. military long has formally recognized climate change as a threat to national security. That's in part because of the impact that intensifying floods, wildfires, extreme heat and other natural disasters are having and will have on U.S. installations and troops around the world. Increasing hurricanes, flooding, storms and wildfires in recent years have caused billions of dollars in damage and interrupted training and other operations.

While even acknowledging climate change was a career risk for administration officials under former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden directed faster, more sweeping action on climate change by the Department of Defense and other agencies as one of his first acts in office. But inspectors found none of the bases carrying out the required assessments and planning to prepare for the long-term effects of climate change.

Inspectors have found the kind of problems associated with worsening climate change already causing trouble at the U.S. bases. Many of the specific discussions of climate risks at the six bases were blacked-out in the public report. But inspectors photographed and described some that included cracked and sunken runways undermined by melting ice, damaged hangers and roads, and a collapsed rock barrier, at Thule in Greenland.

The Arctic and sub-Arctic are important to U.S. strategic aims in part because of rising tensions and competition with Russia and China, and in part because sharply rising temperatures are melting sea ice and opening up both shipping lanes and access to the region’s oil and other resources, increasing interest and traffic in the region.