“John  Conger, the Pentagon’s deputy under secretary of defense for  installations and environment, said in a statement. “We are actively  integrating climate considerations across the full spectrum of our  activities to ensure a ready and resilient force.”’ (Davenport, 2014).  The US defense community has recognized, that to stay ahead, they must  begin to incorporate green energy resources into their operational  functions. This is because oil and coal resources are growing limited  but also because the effects of greenhouse gases, and resulting climate  change, has adverse effects on the very dilemmas the US defense  communities are charged with handling. This includes how climate change  has increased natural disasters and the number of refugees fleeing from  unlivable areas. The US defense community has also been forced to  address climate change and seek answers to lower dependability on fuels  like oil because a dependency on oil resources actually leaves the  military vulnerable to the resource and the countries that produce it  (Closson, 2013). Additionally, the Secretary of Defense has since 2009  released plans to transform the way fuel is used in war (Closson, 2013)  and the DoD has released a Climate Change Adaption Roadmap that will  access, study and collaborate on the implication of climate change and  ways to manage it (US Department of Defense, 2014).

Government led, the US military can have a significant impact on how  the whole of the US uses energy. The military needing to find energy  solutions for security reasons (a dependence on oil is a vulnerability  (Closson, 2013)) increases the haste and need for solutions and therefor  will likely be one of the first groupings within the US to determine  manageable energy alternatives and practices. The importance of the  military will be the reason that they lead the way in discovering and  implementing renewable energy resources which will then be adapted by  the rest of the US as a whole.

Closson, S. (2013, October). The military and energy: Moving the United States beyond oil (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.). Energy Policy, 61, pp. 306–316.

Davenport, C. (2014, May 14). Climate change deemed growing security threat by military researchers (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.). The New York Times.

US Department of Defense. (2014, June). FY2014 climate change adaptation roadmap [PDF, File Size 1.58MB]. Washington, DC: US Department of Defense, pp. 1–13.