Chatham Student Takes On Climate Change In Essay

CHATHAM, NJ - Chatham High School Senior Sean Lee will be inducted into the Naval Academy Class of 2023 at the end of this month, but his concerns range beyond his immediate future.

In fact, Lee has written a comprehensive essay on climate change for his English class that discusses the issue in great depth. Below is the complete text of his piece, titled The Hidden Enemy.

"Many of America’s defining moments have come from the valiance and courage of its military. We are a nation born from war and hardship, and the armed forces have always held a place near and dear in our hearts — as the protectors of liberty, the enforces of democracy, and the liberator of the oppressed.

It is no secret that America spends massive amounts of money towards bettering the military, and in 2019, the federal budget allocated $686,074,048,000 to the Department of Defense(DoD). With abundant resources and overwhelming governmental support, the US military has swelled to enormous proportions, covering the world with over 550,000 strategically placed DoD facilities which are in striking distance of any conflict whether it be air, land, or sea. These bases are a meticulously planned network of overlapping operating ranges and are essential to combat readiness. The network of bases is strong and steadfast and has stood the test of time against countless foreign forces.

But a hidden enemy lurks as its power continues to build. Its might is unmatched by any force: it has the capacity to wage war on multiple fronts, to wreak havoc upon bases in a matter of minutes, and to patiently strategize a war of attrition. The enemy can be seen amassing in the restlessness of the seven seas, the ferocity of the desert sun, and the roar of a coastal Atlantic hurricane. The seas march, advancing slowly with unrelenting inevitability and moving the front lines of battle forward; the rising temperatures secretly sabotage food production and health conditions; and the hurricanes strike rapidly and devastatingly into the bases and infrastructure of its adversary. The new enemy of the 21st century is climate change, and it is time to confront it directly.

A problem like climate change is strengthened over time by inaction. Giving climate change time to fester is like offering food, arms, and strategic positioning to an army of foreign invaders. As American environmentalist Bill McKibben dramatically describes, we supply the war machines of climate change through “a billion explosions of a billion pistons inside a billion cylinders.” While governments sit idly, watching their factories pump out revenue and trusting in the “pure scientists” to do their part and solve climate change, valuable time is lost and land ceded. The issue is that science cannot do its job without sufficient funding and focus from the federal government; even a 2003 DoD council agreed climate change “should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a national security concern.”. But this crucial transition has yet to be made.

In large part, the framing of climate change by key governmental influencers is a great impediment to major forward progress. Ray Mabus, former Secretary of the Navy(2009–2017) and board member of the Environmental Defense Fund, understands this cascade effect of leadership and heavily criticizes President Donald Trump’s denial of the climate change threat. According to Mabus, President Trump seeks to take the military’s power to investigate the issue away and install his own White House Committee, which would undoubtedly support the Commander-in-Chief. However, this decision is far more than just a political debate. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg understands the gravity of political ignorance to climate change and says, “the primary responsibility of public officials is to protect people’s well-being. Everyday that politicians spend distorting science to protect the interests of fossil fuel companies, people die.” Climate change is not about politics. It is about human lives.

The great majority of opposers to climate change dismiss it as a wild, tree-hugger’s scheme to waste billions of dollars on a dream, and the others are convinced it is such an insurmountable problem that action is meaningless. This is an extremely pessimistic way of looking at climate change and severely underestimates the power of modern technology. Technological advances are not isolated phenomenon — they build upon each other, so one breakthrough could lead to an explosion of others in a short amount of time. Technology is not linear, but rather a logistic S-curve whose greatest area of growth is right in the middle of agonizing struggle and overwhelming success. The opposer’s unwavering despair is countered by the “[possibility] that we are on the lower slope of not just one but several S curves, that change will fuel more change and the lines will soon start rapidly rising.” We can fix climate change but action needs to occur now.

Action in today’s political mire of unrelenting policymakers seems almost impossible, especially for the magnitude of which is needed to address a problem like climate change. As Bloomberg puts it, “Congress has not passed a single bill that take direct aim at climate… America’s ability to meet our Paris Climate Agreement doesn’t depend on Washington.” Our current polarized government cannot be relied on to pass major bipartisan, action-oriented policy against climate change, but that is where the military comes in. If there is one thing that has united Americans time after time for the collective better, it is the armed forces. No matter the war front, no matter the enemy, the American war machine has proved victorious throughout the centuries.

What if the military started to treat climate change as a war? There would be resounding approval from the American public. An organization with the funding, might, willpower, and intelligence that the US military has would make a formidable force — and it would have the auxiliary benefit of creating jobs, boosting businesses, and helping the economy. World War II mobilization brought the Americans out positive from under the Great Depression, cured the unemployment rate, and also had the unexpected result of establishing respect for women in the workplace. This change did not happen through politicians or private businesses. It happened because the American military saw the Axis Powers as enemies and how crucially important it was to unite the people against them. The same can happen with climate change. In fact, climate change fits all of the descriptors of a war-time enemy: “seizing physical territory, sowing havoc and panic, racking up casualties, and even destabilizing governments.”

It is not hard to convince the armed forces that they are currently in danger of climate change. Category five hurricanes, strengthened by the growing warmth of the ocean, have already torn through mission critical bases, rising sea-levels threaten a great many more facilities, and even wildfires have forced evacuations worldwide. A chief example of this is the principal Atlantic base, Naval Station Norfolk, in Virginia which is estimated to be submerged in water in 20–25 years. The DoD has already allocated upwards of $500,000,000 to higher piers and seawalls to combat flooding in coastal bases, but it is fixing something with duct tape — it is only a temporary solution. Bloomberg agrees with this sentiment and asserts that “a massive seawall would take forever to construct and would be prohibitively expensive. By the time it was completed, rising sea levels might render it obsolete.” But Norfolk is just one example: wildfires in California forced Camp Pendleton, Naval Air Station Point Mugu, and the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center to evacuate; flooding in the Kwajalein Atoll threatens the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site; storms have caused $5,000,000,000 in damage to Air Force Bases Tyndall and Offutt. But infrastructure damage is not the only way climate change is threatening America’s security.

When you take an already politically unstable nation and add the hardships brought on by extreme climate change, economic displacement is sure to follow with violent extremist organizations as a possible product as well. In Guatemala, a nation with a primarily agricultural economy, the areas of highest malnutrition are the same areas most vulnerable to climate change. On top of this nutrition crisis, Guatemalans have suffered “three hurricanes that cost more than the previous four decades’ worth of public and private investment in the national economy.” It is no wonder that Guatemalans are migrating to America, especially when the Obama Administration focused on aiding governmental change instead of the root of the problem and the Trump administration cut aid altogether. US troops are currently deployed on the southern border as our military spends precious resources and personnel to deal with a preventable problem caused by climate change.

The current view that mission readiness is not about saving the world through preventing climate change is flawed for it is the very thing that is of biggest threat to readiness. The reason the military has not acted upon climate change is because it is being presented in the wrong way yet again. For example, the military will not place top priority on renewable energy because it is good for the environment — it will place top priority on renewable energy’s ability to save money for allocation to different mission objectives. There is no doubt that the military will provide a rallying point for the common good — as it has done over and over again in the history of America. To utilize the potential ace-in-the-hole of military support, the threats presented by climate change must be made to show a clear and present danger to the American people. Then, and only then, can we begin to fight back against climate change and turn the tide of the upcoming war."

Lee, who will begin six challenging weeks of basic midshipman training as part of Plebe Summer, earned the respect of the teacher who sent along his essay as well as Chatham High School counselor Mark Maka.

"Sean is intrinsically motivated by his thirst for knowledge and, despite his outstanding academic record, has maintained a sense of humility," Maka said. "He is a respectful young man that values education at its very core and has earned the respect and admiration of his peers and teachers alike."

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