Warfare Evolution in Light of Climate Change: Evaluating Medical, Tactical, and Moral Effects on Conflict
Militaries Adapt to Climate Change in Operational Settings
Military forces around the world are adapting to the challenges posed by climate change in operational settings, particularly in extreme environments. This shift is evident in various strategic and operational changes, as highlighted in a recent webinar series led by Professor Tim Hodgetts, the Master General of the Army Medical Services and former Surgeon General of the UK Armed Forces.
Extreme Environments
In regions like the Arctic, militaries, particularly naval forces, are modernizing and climate-proofing ships, bases, and infrastructure to cope with higher wave heights, melting sea ice, stronger storms, and more foggy conditions that affect navigation and sonar performance. They are also adapting weapon systems and equipment to withstand extreme and rapidly changing temperatures, as well as challenges such as coastal flooding and permafrost thawing that threaten base operability. Training and exercises are updated and standardized to incorporate climate resilience and local expertise, such as Arctic training involving indigenous knowledge-sharing, preparing forces for new operating conditions.
Logistics
Forces are investing in dual-use infrastructure in remote and sensitive regions, such as roads, airstrips, and renewable energy, that supports military needs and benefits local communities. This strategy increases resilience and sovereignty while optimizing resources. Adaptation of supply chains and operational planning also takes into account disrupted environments due to extreme weather and resource scarcity, as detailed by U.S. DoD directives requiring integration of risk management and life-cycle costing in acquisition and infrastructure.
Medical Readiness
Updated health surveillance programs monitor the impact of climate change on personnel, including exposure to extreme temperatures, altered disease vectors, and changing precipitation patterns, ensuring readiness and force health protection.
Carbon Reduction
Military budgets are increasingly allocating funds toward climate mitigation, such as investing in hybrid/electric vehicles and retrofitting facilities for net-zero emissions, aligning procurement with national climate goals. This includes leveraging private sector clean technology innovations to reduce military carbon footprints and enhance energy efficiency.
Ethical Implications
Military climate adaptation efforts often emphasize social equity, ensuring that climate resilience investments also uplift vulnerable and indigenous populations, balancing defense priorities with ethical considerations of community impact.
Humanitarian Response
Military forces are recognizing the growing and essential role in responding to more frequent and intense climate-related disasters, including wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and maritime emergencies such as search-and-rescue in increasingly trafficked and hazardous Arctic waters. National military plans now explicitly integrate climate change scenarios into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, backed by legislative mandates and cross-national military datasets tracking climate disaster involvement.
In sum, militaries adapt to climate change through infrastructure modernization, climate-focused training, health and logistical readiness, carbon reduction efforts, ethical integration of community benefits, and expanded humanitarian roles to remain effective amid evolving global environmental risks. The increasing role of humanitarian and disaster response as part of defense strategy is being explored, and Professor Tim Hodgetts, with decades of strategic and frontline experience in military medicine, is at the forefront of these discussions.
The webinar series, which can be accessed here, continues with Part Three, delving deeper into the reshaping of warfare due to climate change and its ethical implications, as well as global security considerations.
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- Military forces are not only modernizing ships, bases, and infrastructure in extreme environments like the Arctic to cope with climate change-induced challenges, but they are also adapting weapon systems and equipment to withstand extreme temperatures and rapid changes.
- In the realm of medical readiness, militaries are updating health surveillance programs to monitor the impact of climate change on personnel, focusing on exposure to extreme temperatures, altered disease vectors, and changing precipitation patterns.
- Acknowledging that climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of disasters, military forces are integrating climate change scenarios into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
- In their efforts to mitigate climate change, militaries are investing in hybrid/electric vehicles and retrofitting facilities for net-zero emissions, aligning procurement with national climate goals and leveraging private sector clean technology innovations to reduce their carbon footprints.
