Name: Climate Change Flooding: A Threat to National Security?
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Norfolk, Virginia—home to the largest U.S. naval base—is very prone to flooding. Sea level rise combined with land subsidence means more impact on roads, logistics infrastructure, and moving cargo back and forth—everything that must happen to ready a ship for deployment. It’s no surprise, then, that the Navy considers climate change a threat to operational capability and its ability to execute our national security strategy.

Sea level rise and heavier rains pose logistical challenges to Norfolk, Virginia's naval base and infrastructure—and the residents that call Norfolk home.

Sea level rise and heavier rains pose logistical challenges to Norfolk, Virginia's naval base and infrastructure––and the community members that call Norfolk home.

Sea level rise and heavy rains pose logistical challenges to Norfolk, Virginia's Navy.

Climate Change Flooding: A Threat to National Security?

Sea level rise and heavier rains pose logistical challenges to Norfolk, Virginia's naval base and infrastructure—and the residents that call Norfolk home.

Planet Earth

Climate Change Flooding Could Be a Threat to National SecurityPublished: February 26, 2019Onscreen: Norfolk, Virginia — home to the largest U.S. naval base. In 2017, high tide flooded parts of Norfolk, Virginia 14 times.Ann Phillips: Sea level rise means that there’s more impact to roads, logistics infrastructure, moving cargo back and forth. That just makes it that much harder for you to prepare that ship to go. And for the crew to prepare themselves to go.Onscreen: Ann Phillips is a retired rear Admiral of the navy. She served over 30 years as a naval officer.Phillips: My career path in the military was that of a surface warfare officer. So I was a ship driver, I was a ship Captain. It’s a career path where you are used to being out at sea. So you’re very tune to weather, climate, and the impact that’s going to have on your ability to do your mission.Onscreen: Today she sees climate on having an impact on more than ships at sea.Phillips: In this region, we have 18 more inches of water on average than we had 100 years ago.Boy: It floods all the time. So like when that happens we’ll like take our furniture and like stack it up.Man: This walkway that was once supposed to allow people to walk and enjoy the water is now underwater.Boy: It’s been much higher than this before. It’s sort of annoying to have all this flooding all the time.Onscreen: The flood is caused by sinking and climate change-induced sea level rise.Colonel Jason Kelly: If I’m at my home I have to think about how I’m going to triverse the road is Norfolk. And this is not because of some major storm or extreme weather event. This is high tide and rain.Phillips: We sometimes talk of it from a national security perspective. Is sea level rise a threat multiplier or a threat magnifier? Well in a small way in your daily life it is a challenge multiflyer.Kelly: Folks live and reside in the communities right outside of the base. On a daily basis the must get to the base to perform the duties that are vital to our national security. What are we going to do to make sure that we can adapt? What are we going to do to bounce back and evolve?Onscreen: The army corps of engineers has proposed a plan to build flood walls, surge barriers, and open spaces to absorb the water. Inspired by huge public works projects in the Netherlands.Kelly: The measures that we’ve proposed will provide the controls to help us control what’s happening here.Onscreen: And the city of Norfolk is also devising plans to create more green space to buffer the flooding.Christine Morris: Living with water is understanding that it really is a fluid thing. And that we have to be fluid as we approach it and live alongside it in our daily lives. How do we use retention ponds, stormwater parks, and green infrastructure to both hold the water, clean it, release it when we can, and when we’ve got it let's enjoy it. Kelly: Norfolk is reimagining itself in a way that will permit resilience. Our national defense is certainly impacted by what’s happening in the community outside.Phillips: This is not an argument that is political. This is a fact. The navy does view climate as a threat to operational capability and to our ability to execute our intended national security strategy.

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Climate Change Flooding: A Threat to National Security?

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Support Provided By

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