Climate Change Damaging Troop Readiness, Pentagon’s Hicks Says

Climate change is already affecting the combat readiness of the U.S. military and providing opportunities for China to exploit, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official said on Friday.

“Climate change and extreme weather events caused by climate change affect everything from the number of days we can be flying in the air and training” to the ability to use military installations as sea levels rise or drought sets in, Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defense secretary, said in an interview with host Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg Radio’s “Sound On” program.

Climate change could affect the military’s fuel lines and even the ...