Task force studies arctic climate change - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Task force studies arctic climate change

In a further sign that the military is taking climate change seriously, a Navy task force is examining how shifts in the global environment could affect maritime operations.

Rear Adm. David Titley, the Navy’s oceanographer and navigator, was interviewed July 28 by the Pentagon’s news service from Barrow, Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.

He leads Task Force Climate Change and was in Alaska with Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the chief of naval research, for the recovery of environmental sensor buoys.

Not only does diminished melting ice in the arctic regions mean potentially more competition for resources and larger operating areas for surface combatants, but the subsequent expected rise in sea-levels would affect coastal operations elsewhere.