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The US Navy Really Seems To Like 'Rolling Stone'

The magazine published a 5,500 word article about why the military thinks climate change is a national security threat, and the Navy is promoting the piece on its social media.
Image via Department of the Navy Task Force Energy

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An extensive Rolling Stone report examining how climate change is expected to impact American national security is getting some social-media love from beyond the magazine's usual fan base.

The US Navy has plugged the story by a magazine once billed as the organ of the counterculture, adding that climate change "is not only a threat to the #environment but a threat to our national security."

"Coastal military bases and US Navy missions on seas are at risk," the Facebook page of the service's Task Force Energy noted. "#Military readiness could be compromised by these #environmental changes. Read about the challenges the Pentagon faces posed by a changing #climate."

The nearly 5,500-word Rolling Stone piece outlines how the armed forces — particularly the Navy — are having to grapple with the issue even as they face a hostile audience in Congress for any action to deal with a problem most influential Republicans refuse to acknowledge.

The Defense Department has been outspoken on the issue in recent years, with a major Pentagon report calling the issue a "threat multiplier." For the Navy, that means not only having to deal with potential conflicts overseas; it means protecting installations like its massive Atlantic Fleet base in Norfolk, Virginia, which is already having to deal with periodic coastal flooding from a rising ocean.