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Stefanik, lawmakers call on Trump to acknowledge climate change as a security threat

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (Photo provided — Amanda Morrison, Watertown Daily Times)

U.S. Rep. Elise M. Stefanik, along with more than 100 of her colleagues in the House of Representatives, is calling on President Donald J. Trump to acknowledge climate change as a threat in his National Security Strategy.

Stefanik, R-Willsboro, and U.S. Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., led the charge in garnering support for a letter they sent to Trump on Thursday. The letter, signed by 106 representatives, argues that testimony from scientists and military leaders proves that climate change poses a threat to the nation’s security. It also quoted Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who has said that climate change will “impact our security situation.”

“Climate change poses serious concerns for our national security and for political instability around the globe,” Stefanik said in a statement. “This is a concern I share with many of our nation’s top national defense experts, including Secretary Mattis. As a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus and the author of the House Republican Climate Resolution, I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure the threats posed by climate change are being addressed at the federal level.”

Issued by the president every few years, the National Security Strategy highlights the most current national security threats facing the United States.

Despite numerous testimonies from military officials that climate-related disasters in foreign countries causes Trump’s new National Security Strategy made no mention of climate change as a national security threat, despite its inclusion by former President Barack Obama during his tenure.

The Trump administration has largely rejected a focus on climate change solutions in favor of protecting the value of fossil fuels. Trump said this was the reason why he pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, a multi-national coalition in which nations promise to devise ways to decrease their contributions to climate change.

Federal lawmakers, including Stefanik, blasted the president for his withdrawal from the agreement. Trump recently said he would be open to returning to the agreement as long as it did not hurt U.S. interests in fossil fuels.

(Editor’s note: Four daily newspapers in the North Country — the Enterprise, Post-Star of Glens Falls, Watertown Daily Times and Press-Republican of Plattsburgh — are sharing content to better cover New York’s 21st Congressional District.)

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