Preparing for the Future: Climate Change and National Security
Rear Admiral to Speak at Dickinson College on Climate Change and National Security
The American Security Project’s David Titley, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, will visit Dickinson Monday, March 26, to discuss the emerging threats of climate change to U.S. national security. Held in the Stern Great Room from noon to 1 p.m., the talk will cover how the military is responding to this threat, and why it matters for Pennsylvania.
The U.S. military has recognized that the effects of climate disruption are an “accelerant of instability” that exacerbate security threats around the world. More frequent extreme weather events, food scarcity, water insecurity and sea-level rise have the potential to create new humanitarian disasters and destabilize entire countries. For the U.S. military, this means responding to increasing numbers of crises both at home and abroad.
Titley is a professor of practice in meteorology and a professor of international affairs at the Pennsylvania State University. He is the founding director of the university's Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk. Titley served as a naval officer for 32 years, and in addition to rising to the rank of rear admiral, he served as commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command as well as oceanographer and navigator of the Navy. While serving in the Pentagon, Titley initiated and led the U.S. Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change. After retiring from the Navy, he served as the deputy undersecretary of commerce for operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Titley serves on numerous advisory boards and National Academy of Science committees, and he currently chairs the National Academies of Science's Engineering and Medicine Climate Communication Initiative committee. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
The event is sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education, the Department of International Studies, the Security Studies Certificate Program and the Dickinson Reserve Officers Training Corps.
Those interested in attending must register.
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Published March 15, 2018