{"id":7959,"date":"2025-04-15T09:44:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T14:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=7959"},"modified":"2025-04-15T09:45:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T14:45:31","slug":"national-security-on-the-brink-the-real-cost-of-rising-seas-and-nuclear-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/national-security-on-the-brink-the-real-cost-of-rising-seas-and-nuclear-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"National Security on the Brink: The Real Cost of Rising Seas and Nuclear Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the U.S. races to modernize its nuclear arsenal, it is doing so on a foundation that\u2019s quite literally sinking. The Department of Defense is investing $130 billion in new Columbia-class nuclear submarines <\/a>as part of a broader nuclear modernization strategy. Yet the very infrastructure needed to build, maintain, and deploy these submarines is increasingly threatened by climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facilities at Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia, which houses strategic weapons and assembles Trident II missiles for U.S. nuclear-armed submarines, are predicted to be flooded by rising sea levels in the next 50 to 100 years. Shipbuilding operations at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Quonset Point, Rhode Island\u2014key construction sites for the Columbia-class submarines\u2014are also in designated flood zones. Add to that the growing number and intensity of hurricanes hitting the U.S. coastline, and the vulnerability of America\u2019s nuclear \u201cdeterrent\u201d becomes undeniable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a hypothetical threat. In the fall of 2024, hurricanes Helene<\/a> and Milton forced Kings Bay to shut down operations for days. Downed trees and operational disruptions made it painfully clear: no matter how expensive or technically advanced our submarines are, they are no match for a rising sea or a shifting climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"2024-emissions<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Even more concerning is the circular logic of this self-inflicted vulnerability. The Navy\u2019s environmental assessments<\/a> show that these nuclear programs are generating massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, which accelerate the climate crisis they are now trying to navigate. In 2023, General Dynamics<\/a> emitted over 700,000 metric tons of CO\u2082\u2014despite pledging to reduce emissions (See charts above). The Pentagon itself estimated nearly 1,000 metric tons of CO\u2082 would be emitted just from homeporting new submarines at Kings Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we justify allocating nearly $7 billion in 2025 alone to develop hypersonic weapons<\/a> and long-range fires, while the very ground beneath our military installations is eroding? This is not sound strategy. It\u2019s denial, funded by taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of doubling down on Cold War-era weapons in a hot world, we must move the money<\/em>. Investing in climate resilience, renewable energy, and infrastructure that serves people\u2014not war\u2014will provide true national security. As military bases flood and the costs of environmental disasters soar, it\u2019s time to ask ourselves: is it wise to sink billions into a weapons system that can\u2019t withstand the weather?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to rethink what security looks like in the 21st century. Because if our strategy for survival relies on submarines that can\u2019t get to sea\u2014or bases that are underwater\u2014then we\u2019re not just losing money. We\u2019re losing the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rising seas could sink U.S. nuclear subs before they\u2019re built\u2014climate change is the threat our defense budget can\u2019t outspend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[303,232,244,167,315],"class_list":["post-7959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-climate-change","tag-military-spending","tag-national-security","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-submarine-defense"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/pexels-photo-753619.jpeg?fit=1880%2C1058&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7963,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions\/7963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}