Military experts, public policy researchers and environmental scholars came together at the University of Central Florida Thursday to discuss the implications of climate change on national and global security.

Rather than exclusively focusing on ecological changes, the event, titled "Climate Change and National/Global Security,” discussed the long-term impacts of climate change from a security point of view. The conference hosted speakers with expertise in a wide range of fields dealing with the issue.

About 250 students, faculty and staff, as well as community members, attended the event, which was a co-curricular component of the UCF General Education Program Unifying Theme: “The Environment and Global Climate Change,” and also a feature of the 2009-2010 Global Perspectives theme of “The Environment, Energy and National/Global Security.”

The morning keynote speaker was retired Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, president of the American Security Project. Gunn spoke on the “National Security Implications of Climate Change,” offering expertise from his 35 years serving in the U.S. Navy.

Gunn stressed to the audience that climate change is not just an environmental concern, but also a formidable threat to the country’s security. He described the possible implications of a global climate crisis from a defense perspective. Gunn detailed a situation of mass migration to the United States, overextension of military resources and the weakening of alliances made in more stable times. He explained that the challenges “are not insurmountable but will be extremely costly.”

The next speaker, Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the National Security Decision Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College, discussed “Climate Change and Human Security.” Johnson-Freese detailed the human suffering that is likely to occur in the event of natural disasters driven by climate change. She explained how extreme weather events become disasters by acting on vulnerable populations. Johnson-Freese echoed Gunn in warning that these events might lead to mass migration, and also discussed the possibility of widespread social instability.

The third speaker, Janet Larsen, is the director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, an independent environmental research organization. Larsen’s discussion titled, “Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization,” focused on the effects wide-spread food shortages may have on global security. She detailed the necessary steps in order to save civilization and stressed that “food security is really about human security.”

Next, James J. Carafano, Deputy Director, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, offered a counter- perspective on the issue in his presentation titled, “Questioning the Concept: Rethinking the Climate/Security Paradigm.”

Carafano asserted that climate change and national security are part of a very complex system being affected by many variables, and that we have to carefully examine the causality between security issues and the effects of climate change. He said that predicting the relationship between humans and the environment in the long term is nearly impossible. Carafano stressed that he is not in the “do-nothing crowd,” but that more research needs to be done to explain the intricate relationship between climate change and national security.

During a question-and-answer period with speakers, audience members asked if the rising cost of food is tied to alternative fuels, such as ethanol, which is typically made in the United States from corn. Another audience member asked about U.S. hesitancy in making a firm commitment to the impending United Nations meeting on climate change in Copenhagen.

The conference’s luncheon keynote speaker was William Powers, senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of “Whispering in the Giant’s Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia’s War on Globalization.” Powers gave a human face to the issues that had been discussed all day, citing his personal experiences helping local populations with climate and deforestation issues in Liberia and Bolivia.

Powers shared success stories in curbing carbon emissions and increasing sustainable ways of living in the third world, ending the day’s discussions on a hopeful note.

“We can change in partnership with the developing world,” he said. “We can re-imagine development. And we can achieve climate justice. It’s not that any of these things are easy to do, but they have been done, and we can achieve them too.”

Sponsors of the conference included UCF’s Global Perspectives Office, the National Conference of Editorial Writers, UCF’s Student Government Association, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Nicholson School of Communication, Diplomacy Program, Terrorism Studies Program, Political Science Department, International Services Center, The India Program at UCF, UCF LIFE, C.T. Hsu International (Group) Co., Lawrence J. Chastang and The Chastang Foundation, The Anil and Chitra Deshpande Foundation, C.T. Hsu International (Group) Co., OCI Associates Inc. and the Global Connections Foundation.

Laura Stockbridge contributed to this report.