How is climate crisis changing the US military?

Bertie speaks to Sherri Goodman about her new book, Threat Multiplier:
Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.

From 1993-2001, Sherri Goodman served as the first US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security, making her the Pentagon's Chief Environmental Officer. She then went on to help deliver influential reports that helped to establish climate change as a national security threat in the US. 

Threat Multiplier documents key environmental and climatic challenges during her career, such as negotiations around the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and managing geopolitical risk in the Arctic as melting permafrost changes the ocean landscape.

Goodman is now Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, and a Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center. 

Further reading: 

• Click here to buy Threat Multiplier from Island Press. 
• 'A career spent trying to make the military care about climate change', The Washington Post, August 2024
• 'The US Department of Defense’s Role in Integrating Climate Change into Security Planning', New Security Beat, May 2024
• 'Changing climates for Arctic security', The Wilson Quaterly, 2017
• National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, 2007

Click here to read our investigation into the UK biomass supply chain, or watch a clip from the BBC Newsnight documentary.