Censorship, Deletion, and Purging of US Defense and Intelligence Assessments of Environmental Threats to National Security
Censorship, Deletion, and Purging of US Defense and Intelligence Assessments of Environmental Threats to National Security
Peter H. Gleick
For many decades, US military and intelligence agencies have analyzed the threats to national security from a wide range of non-traditional social and environmental issues, including population growth, poverty, dependence on fossil fuels, disputes over water, and human-caused climate change. These analyses have come from White House National Security Strategy reports, Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense reviews, the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and every branch of the military and all the military academies. Their consistent finding from hundreds of assessments is that these factors pose direct and indirect threats to national security and to the operations and infrastructure of the military, and that these threats must be addressed.
Beginning immediately up the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January 2025, the Trump Administration has purged, deleted, moved, and hidden uncounted numbers of webpages, reports, documents, and assessment related to environment, climate change, and U.S. national security. While
URLs often change or break, this wholesale censorship of environment and security assessments has happened since January 2025 and appears to be both sweeping and intentional. [The good news? Other organizations have archived almost all of these and careful internet searches will turn them up. In
addition, I have provided an annotated review of 50+ years of documents, with updated weblinks here where possible.]
To document this attack on free speech and transparency, I’ve provided below a (very partial) list of deleted or broken government URLs:
[Note: These weblinks and URLs are broken – they go nowhere or return 404 pages – but I’ve listed them here to document a few of the efforts to hide or remove these national security
assessments.]
The 2014 Department of Defense Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap. http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/CCARprint.pdf
2017 Statement for the Record. Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Daniel Coats, Director of National Intelligence). https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/congressional-testimonies/congressional-testimonies-2017/3124-statement-for-the-record-worldwide-threat-assessment-of-the-u-s-intelligence-community-before-the-ssci
2017 National Intelligence Council Report on Climate Change. https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Reports%20and%20Pubs/Implications_for_US_National_Security_of_Anticipated_Climate_Change.pdf
2021 White House Climate Adaptation Plans from each agency
2021, 2022 The US Army Corps of Engineers. Climate Adaptation Plan in 2021 and progress reports outlining advances toward achieving their adaptation goals in 2022.
Most ODNI Threat Assessment reports: https://www.intelligence.gov/annual-threat-assessment.F or example, the 2021 ODNI Threat Assessment. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-2021-Unclassified-Report.pdf
2021 The Department of Defense. Departmentof Defense Climate Risk Analysis
2021 The Department of Defense. 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan
2022 The Department of Defense. 2022 Climate Adaptation Plan Progress Report
The 2022 White House National Security Strategy: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/12/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administrations-national-security-strategy/
2022 The Department of the Air Force. Climate Action Plan. https://www.safie.hq.af.mil/Programs/Climate/igphoto/2003090906/
2022 The U.S. Army. Climate Strategy https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/about/2022_army_climate_strategy.pdf
2022 The U.S. Department of the Navy. Climate Action 2030. https://www.navy.mil/Portals/1/Documents/Department%20of%20the%20Navy%20Climate%20Action%202030%20220531.pdf
2022 The U.S. Air Force Climate Action Plan. https://www.safie.hq.af.mil/Portals/78/documents/Climate/DAF%20Climate%20Action%20Plan%20-%20FINAL%20Oct%202022.pdf
2023 U.S. Army War College. Strategic Studies Institute. Climate Impact on National Security. https://media.defense.gov/2023/May/03/2003214771/-1/-1/0/3369.PDF
Major DoD website compiling climate and security related documents, events, new stories, analyses: https://www.defense.gov/spotlights/tackling-the-climate-crisis/
The Department of Homeland Security Climate Action Plan. https://www.dhs.gov/publication/dhs-climate-action-plan-address-impacts-ensure-resilience
The Department of Homeland Security Initiatives to Address Climate Change: https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-actions-climate-change
The DoD Climate Assessment Website and Tool: https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/eer/cr/cc/index.html; https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/eer/cr/cc/tools.html
DoD Climate Resilience Portal. https://www.climate.mil/
The Quadrennial Defense Reviews: https://dod.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/QDR/QDR/; and https://www.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/QDR/
