Climate change and global warming are shaping up as massive security risks for nations and business.

A research paper from the Lowy Institute in Australia warns that it will destablise the Asia-Pacific region, exacerbate food, water and energy shortages and create giant security threats.

The research paper Heating up the planet paints a scenario of weather extremes and wilder fluctuations in rainfall and temperatures transforming the region, resulting in a large-scale displacement of people in heavily populated areas and triggering a surge of "climate change refugees".

While the research paper focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, these security concerns are shared globally.



The security implications of population displacement of hundreds of millions of people, and changing rainfall patterns are spelled out in this video of General Wesley Clark speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. Global warming, he says, is not an EPA problem. It's a security problem.