U.S. Intelligence: Global Warming Threatens Security

The new head of U.S. intelligence and top adviser to President Barack Obama has reiterated that global warming is a top threat to the national security of the United States.

Poor countries, often with weaker governance systems, will be hit hardest by extreme weather such as flooding or drought driven by global warming. These threats undermine leadership in this nations and putting at-risk citizens further in harm's way, warns Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair.

"The impacts [of climate change] will worsen existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions," Blair told senators last week.

These outcomes have been predicted before, specifically in the 2007 report National Security and the Threat of Global Climate Change, released by the Center for Naval Analyses.