Tag: US Navy

Commander James Goudreau, the director of the U.S. Navy's energy coordination office, offered a stark depiction at Old Dominion University (ODU) on Tuesday of the vulnerabilities the Navy, and presumably the rest of the armed services, face due to its heavy dependence on oil to meet its energy needs.  Cmdr. Gondreau told his audience at ODU that refueling a ship at sea constitutes one of the most vulnerable periods and discussed the bombing of the USS Cole to illustrate this gaping defensive hole.

Cmdr. Gondreau spoke about another reason, in a long list of reasons, why it is "insane" (literally) to continue our country's reliance (including Virginia's) on fossil fuels. If one major condition of sanity is behaving in a manner that promotes and/or sustains life, then relying on oil and natural gas to power our way of living is indeed insane. That is, we are slowly (though sometimes quickly) killing ourselves and our environment through these sources of energy.

However, Republican politicians and the companies that stand to lose from progressive energy policy think all is hunky-dory with America's energy usage, even in the face of pleas from credible sources like the U.S. military, just to name one! Not to be deterred by facts, these pontiffs of the free market and cost effectiveness usually complain that alternative sources of energy "cost too much." When asked how much a human life costs, they are baffled (The EPA says $9.1 million) or fall back upon tried and true Republican Party mantras that have withstood the test of time and reason.  

Admiral David Titley, USN, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy responds to a question from Cathy Lewis, Executive Producer at WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia, about how he answers climate change skeptics. "...basically, try to walk through the physics at a very, very basic, conceptual level...we know the climate's changing. There's just too much data for us...it all lines up with a consistent picture."

Admiral Titley discussed three national security concerns: Arctic Ocean melting, sea level rise, and ocean water acidification. The Admiral delivered the keynote address "Climate Change and the U.S. Navy" at the Blue Planet Forum, Exploring the Bay and Beyond, conducted at Old Dominion University on 2 December, 2010. Details of his remarks will follow.