Dennis McGinn Discusses Climate Change and National Security

Thursday, June 17 10:59 am

Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn USN (Ret.), CNA Military Advisory Board, will be a featured speaker at the panel Climate Change: the Threat and Opportunity for Global Security at the Museum on June 22.  He recently answered some questions about the connection between climate change and national security.  Make sure to visit the News section later for another Q&A with McGinn’s co-panelist, UK Climate and Energy Security Envoy Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti.

The connection between climate change and national or global security is a key part of the larger debate. What is that connection?

First, that the likely conditions created by climate change—droughts, floods, extreme weather events, loss of coastal regions, reduced water supplies, crop failure and potential pandemics—will act as a “threat multiplier” for instability in volatile regions of the world. Second, the destabilizing effect of these stressful conditions on fragile governments and societies will cause them to fail, creating a growing need for U.S. military missions ranging from humanitarian assistance to peacekeeping to conflicts over resources in regions critical to U.S. national security.

What are some recent examples of the implications of climate change for national security?

Failed states create a fertile breeding ground for organized crime, paramilitary forces and extremists. Two present examples are the Darfur region of Sudan and the failed state of Somalia. If the destabilizing effects of climate change go unchecked, we can expect more frequent, widespread, and intense failed state scenarios creating large scale humanitarian disasters and higher potential for conflict and terrorism. The effects of climate change can significantly magnify and accelerate regional pressures on long-standing tensions along political, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines. This is a recipe for failed states and societies which, in most cases, will lead to conflict.

The Department of Defense and national intelligence communities recognize this clear link between climate change, national security, and instability and have begun strategic plans and programs to both mitigate and adapt to the most likely and serious effects in key areas around the globe.

You argue that our current reliance on fossil fuel for energy affects us diplomatically, economically, and militarily.  How so, and what are the best alternatives?

Our current overreliance on fossil fuel is a serious and urgent threat to our national security. Diplomatically, the fact that we use of 25 percent of the oil produced every year and only control 3 percent of the known oil reserves undermines our moral authority and national leverage with other nations as we attempt to solve serious international issues.

Economically, we send more than $ 1 billion dollars each day to foreign countries, some of them unfriendly to our national interests, to pay for our oil addiction, thereby undermining our domestic economy. And militarily, we pay an enormous price in lost lives and national treasure to put our troops in harm’s way around the world, in many instances primarily to ensure the free flow of oil. Read more »

‘Today Show ‘ Sleeps Over at the Museum

Wednesday, June 16 10:58 am

Everyone wants to spend a night at the American Museum of Natural History. The Museum’s popular “A Night at the Museum” sleepover program has been a hit with families and kids: nearly 30,000 people have camped out at the Museum since the program debuted in 2006.

Recently, reporter Jenna Wolfe from NBC’s “Today Show” packed up her sleeping bag, pillow, and teddy bear and came to the Museum to sample the overnight fun. “I’ve been to quite a few museums in my day,” said Wolfe when she introduced the segment. “But I have never, ever experienced one quite like this!” Check out Wolfe’s “Night at the Museum” below.

Museum Marks Historic Partnership

Tuesday, June 15 3:40 pm

Kathryn Harrison, former chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, and Museum President Ellen V. Futter marked the 10th anniversary of an historic agreement recognizing the Tribes’ connection to the Willamette Meteorite in the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe. © AMNH/D. Finnin

American Museum of Natural History officials and members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon gathered today in the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space to mark the 10th anniversary of an historic agreement recognizing the Tribes’ spiritual and cultural connection to the Willamette Meteorite, which is the centerpiece of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe, and affirming the Museum’s role in maintaining public access to it.

Museum President Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History, and Kathryn Harrison, former chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, were among those in attendance.

The largest meteorite ever found in the United States, the Willamette Meterorite weighs 15.5 tons and is believed by scientists to be the iron core of a planet that was shattered in a stellar collision billions of years ago. Its hollows were formed not in space but from weathering after it crashed into Earth thousands of years ago, traveling at more than 40,000 miles per hour. The Museum purchased it in 1906. Since then, it has been on almost continuous display at the Museum and has been viewed by millions of visitors from around the world.

A federally recognized tribe, the Grand Ronde is the successor to a number of tribes from northern California and western Oregon, including the Clackamas, who lived in the Willamette Valley before the arrival of European settlers and long revered the meteorite under the name “Tomanowos.” According to Clackamas tradition, a union occurred between the sky, earth, and water when the meteorite rested in the ground and collected rainwater in its basins. The rainwater in turn served as a powerful purifying, cleansing, and healing source for the Clackamas and their neighbors. Tribal hunters, seeking power, dipped their arrowheads in the water collected in the meteorite’s crevices. These traditions are preserved today through the ceremonies and songs of the descendants of the Clackamas. As part of the Grande Ronde agreement with the Museum, a description of the meteorite’s significance to the Clackamas was installed in the Cullman Hall of the Universe alongside a description of its scientific importance. The Museum also established an internship program for Native American young people.

Architectural Icon from the Start

Monday, June 14 1:27 pm

After three years of construction, the Museum’s first building was dedicated at a ceremony led by President Rutherford B. Hayes. © AMNH

Many visitors may not realize it, but when they walk through the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians, the Hall of African Peoples, the Leonard C. Sanford Hall of North American Birds, and the Hall of Vertebrate Origins they are actually visiting the Museum’s very first building at its current site. The multi-story Victorian Gothic structure, which opened to the public in 1877, was designed by two prominent architects of the time, Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, both of whom were involved in the planning of Central Park and design of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other projects. (The architectural legacy of Jacob Wrey Mould, including his work at the American Museum of Natural History, was explored in a May 12 “Streetscapes” article in The New York Times.)

When President Ulysses S. Grant laid the cornerstone for that first building in 1874, the Museum’s collection was on display at the old Arsenal building on the eastern side of Central Park but fast outgrowing the space. An area between 77th and 81st Streets, known as Manhattan Square, which had been previously set aside by the city as a possible location for a zoo or botanical garden, was secured by the Museum as the site for a full-scale natural history museum. After three years of construction, the completed building was dedicated at a ceremony presided over by another president, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Manhattan Square became home to “the most prominent building on the West Side,” according to Robert A. M. Stern’s book, New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age.

As the Museum’s collections grew and more space was needed for exhibition and, increasingly, scientific research, additional buildings were put up alongside Vaux and Mould’s core structure. Over time, 25 distinct, interconnected buildings would spread out over four city blocks. In the process, the original Victorian Gothic façade vanished behind what is now known as the “castle” façade on 77th Street, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by another noted architect, Josiah Cleveland Cady. Read more »

Museum Hosts Middle School Science Expo

Friday, June 11 10:19 am

The 2010 science expo for Urban Advantage, a pioneering middle-school education initiative led by the American Museum of Natural History, takes place at the Museum on Saturday, June 12. © AMNH/R. Mickens

More than 700 public middle school students from all five boroughs of New York City will show off more than 250 of their best research projects during a major science expo that takes place at the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday, June 12, from 1 to 4 pm under the big blue whale in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. Students, teachers, and the public are invited to visit this event, which celebrates the conclusion of the spectacularly successful sixth year of Urban Advantage Middle School Science Initiative.

Urban Advantage is guiding teachers and students on how best to use the incomparable science resources and expertise of eight New York institutions:  the American Museum of Natural History, which spearheaded and leads the initiative; Brooklyn Botanic Garden; The New York Botanical Garden; New York Hall of Science; Queens Botanical Garden; Staten Island Zoological Society; and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium.

Hailed as a national model, this pioneering education program has helped thousands of 7th and 8th graders pursue investigations at science-rich New York City institutions and to complete their science exit projects, a requirement by the NYC Department of Education for advancement into high school.

And this year there is even more reason for celebration: a recent preliminary analysis by an independent evaluator, the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University, has shown that Urban Advantage schools reported higher gains in student achievement in science than the citywide average.

Major public support for the Urban Advantage program is provided by the Speaker and the City Council of New York, and the New York City Department of Education. Additional support is provided by the Educational Foundation of America and the New York Community Trust.