Militarism & Climate Change

Webinar Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Presenter: Wendell Chris King, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE, Brigadier General, U.S. Army Retired

In his presentation, Dr. King will show how climate change takes away from billions of people the ability to provide for their human needs.  This creates insecurity which drives mass migrations, conflicts over scarce resources, and extreme human health risks.

The military impacts for the environmental security threats above are a whole new set of challenges to security that the military must prepare to respond to.  History has shown that the only organizations in the world capable of responding to disasters of the size that climate change will produce are national military forces.  Look at the recent examples of fires and floods around the world.  The military must plan for these new missions and train/equip to be ready to respond to whatever comes.

Military operations are not immune to the impacts of climate change. Our bases in the US and around the world are already being impacted by climate change.  Further, conducting military operations worldwide will be impacted by the extreme environmental conditions caused by climate change;  again planning and training must change.

Finally, the military is a massive consumer of fossil fuels.  The U.S. Dept. of Defense has been examining ways to reduce our thirst for fuels with some success.  A discussion of the future of these efforts will help frame what should be done in this area. 

Dr. Wendell Chris King was commissioned into the Army in 1972 after completing his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University. In 1974 he completed his M.S. in Civil Engineering (environmental) and entered active duty as a sanitary engineer in the Medical Service Corps. As a junior officer he completed numerous assignments within the Army’s Preventive Medicine Program and the Army Corps of Engineers, highlighted by serving as Project Manager and Assistant Division Commander, US Army Corps of Engineers Division, Huntsville, AL, where he worked on the Army’s Chemical Weapons Disposal Program. He earned his Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee in 1988. His next assignment was as Chief, Environmental Health Engineering Division, US Army Environmental Hygiene Activity-West, Aurora, CO. In 1991 he deployed as the Officer in Charge of the Southwest Asia Health Risk Assessment Team, which determined health risk to US troops exposed to the smoke from the Kuwait oil fires and supported the restoration of Kuwait.

In November 1991 he was selected to be an Academy Professor and Program Director of the Environmental Engineering Program at the U.S. Military Academy. In 1998 Congress approved his presidential nomination to be Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. In 1994 Dr. King was assigned to the Army Chief of Staff’s crisis action team for the Rwanda relief mission as the medical operations planner. In 2005 Dr. King deployed to Afghanistan to the Office of Military Cooperation to assist in the development of the new Afghanistan Military Academy.

In 1992, he won both the American Academy of Environmental Engineering Honor Award for his work on the Kuwait health risk assessment and the Army Science Award for outstanding research for his developments in geophysical subsurface remote sensing. In 2000, he completed his M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies at the Naval War College. Dr. King is a licensed professional engineer and is board certified by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers with a specialty in hazardous waste management. He is a founding member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change.

Dr. King has authored two books, Environmental Engineering P.E. Examination Guide and Handbook, and Understanding International Environmental Security: A Strategic Military Perspective. In addition, he has published more than 15 book chapters and 30 journal articles and scientific reports. Dr. King has lectured at more than 50 professional conferences, including the technical sessions of the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, Oxford University on water wars, NATO and OSCE programs on environmental security, and international programs on professional military education. Dr. King retired from Army after nearly 33 years of active duty in 2006 at the rank of Brigadier General. His highest military award is the Distinguished Service Medal.

After leaving active duty Dr. King was selected to serve as the Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the Army’s Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth. Over its long history CGSC has provided mid-career graduate professional education to military officers of all US services and over 7,500 officers from more than 165 other nations. In ten years of service at CGSC, Dr. King developed faculty academic credentialing standards, implemented modern academic assessment programs, and created an honors program focused on developing the next generation of strategic leaders for the military and our Nation. Dr. King is the first Dean Emeritus at the college. In 2019 while presenting the graduation commencement speech Dr. King was awarded an honorary doctorate from Kansas State University for a lifetime of service in higher education.

Dr. King is a life member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, a longtime member of the Environmental Engineering Professional Engineering Exam Committee of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)., and a founding Member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change. In 2024 NCEES presented Dr. King its award for service to the national engineering licensing program.

In retirement Dr. King now focuses his scholarly efforts on educating people on the extreme threats to peace and security posed by climate change and other human caused environmental stressors.