Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point

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Climate change is already taking a toll in the United States and globally and thereby threatens public safety and challenges national security. This reality requires educating the American public about climate change in tandem with security. However, climate change is not usually associated with national security to the public, although the climate security framework may accelerate to buffer the combative posture from the climate-dismissive and reduce polarization amongst political parties. In this study, we seek to provide an in-depth understanding of barriers to climate communication by bringing together climate politics and communication literature. We identify information silo effect and ideological factors that cause both conservative and liberal individuals to believe a certain way about certain issues and use motivated reasoning to justify those beliefs. We also suggest a potentially viable way to educate people about climate change and expand the notion of national security in public discourses. We argue that to help individuals see climate change as a security issue, climate communication should focus on fostering community resilience with local climate issues. In this way, policymakers can avoid getting trapped in an infinite loop of debate about climate science and overcome polarization while helping communities understand climate change as a national security issue and adapt to climate-induced impacts on ecosystem and community viability.