Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff: Climate Change as a Security Risk and Why Climate-Driven Migration Matters

The Burn Bag is collaborating with the Climate Migration Council to conduct several episodes on the security risks surrounding climate change, amidst severe heat that is gripping the country.

This week, A'ndre spoke with former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on climate-driven migration and the national security threats spawned by climate change. The Secretary provides his perspectives on how marginalized communities are most at risk from the effects of climate change, and how climate change has driven recent migration crises around the world. The Secretary highlights how climate change has contributed to political turmoil in Latin America and Africa, and the conversation even touches on how extremism and public health risks can be driven by the impacts of climate change. A'ndre and Secretary Chertoff also discuss how we navigate the partisan nature of climate change conversations, and why U.S. action on the issue is imperative in the context of great power competition from adversarial nations such as China and Russia. Secretary Chertoff also highlights some of the work that the Climate Migration Council is doing, and why the private sector needs to engage with these challenges.