--- --- * [Science](/section/science/) # The CIA Has a Climate Change Program—and It Shouldn't Be Secret by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 15, 2011 7:59 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 15, 2011 7:59 PM UTC  David Douglas Duncan/LIFE Sixty years after he took this photograph of a Marine's utterly inscrutable gaze during the Korean War, David Douglas Duncan told LIFE.com that, despite how close he got to them, there was always a veil of mystery between him and the troops he photographed. He had, he said, "no idea what these men hoped for, except for survival." This photo, in particular, offered a largely unfamiliar, disquieting take on combat in the "Forgotten War": by emphasizing the solitude of one exhausted, frigid, hungry Marine, the picture helped explode the resilient (and for those back home, the comforting) myth that, even in the midst of hell, "our boys" could draw strength and comfort from the knowledge that they were all in it together. What this picture suggests instead is that, sometimes, they were utterly alone. And they knew it. Intelligence work and climate science have a lot in common. They both involve grappling with uncertainty, trying to make sense of a signal amid the noise of ambient data and preparing to fight threats to country. So it makes sense that in 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) opened the [Center on Climate Change and National Security](https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/center-on-climate-change-and-national-security.html.), a place where Langley analysts could look at the latest science on climate change and view it through the prism of national and international security. But as Charles Mead and Annie Snider [reported in a piece for McClatchy](http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/10/106406/why-the-cia-is-spying-on-a-changing.html) earlier this year, having government spooks keep an eye on climate change has been politically controversial from the beginning: --- > “” --- more More from **TIME:** [**An Oily Mess in the Niger Delta**](http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/08/04/an-oily-mess-in-the-niger-delta/) Perhaps not surprisingly, the CIA has been [very close-mouthed](http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/08/cia-climate-change-national-security)—even for, you know, the CIA—about its work on climate change. Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming tried to kill funding for the center earlier this year, and conservatives—who increasingly discount the [reality of global warming](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544%5F162-20043909-503544.html)—have expressed skepticism about the CIA’s climate work. It’s a rule every spy should know—when the heat is coming, keep your head down and stay out of sight. The problem is that such the CIA’s environmental intelligence gathering has little value if it’s not being shared—not a single document has been issued, and the agency insists on classifying much of its material classified. And that secrecy means the agency itself, by virtue of its isolation, is missing out on the latest science. That’s the conclusion of a [new report](http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dsb/climate.pdf) (PDF) from the Defense Science Board, which urged the CIA to get beyond the traditional culture of secrecy and open up on its global warming assessments. The board even recommends the establishment of a new intelligence agency that can study the security impacts of climate change, but do so in an open and unclassified way, “cooperating with other domestic and international intelligence efforts.” The national security implications of climate change are very real. As temperatures rise, water and food supplies will likely be affected, destabilizing poor countries in the tropics—and potentially seeding the ground for civil wars and other conflicts. Melting polar ice caps will change global transport and open up new energy resources, setting off a far northern race for influence. On the whole, a warmer world is likely to be a more dangerous one—for the U.S. and other nations. That’s why in the battle over warming, it’s time for our spies to come in from the cold. More from **TIME:** [**Climate and Security**](http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/01/10/climate-student-reporters-take-on-climate-change-and-security/) _Bryan Walsh is a senior writer at_ TIME_. Find him on Twitter at_ [_@bryanrwalsh_](http://twitter.com/#%21/bryanrwalsh)_. You can also continue the discussion on_ TIME’s[_Facebook page_](http://www.facebook.com/time) _and on Twitter at_ [_@TIME_](http://twitter.com/#%21/TIME) The CIA Has a Climate Change Program—and It Shouldn’t Be Secret ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7220095/the-cia-has-a-climate-change-program-and-it-shouldnt-be-secret/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7220095/the-cia-has-a-climate-change-program-and-it-shouldnt-be-secret/"},"headline":"The CIA Has a Climate Change Program—and It Shouldn't Be Secret","datePublished":"2011-11-15T19:59:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T15:06:27.468Z","description":"Intelligence work and climate science have a lot in common. 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