Canada's spy service warns that climate change poses a profound, ongoing threat to national security and prosperity, including the possible loss of parts of British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces to rising sea levels. A newly released analysis by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) also foresees an increase in ideologically motivated violent extremism from people who want to speed up climate change solutions and those more interested in preserving their current way of life.
A cold war in a hotter world: Canada's intelligence sector confronts climate change
Since its birth during the Cold War, Canada's spy agency has occupied itself with three primary threats: terrorism, espionage and foreign interference in domestic politics and business. Now, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is pointing to a disruptive new player on the field: climate change. CSIS says it's trying to get a handle on how climate change will disrupt national security. It has even acknowledged that effort publicly — something intelligence agencies rarely do. "This is something that will absolutely have profound impacts on Canadians and it will have impacts on our national security. I think it's important that we are going to be in that space," Tricia Geddes, deputy director for policy at CSIS, told an intelligence conference last month.