Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy. We’ve sent a delegation of US military veterans to the COP15 climate conference to highlight the connection between global security and climate change.

Glenn Kunkel is a former US Marine who served two tours in Iraq.

Every single person in the world is affected by our climate. The manner in which we live our daily lives is at the very mercy of our climate system. The supporting points of this idea are far and wide, from sustenance and other basic needs to the vacation spot you may want to visit being eradicated by the next big hurricane. In our lack of foresight in this premise, we have come upon its dangerous and imposing presence far earlier than anticipated.

Today, we are in the Bella Center in Copenhagen Denmark. Operation Free is in the very epicenter of every voiced concern on our planet. 192 nations have sent delegations and over 900 Non governmental agencies have converged at COP 15 to not only discuss our current predicament, but to take the necessary steps to improve our energy efficiency and reduce the poisonous carbon footprint that exponentially exacerbates the problem our planet now faces.

We are a small group of Americans, concerned with global security and safety for future generations. We believe, as history has taught us, that we are precariously vulnerable as a global society, as well as a nation to the negative effects climate change will bring about. Famine, droughts, disease, mass migrations, displaced cultures, the list reads like an award winning apocalypse recipe. We recognize the human cost, tangible and intangible, and as every one who has carried a rifle to procure freedom does, we look to prevent it in the future. When a people has been so adversely affected by climate change, their desperation must be answered by those who have the resources, training and preparation for such crises. Should those elements of necessity be unable to effectively respond, the repercussions would be disastrous.

It is these contingencies that Operation Free has brought to Copenhagen. We understand the nature of the reluctant terrorists that only wanted jobs, of the desperate father who could no longer let his child go hungry. We understand that it is up to us to do everything in our power as a species to keep each other from knowing such circumstances in the future. It is this idea, this hope, this message that we bring to Copenhagen, so that future generations prosper in the safety and comfort of a clean and secure planet.