Welcome to the Military Responses to Climate Hazards (MiRCH) tracker, a project of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS). Please read important information on this project’s scope, methodology, limitations, and citation guidelines below.
Update Log
Methodology
This map is based on a dataset regularly updated by CCS staff, based on publicly available information, tracking the date, location, actors, and circumstances of military deployments to climate-related hazards.
Researchers, journalists, academics, government officials, or members of the public are encouraged to contribute to this effort by entering information and sourcing on such incidents here, which CCS uses to supplement its own tracking in updating this map.
The dataset starts in June 2022 and was last updated 12 September, 2023.
Scope and Definitions
This project tracks the deployment of military and paramilitary personnel and equipment in response to natural hazards exacerbated by climate change, worldwide.
This includes all hazard types that climate change is known to make more likely or intense–such as heatwaves, flooding, drought, extreme precipitation, and storms and hurricanes—even if a scientific study has not yet quantified the role of climate change in a particular incident. Natural disasters largely unrelated to climate change, such as earthquakes or volcanoes, are excluded. Entries include direct deployment of military forces, the use of other armed paramilitaries, and the lending of military personnel or equipment to civil authorities, but does not include purely civilian disaster response.
Similarly, military deployments in response to challenges indirectly contributed to by climate change (such as migration or civil unrest) are not included, nor are deployments related to energy security or the energy transition.
Limitations
Users should be aware of limitations in this project, especially in comprehensiveness and precision. Because of the project’s scope, data access issues, and English-language focus, this page probably misses some incidents that fit the project’s criteria, especially in locations under-covered in English-language media and/or with opaque militaries. CCS logs incidents based on approximate start date and displays incidents by month, and logs incidents by the most precise location feasible based on available information and the geographic scope of the hazard. Finally, this project does not distinguish military deployments or hazards by magnitude – users should click through to underlying sources to learn more about the size of a given incident.
Citation
This data may be freely cited by academics, researchers, or journalists, crediting The Center for Climate and Security.