13 July 2025
Texas confronts a two-front threat but it is fighting a one-front war. The threat Texas has chosen to fight is what Gov. Abbott called an “immigrant invasion.” Back in March 2024, Governor Abbott called on the Texas National Guard to seal the state’s southern border in order to exclude illegal immigrants. [1] He called it Operation Lone Star. Sixteen months later, Texas has spent 11 billion dollars on Operation Lone Star. This figure encompasses all aspects of the operation, including National Guard deployment, state troopers, infrastructure, and other related expenses.
The threat Texas chose to ignore is climate disasters, including flooding. The political choice was deliberate. The Texas Tribune reported (2 June 2023) that the Texas legislature “ignored pleas for critical reform from environmental advocates” during 2023’s session. Instead, it passed measures intended to block local attempts to control greenhouse gas emissions and to eliminate tax incentives for renewable energy companies. “The climate is worse off for the Legislature having met,” said Luke Metzger, Executive Director of Environment Texas. Unlike border defense, which they abundantly funded, Texas legislators did not fund climate defense at all.
The results of Texas’ myopia and confusion are regrettably and inescapably visible in last week’s tragic flooding in Kerr County. As a result of the flash flood, more than 160 people are dead and 100 or more still are missing. The flood did not have to be so catastrophic. In nearby Comfort TX, authorities installed a siren warning system shortly before the Guadalupe River flooded. The sirens warned residents to seek high ground; as a result, the town was flooded, but there were no casualties. [2]
A flood warning system cost one million dollars to install. Kerr County applied for a state grant for the purchase price but was refused. County authorities then debated whether to buy a warning system at public expense. They decided not to do so. “Taxpayers did not want to pay for it.” Doing so would have cost a family of four in Kerr County $90 in bonded indebtedness. In view of the tragic results of inaction, this was a stupid blunder. [3]
Every Texas authority understood that Kerr County sits in a flood plain that has sustained repeated flooding, most recently in 1987. But Texas, a wealthy state, could not find one million dollars to protect the population of Kerr County against a predictable climate disaster, possibly because it had allocated 11 billion taxpayer dollars to border control. There was nothing left in the state’s kitty for climate defense. Instead of allocating 11 billion dollars to border control and nothing to climate defense, Texas might have allocated one billion dollars to climate defense and ten billion dollars to border control. At no cost to the taxpayers of Texas, that allocation would have saved the lives of hundreds of taxpaying citizens while leaving ten billion dollars to control immigrants, who, it must be observed, did not kill hundreds of Texas citizens nor inflict billions of dollars of property damage. The rampaging Guadalupe River did that.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., Trumpists obstinately repeat the same tragic blunder as did Texas but on a national scale. Trumpists have allocated one trillion dollars for military defense and nothing for climate defense. Military defense is generously funded; climate defense is ignored. Worse, Trumpists are tearing down what climate defenses already existed. This defense posture is drastically imbalanced.
Like Texas, the United States confronts a two-front threat, but it is fighting a one-front war. The favored front is the military defense of the United States against foreign aggression. The ignored front is defense of the civilian population against climate disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and wildfires. [4] Trump’s budget allocation leaves the civilian population vulnerable to predictable climate disasters. The Kerr County disaster is a predictable result. Shifting one hundred billion dollars from military defense to climate defense would cost American taxpayers nothing, but the reallocation would provide a more effective overall defense of the civilian population of the United States. Indeed, just by subtracting one million dollars from the 2026 military budget (.001%) and awarding it instead to Kerr County Texas for warning sirens, Congress would have improved the overall defense posture of the United State. Isn’t that true?
Conclusion
Climate Defenders advocates rebalancing the defense budget of the United States by shifting funds from military defense to climate defense. This shift costs taxpayers nothing; it does not increase the national debt; it is not inflationary, and it strengthens national defense. As is, Trump’s lop-sided budget leaves the nation (and the states) completely vulnerable to climate disasters. That is an imprudent allocation of defense dollars which could be improved at no cost to taxpayers.
How can Trump’s improvident policy be changed? Talk to people. Eighty percent of Americans and most Republicans want climate protection as well as military protection. No one wants higher taxes. By explaining that by rebalancing our defense budget toward climate defense, the United States would improve the nation’s overall defense posture without increasing taxes, we show Democrats as well as Republicans how to have their cake and eat it too. Kerr County is a persuasive case in point. Yes, we propose to cut military defense to fund climate defense! Far from radical, this is a conservative proposal that just aims to squeeze more defense out of the same defense dollars. Is a 50% cut in military spending too much? Then how about a 10% cut? Still too much? Then how about 1% cut? At some point, almost everyone will agree that the nation’s overall security would be improved by shifting some quantum of money from military defense to climate defense. Next, Congress can decide just how much.
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References
[1] CD 10 Mar. 2024. All back copies of Climate Defenders are available free at: https://www.ivanlight.substack.com/archive.
[2] Jon Schuppe and Erik Oriz. “In deadly Texas floods, one town had what some didn't: A wailing warning siren.” NBC News 7 July 2025 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/deadly-texas-floods-one-town-warning-siren-rcna217202.
[3] Christopher Flavelle, J. David Goodman and Andrea Fuller. “Before tragedy, Texas repeatedly rejected pleas for flood alarm funding.” New York Times 11 July 2025.
[4] Hannah Bensen and Sarah Kaplan. “Flood deaths are rising in the U.S., fueled by heavier rainfall.” The Washington Post 8 July 2015.
Ivan, it is wonderful to read your articles. You offer that vision so that the people won’t perish—Proverbs. Blessings from your former rector.