Rod Schoonover
As a scholar, writer, and thought leader with deep expertise in both the biophysical sciences and national security, Rod Schoonover is an internationally recognized expert on global ecological disruption and climate change and their impacts on people and societies. For a decade in senior roles in the US intelligence community, both at the National Intelligence Council and the State Department, Dr. Schoonover helped establish ecological and environmental issues within the core national security framework of the US government. His passion for scientific integrity and evidence-driven, apolitical analysis compelled him to resign from the Trump administration in July 2019.
A gifted communicator, Dr. Schoonover speaks on ecological security and climate change issues to diverse audiences worldwide and on media outlets such as CBS, CNN, and the New York Times. He is a four-time recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and won several awards for excellence in analysis from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In 2015, Dr. Schoonover was awarded the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research Analyst of the Year, its highest honor, for outstanding analysis of scientific and environmental issues with significant impact on US national security and foreign policy.
Prior to government service, Dr. Schoonover was a tenured Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He earned his PhD in theoretical chemical physics from the University of Michigan. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and daughter, loves noise pop and country-punk music, plays acoustic guitar about as well as he plays electric, motorcycles when he can, and reads scientific journals both professionally and for pleasure.
416: Rod Schoonover, part 1: Resigned in protest after White House tried to delete “basic science” from climate change report
In June and July 2019, you may remember reading about Rod Schoonover in the NY Times, State Dept. Intelligence Analyst Quits to Protest Blocked House Testimony, Washington Post, CBS, and more in the links below. He resigned in protest as a long-time government intelligence and security researcher and analyst, focusing on a field he helped create—climate security. He focused on learning how environmental changes would affect the security of the United States. If you’re American, that’s your life and mine as our nation leads the world in plunging the Earth into uncharted environmental territory.
The White House blocked his testimony to Congress—not disagreed, blocked. Even places like the conservative American Enterprise Institute went on record saying how things like that don’t happen in the US. He loved his job, his work, the people he worked with. This episode will share what happened from his inside view.
We also cover his personal choice to act. We all face choices between what we think is right versus what’s easier, and we’re inclined to think if we just keep our heads down doing what we’re doing we’ll be able to act later or our consciences won’t catch up to us. Rarely do we risk our careers, livelihood, he was a new first-time father, or see our choices made public.
We can learn from Rod.
As Rod and I are both former physicists, it felt heartwarming to hear a systems approach, a view few people get. Many who do haven’t practiced them. I love getting to talk to someone experience and fluent in them. On the downside, we who view from systems perspectives see how imminent collapse may be and how futile non-solutions are for treating only elements of the system. On the upside, we see how simple and effective systemic solutions can be. And fun.