Giving Compass' Take:

• Climate change is causing challenging heat conditions for U.S. military bases and is responsible for the growing number of heat-related illnesses.

• This issue sheds light on how pervasive the effects of global warming can be for various communities. What are some alternate solutions for military bases to address adverse weather?

• Read about the medical associations that have declared climate change a health emergency. 

U.S. troops, already sweating through dangerous summer heat at military bases across the country, could face an extra month of life-threatening heat every year by mid-century, on average, as the planet warms, a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists warns.

The military has been struggling with how to develop a sustained, comprehensive strategy for dealing with rising global temperatures, from how to train in sweltering summer conditions at home to its effects in war zones.

The new report, released on Veterans Day, shows how quickly that risk will rise if countries don't rein in the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.

"Thousands of service people suffer from heat-related illnesses every year, and the problem is set to grow much worse," said Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and the lead author of the report. "The growing number of dangerously hot days could pose a challenge to the military's efforts to protect service members' health while also ensuring mission readiness."

Dahl and her colleagues began looking into the impact of heat on the military after an investigation by InsideClimate News and NBC News this year revealed the rising dangers military personnel face from extreme temperatures and the cascading consequences when the military fails to prepare.

The InsideClimate News/NBC News report found at least 17 heat deaths during military training in the past decade and a 60 percent surge in heat-related injuries—primarily heat exhaustion and heat stroke—over the same period. The Air Force is investigating two additional deaths of service members who collapsed in the heat during training at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina this year.

Read the full article about military bases face heat challenges by David Hasemyer at InsideClimate News.