Rachel Santarsiero is the director of the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project. She first joined the Archive in 2022 as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow and was one of the first Scoville Fellows to concentrate on climate change as a security issue. She also worked closely on the organization’s Digital National Security Collection, Targeting Iraq, Part II: War and Occupation, 2004-2011. Santarsiero holds a Master of Science in International Development from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where she concentrated on issues related to climate change and migration in North Africa. She also has a dual Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Professional Writing from WPI, with a minor in International and Global Studies. Prior to joining the Archive, Santarsiero worked as a professional civil engineer on climate resiliency and adaptation projects throughout New England. Email: rsantarsiero [at] email.gwu.edu
Website: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/project/climat-change-transparency
by Rachel Santarsiero For decades, the Central Intelligence Agency—an organization best known for its espionage and secret missions—has been spying on climate change. Well, maybe not spying. Not at first, at least. In the 1960s and 1970s, the CIA conducted a top-secret US program using satellite imagery to capture images of Soviet military installations. The…