One of the more controversial aspects of the Red Dragon Rising series has been the premise that the war starts because of turmoil seeded by climate change and its vast effects on China.
Even the science hadn't been pretty well established, the fact that China has been experiencing severe droughts over the past few years makes the premise a no-brainer, but apparently some people have their doubts. It's certainly possible that China won't go to war - that part is definitely fiction. But the country is absolutely facing a host of environmental challenges, and will continue to do so in the future. As we all will.
If you're looking for some information about climate change in general, the people at Learnstuff.com have put together an informational graphic with a set of bullet points. You can look at the whole thing here:
http://www.learnstuff.com/climate-change/
It baffles me that climate change has become a political issue. Dealing with the effects of droughts, rising tides, etc., should have nothing to do with political ideologies - just as dealing with aggressive acts from other nations shouldn't. Reasonable people can disagree over what should be done, but it makes no sense at all to ignore the science.
I don't know that American innovation can completely solve the problem, but it can be a huge part of the solution. As I suggest in the more serious passages* of The Helios Conspiracy, private American companies can build a satellite-to-earth solar energy system that will take care of most of our energy needs. And there are a whole range of other new technologies - from LEDs to weather modification - that not only deserve serious consideration but will get it from scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders in some country, if not ours.
* - Those would be the ones between the cigarette smoke and coffee stains.
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