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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Reading Radar

    Weekly Reading

    January 8, 2009 By Wilson Center Staff
    Aging populations in developed countries will precipitate massive social and economic upheavals in the 2020s, argue Neil Howe and Richard Jackson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a recent Washington Post op-ed. Read Elizabeth Leahy’s response.

    Friends of the Earth Middle East has published recommendations for improved governance of the Mountain Aquifier, a transboundary groundwater resource shared by Israel and the West Bank.

    In the Boston Globe, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow explores the possibility of military force being used to protect the environment.

    “The call center fills a critical information gap that exists in Indian society about these issues. This is the first line of call for many young men and women who would otherwise end up going to street-corner quacks, use inappropriate contraception methods or not use any,” said Shailaja Chandra, executive director of the National Population Stabilization Fund, discussing the new family planning call center in New Delhi.

    “The Cold War shaped world politics for half a century. But global warming may shape the patterns of global conflict for much longer than that—and help spark clashes that will be, in every sense of the word, hot wars,” warns James R. Lee of American University in a Washington Post op-ed.

    Environmental stress, caused by both climate change and a range of other factors, will act as a threat multiplier in fragile states around the world, increasing the chances of state failure,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald, summarizing the findings of a classified November 2007 Australia Defence analysis, Climate Change, the Environment, Resources and Conflict.

    SciDev.Net reports that four cases of malaria have been identified on the Bolivian highlands, confirming predictions that mosquitoes have adapted to a colder climate.

    The Christian Science Monitor reports that conservationist Crispen Wilson has been working with local Acehenese fisherman, still recovering from the 2004 tsunami, to improve sustainable fishing practices and strengthen local fish stocks.
    Topics: demography, family planning, global health, military, population, Reading Radar, security
    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/18337694112852162181 Geoff Dabelko

      I was interviewed for the Boston Globe piece on environmental interventions and obviously didn’t leave much of an impression. I said I was quite skeptical about the scenario of unwelcomed military interventions on the part of the environment. I recounted some of the history of the Green helmets efforts first by Gorbachev and then by Toepfer that were immediately shot down by G77 and the UN General Assembly. I wrote up this history in “Uncommon Peace” in Environment last year So country concerns about preserving sovereign control of resources remains very strong. This scenario would be a rapid reaction force to help with natural disasters or environmental crisis.

      The further step of mustering the will and resources to intervene under an environmental responsibility to protect goes down an even less likely path. If the world can’t even muster a dozen helicopters to stop the genocide in Darfur when the need is so obvious, how can we expect such unity of purpose on much more crimes against the environment that have diffuse impacts?

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