• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Backdraft Header

Proposed responses to climate change range from the simple and easy to the complex and far-reaching. As these efforts get underway, it’s important to go in with our eyes open to avoid doing harm in our quest to do good. In this special series produced with USAID’s Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, we interview experts about “backdraft,” the unintended peace and conflict consequences of climate change responses.

Subscribe on iTunes • Google Podcasts • Podomatic

PHOTO CREDIT: CAMELIATWU.

  • Backdraft #9: Joshua Busby on Mapping Hotspots of Climate and Security Vulnerability

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  September 29, 2017  //  By Gretchen Johnson

    Podcast-thumb9-ReducedMaps help us to grasp complex ideas, such as patterns of risk and vulnerability, but the stories they tell can have significant implications. “It’s very difficult to validate that what you’re capturing in the maps is representative of real-world phenomenon,” says Joshua Busby in this week’s “Backdraft” episode, describing his efforts to map climate and security hotspots in Africa and Asia. “You have to be modest in what you think the maps can tell policymakers, but also realize there is some seductive power in the way maps simplify complex reality.”

    MORE
  • Backdraft #8: Simon Nicholson on Climate Engineering

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  July 21, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    Podcast-thumb8-reducedWhen the Paris Agreement set an ambitious goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the negotiators put climate engineering on the table, says Simon Nicholson, professor at American University, in this week’s episode of Backdraft. Once the purview of science fiction, a majority of the models run by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) required large-scale use of climate engineering technologies to keep additional warming below 2 degrees.

    MORE
  • Backdraft #7: Janani Vivekananda on What Renewable Energy Projects Can Learn From Oil, and Future-Proofing Humanitarian Responses

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  April 21, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    Janani-smallAs more and more development and humanitarian programs contend with climate-related problems, there are important lessons learned from past experience that should not be forgotten, says Janani Vivekananda, formerly of International Alert and now with adelphi, in this week’s episode of “Backdraft.”

    MORE
  • Backdraft #6: Jesse Ribot on Why It’s So Important for Climate Interventions to Work Through Local Democracy

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  April 7, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    Ribot2-smallIn a research project spanning more than two dozen case studies on environmental governance in 13 sub-Saharan African countries, Jesse Ribot, professor at the University of Illinois, and colleagues found that while many forest management projects claimed to be working with communities, they were in fact undermining local democracy in various ways.

    MORE
  • Backdraft #5: Ken Conca on the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Water Conflict and Cooperation

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  March 24, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    Conca-smallIn international development, conflict is often used as shorthand for violent conflict, and avoiding conflict is considered a priority. But “it’s important to recognize that conflict is not always bad and cooperation is not always good,” says Ken Conca in this week’s episode of “Backdraft.”

    MORE
  • Backdraft #4: Edward Carr on Climate Response, Motivations, and the Value of Ethnographic Research

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  March 10, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    Carr-smallUnintended consequences from climate interventions are often the result of not understanding decision-making at a granular enough level, says Edward Carr in this week’s “Backdraft” episode.

    MORE
  • Backdraft Episode #3: Kimberly Marion Suiseeya on Voice, Justice, and Representation

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  February 24, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    kim-small“If we think sustainable development is the goal we want to achieve, we have to be radical in elevating those who have been traditionally excluded,” says Northwestern University’s Kimberly Marion Suiseeya in this week’s “Backdraft” episode. “We have to approach conservation and global environmental governance from the perspective of the invisible and the marginalized people.”

    MORE
  • Backdraft Episode #2: Stacy VanDeveer on the New Energy Economy and the Fate of Petro States

    ›
    Backdraft podcast  //  Friday Podcasts  //  February 10, 2017  //  By Lauren Herzer Risi

    stacy-smallA “green economy,” an energy sector composed entirely of renewables, is the goal of many. But we haven’t thought out the full implications of that change, says Stacy VanDeveer, professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, in this week’s “Backdraft” podcast.

    MORE
  Older Posts
View full site

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

What You're Saying

  • Rainforest destruction. Gold mining place in Guyana China’s Growing Environmental Footprint in the Caribbean
    ZingaZingaZingazoomzoom: US cleans up. China runs wild on free rein- A lack of international compliance mechanisms to hold...
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous souhaitons que le partenaire nous apporte son soutien technique et financier.
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous sommes une organisation féminine dénommée: Actions Communautaires pour le Développement de...

What We’re Reading

More »
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000