A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Heat-Related Deaths May Have Tripled during Europe’s Heat Wave (Washington Post) 

A record-breaking heat wave in late June and early July pushed temperatures well above 100°F across Europe. Analysis from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that of the 2,300 heat-related deaths in 12 major European cities between June 23 and July 2, 1,500 would not have occurred without the additional 1.3°C of warming caused by climate change.  

In a rural, hard-to-reach area of Blantyre district in southern Malawi, Ephraim Louis cannot imagine where his life would be without the solar panel on the roof of his house. “I am not a captive of darkness anymore,” says Louis, 42. “It’s been more than 10 years since I installed this [solar panel] system. We still don’t have the main grid anywhere near us and no one here thinks it will ever come.” 

A few days ago, I bought a cucumber at the grocery store. Hermetically sealed in a layer of plastic as if bracing itself for interstellar travel rather than a trip to my kitchen, I struggled to open it, my patience thinning with the plastic. At one point I considered using my teeth. That’s when it hit me: was this really necessary?

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio formally declared the “era” of USAID over on March 28, 2025, it represented an extraordinary sea change for US foreign aid deployed over the past six decades.

Yet the world has changed dramatically since the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was established by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 in the middle of the Cold War. So, there is every reason to thoughtfully consider what foreign aid should look like today as we navigate an era of Great Power Competition (GPC).

A window into what we’re reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Marine Protected Areas in Tanzania Boost Living Standards (Mongabay)

In the 1990s, Tanzania established five multiuse Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to help the country protect 30% of its oceans by 2030. However, a new study has found that the MPAs offered benefits beyond marine ecosystems by also improving the quality of life in nearby communities.

Last year, African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina called for the end of resource-backed loans (RBLs) for African countries, calling them “asymmetrical” and “non-transparent.” These loans—where governments pledge future resource revenues in exchange for infrastructure agreements—have been widely used across African countries with Chinese lenders playing a dominant role.

“It seems like the news is always bad, right?” observed retired climate and atmospheric scientist James Kossin in a BBC interview last autumn.

Kossin was describing how climate change is weakening the wind shear patterns that have helped lessen the impacts of tropical cyclones in the United States. And, indeed, there is mounting evidence for his observation.

A window into what we’re reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Canal Projects Endanger Water Security in Pakistan’s Indus Delta (Al Jazeera)

Dozens of villages in the Indus Delta have been submerged by the encroaching sea over recent years, pushing thousands to migrate inland. Now, local residents in Pakistan fear that new canal projects may further exacerbate water shortages in the region.