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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category Guest Contributor.
  • USAID’s Revised Water and Conflict Toolkit

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 22, 2023  //  By Ekta Patel & Erika Weinthal
    Screen Shot 2023-03-21 at 5.24.14 PM

    Links between water and conflict seem to crop up everywhere one looks these days. The Horn of Africa will soon face a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in 2023—its worst drought on record. Not only is this drought a consequence of global climate change, but it has also led to widespread food shortages and local civil conflicts. And over the past year in Ukraine, Russian troops have directly damaged that nation’s already vulnerable water systems, including pipelines, pumping stations, and treatment facilities. These repeated attacks on water infrastructure have not only undermined local livelihoods in Ukraine, but they have also polluted surface waters and threatened biodiversity.

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  • The UN Water Conference and Latin American Transboundary Waters: A Case for Better Governance

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 21, 2023  //  By Alexander Lopez
    1600px-City_of_Carauari,_the_Juruá_River_and_its_tributaries,_taken_from_the_International_Space_Station

    In recent decades, the international system has undergone profound changes—especially in terms of the types of threats that destabilize international peace and security. As new threats emerge, a focus on new dimensions of the concept of security is now reaching the top of the international agenda. In this context, the global freshwater crisis is beginning to be perceived as an existential threat to states requiring extraordinary measures to alleviate or solve the problem.

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  • Tracking Conflict and Cooperation Over the World’s International Freshwater Resources

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 20, 2023  //  By Alexandra Caplan, Melissa McCracken, Susanne Schmeier, Zoe Rosenblum & Aaron Wolf
    TFDD_Basins_GlobalMap_color_Cropped

    Waters that cross international political borders can drive the countries that share them to conflict—or encourage cooperation between them. Indeed, since the 1940s, overall trends point to a tendency for countries to cooperate over shared water resources, which stands in stark contrast to media portrayals of “water wars.”

    Yet instances of conflict over water have increased slightly since 2000. Why? Most of them are fueled by water quantity disputes or the unilateral development of dams or other infrastructure. Institutions often play a key role in facilitating cooperation (and reducing conflict) over shared waters, but their growth and adoption have slowed over the last two to three decades.

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  • Soil’s Key Role in Fighting Climate Change in U.S. and Chinese Agriculture: The Wisdom of Dr. Rattan Lal

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  March 9, 2023  //  By Karen Mancl
    Vineyard,Rows,Flow,Down,A,Hill,,With,Green,Grass,And

    Soil degradation affects one-third of the Earth’s surface, triggering dust storms, floods, and landslides. It is also a global threat to our food supply, and diminishes the soil’s ability to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change. China has only 0.21 hectares of agricultural land per person, which is well below the global average. Worse yet, over 40 percent of that land is already degraded.  

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  • Climate Security and Critical Minerals Mining in Latin America: How Can Business Help?

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 7, 2023  //  By Héctor Camilo Morales Muñoz, Johanna Dieffenbacher, Raquel Munayer & Beatrice Mosello
    San,Salvador,De,Jujuy,,Jujuy/argentina,-,05-24-2019:,Indigenous,Communities,Of

    The amount of critical minerals required to develop low-carbon energy technologies is predicted to be six times higher than what is needed today. Yet meeting this demand is necessary to enable a global transition that will address climate change and  comply with agreements such as the European Green New Deal.

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  • Can the Growing Trans-Pacific Wildlife Trade Be Stopped?

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 3, 2023  //  By Sharon Guynup

    MM8421 - Iquitos Peru  Markets and Police - Jaguar skins, teeth and claws for sale. Wildlife Authority with seized skins Man with skin he bought showing off for his neighbors Bora People in Amazon with skin

    Today’s celebration of World Wildlife Day is a perfect time to focus greater attention on the rapidly growing Latin America-to-Asia wildlife trade. It now has reached crisis proportions, with both illegal and legal shipments rising in tandem with China’s economic investment in the region.

    Experts link this mushrooming trans-Pacific animal trade to large-scale development projects by Chinese companies. Over the past 15 years, two state-owned Chinese banks have loaned more than $140 billion for infrastructure, road, railway and mining projects in Latin America.

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  • Climate Security in The Horn: Crafting a Broader Role for Non-State Actors in IGAD

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    Guest Contributor  //  February 24, 2023  //  By Messay Gobena
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    The Horn of Africa now faces an unprecedented drought, with conditions not seen in the last 40 years. The implications of this looming catastrophe reach beyond the most recent severe drought periods in the region, which occurred in 2010 and 2011 and again in 2016 and 2017.

    As of November 2022, over 36 million people in the Horn were affected by drought, including 24.1 million in Ethiopia, 7.8 million in Somalia, and 4.2 million in Kenya. More than 20 million children in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia need immediate water and food assistance. In addition, nearly 1 million pregnant and lactating women are acutely malnourished. Since mid-2021, more than 9.5 million livestock have perished in the region due to a lack of water, starvation, and disease.

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  • Climate, Poverty, Democracy: What Is at Stake in Nigeria’s 2023 Election?

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    Guest Contributor  //  February 23, 2023  //  By Adenike Oladosu
    A,Man,Casting,His,Vote,At,A,Pooling,Unit,In

    On February 25, Nigeria will hold its presidential election. The stakes of this ballot could not be any higher—especially for the climate. Climate change is an existential and current reality in Nigeria, and the coming decade will be crucial to meet the nation’s sustainable development goals. It will take political will to make climate justice a reality, and Nigerians now have the opportunity to choose leaders who will either make or mar the action to address this threat.

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