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

Climate Breakdown Threatens Global Food Security (The Guardian)

Global agricultural systems now face mounting pressure as climate impacts intensify and crop yields plateau. Production of the world’s most abundant crop, maize, is projected to decline by 6% under low-warming scenarios, and as much as 24% in extreme warming scenarios. Extreme weather wiped out over 1 million hectares of Zambia’s maize in 2024 alone, accounting for half of the country’s total production. An Amazon drought devastated more than 18,000 hectares of crops in Peru, leaving 500,000 children facing both food and water shortages.

Journeying from November 2025’s International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Bogotá to the UN climate negotiations in Belém the following month revealed a fundamental tension. Evidence increasingly shows that climate justice requires reproductive justice, yet translating that recognition into policy commitments continues to raise political apprehensions among stakeholders.

While global climate leaders met in Brazil last month for the 30^th annual global climate summit (COP30), Pakistani women and children continued to deal with the aftermath of the flooding that hit Pakistan this past summer.

When floods struck the Kurdistan region of Iraq earlier this month, it was a deluge that demonstrated how fragmented governance and weak state capacity can transform climate hazards into humanitarian and security crises.

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

Race for Copper Damages Protected Region in Colombia (Mongabay)

As Colombia looks to meet the growing demand for strategic minerals, activists working in the department of Choco allege that the country’s only industrial copper mine is harming both the environment and a local community. The El Roble copper mine has operated since 1990 at the base of a valley crossed by the Atrato River, but its acquisition by Canadian multinational Atico Mining in 2013 has meant that daily production has doubled from 400 to 1,000 metric tons over the past 12 years. El Roble also lacks the environmental license required by Colombia’s Mining Code, and continues to operate under a less stringent 1987 environmental management plan, which activists say omits required environmental impact studies.

Ford’s CEO was so impressed by the Xiaomi SU7 that he now uses it as his daily driver. The Chinese-made electric vehicle (EV) has a 345 mile driving range on a single charge and costs just $30,000. There is nothing like it in the U.S.

A majority of Americans now say they are more concerned than excited about encountering AI in their daily lives. The implications of this sentiment are beginning to dawn on Wall Street investors, who are starting to worry about a potential mismatch between investor enthusiasm and consumer reality.

The latest poll in a series of Afrobarometer surveys reveals just where Africans unite on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)—and where they diverge. There is strong support for women’s autonomy in marriage and reproductive decisions, but clear divisions on contraceptive access.