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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category climate change.
  • Cape Town’s Harrowing Journey to the Brink of Water Catastrophe

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  September 14, 2018  //  By Brett Walton
    2018-04-South-Africa-Cape-Town-BWalton-IMG_4939-Edit-2500

    The original version of this post by Brett Walton appeared on Circle of Blue. Travel funding for this story came from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
     

     This is what a water panic looks like in a major global city.

    People hoard water. They queue for hours, well into the night, to fill jugs at natural springs. Like mad Christmas shoppers, they clear supermarkets of bottled water. They descend on stockers before they can fill the shelves.

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  • As Andean Glaciers Retreat, So Does Regional Security

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  September 11, 2018  //  By Kate Cullen
    Silala Meeting Chile Bolivia

    Last month, Bolivia filed a counterclaim against Chile in the International Court of Justice—the latest salvo in their battle over rights to the waters of the Silala River. The court will decide whether Silala is “an international watercourse”—thus granting water rights to Chilean mining operations—or simply an artificial diversion of Bolivian spring water by Chile. This legal case marks the latest chapter in Bolivia and Chile’s historically delicate relationship, which dates back to the War of the Pacific in the late 19th century.

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  • The New Slave Trade: Migration, Trafficking, and Terrorists in Libya

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  August 29, 2018  //  By Alexander Farley
    Returnees-from-Libya

    While dismayed Americans watched the “zero tolerance” policy of family separation unfolding at the Mexican border, across the Atlantic, another shocking migration crisis continues to fester. Behind the grueling headlines of drownings in the Mediterranean Sea, migrants run a gauntlet of abuse through the Sahara desert to reach the Libyan coast. Armed militias and terrorist organizations across the Sahel profit by smuggling people displaced by climate, population, and security crises. While European policymakers struggle to cope with arrivals, their containment approach consistently disregards the root causes that force people to take such unimaginable risks. The high value of these human commodities not only exposes vulnerable migrants to torture, extortion, and even enslavement, but also provides funds for terrorist groups intent on attacking the West.

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  • Big Dams, Big Damage: The Growing Risk of Failure

    ›
    August 21, 2018  //  By Olivia Smith
    Kariba-Dam

    Last month, a partially completed dam in Laos’ Attapeu province collapsed, washing away people and villages in its path. Hundreds of people are still missing and more than six thousand are homeless. And after last summer’s hurricanes, U.S. citizens in Houston and Puerto Rico escaped death but were forced to evacuate when dams were flooded. Dam failure can be catastrophic for people, property, and power—and the risks are rising, due to lack of investment in maintenance, growing vulnerability to climate change, and the demonstrated potential of cyberattacks.

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  • Mothers of Invention: New Podcast from Mary Robinson and Maeve Higgins

    ›
    Friday Podcasts  //  August 17, 2018  //  By Benjamin Dills
    MothersOfInvention_PressShot_10

    Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, and Maeve Higgins, Irish comic, have teamed up to talk climate change with pioneering women leaders from around the world. In the coming weeks, their new podcast, Mothers of Invention, will feature an African politician, an Indian scientist, a Native American activist, and many more.

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  • Water Security in a New Age of Nationalism

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  August 14, 2018  //  By Giulio Boccaletti
    Flint-Hamilton-Dam

    The idea of a “new middle” or “third way”—a blend of neo-liberal economic doctrines and social policies that was supposed to overcome the dichotomy between mixed economy and free market paradigms—more or less dominated U.S. and European politics for the last two decades. But today, this centrist consensus has been upended by a wave of populist, nationalist parties. Many have won over their electorates by questioning the benefits of free trade and globalization (as well as the international institutions that espouse them), while pursuing expansionary domestic economic policies.

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  • Europe Takes the Lead in Climate, Energy, and Security

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  August 8, 2018  //  By Zoe Dutton
    European-Commission

    With the tumultuous NATO summit and a simmering trade war dominating stateside headlines last month, the European Union’s progress on climate-security connections has received little attention. After the U.S. government rolled back its significant efforts in early 2017, the EU and its leading members—particularly Sweden and Germany—picked up the ball. Three significant events herald what could be the start of a new era of climate-security policymaking—one under European leadership.

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  • Water and Governance: Changing Water Laws in a Changing Climate

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  August 2, 2018  //  By Elizabeth Herzfeldt-Kamprath
    Columbia-River_2

    The Columbia River basin—which spans four U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and 32 Tribal Nations or First Nations—touches the lives of more than five million people each day. The basin’s 250 hydroelectric dams power everything from Google’s data center to irrigation pumps that spread water onto fields of alfalfa and potatoes. Steelhead trout and salmon rely on the river to spawn. Ships and tugboats transport millions of tons of cargo to and from the Pacific Ocean.

    MORE
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