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

Climate Health Risks Spur Public Support for Action (Climate Change News)

Climate Opinion Research Exchange’s late 2025 survey of over 30,000 respondents across Brazil, India, Japan, and South Africa found that more than 80% of respondents expressed concern about climate impacts. Those surveyed also backed government measures to address the public health risks associated with climate change. While researchers believe that framing these questions as public health issues is particularly effective at building broad support, the survey also revealed that the most resonant health messages vary by country. Water scarcity draw attention in South Africa, while mental health has significant resonance in Brazil. Those in Japan see extreme heat as a key issue.

From Zambia to Indonesia, recent headlines about catastrophic toxic mining spills grimly underscore how the global push to secure one set of resources, critical minerals, might be compromising another: water.

“This isn’t just an environmental story,” said Lauren Risi, Director of the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program, at a recent event on protecting water resources amid increasing mining, held ahead of World Water Day 2026. “For many of these communities, the water being put at risk is their source of drinking water. It’s critical to subsistence farming and livelihoods. It sits at the center of daily life. When mining degrades or disrupts access to it, the consequences are immediate and personal,” she said.

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

Experts Sound Alarm Over Peru-Brazil Biooceanic Railway Risks (Mongabay) 

A proposed railway linking Peru’s Pacific coast to Brazil’s Atlantic is drawing alarm from conservation experts and Indigenous rights advocates. Brazil and China signed a feasibility study agreement for new route crossing both the Andes and the Amazon rainforest in July 2025, with China playing a central role in financing and development. Two alternatives are under consideration, with one running through Peru’s Ucayali region and the other through Madre de Dios, but neither has been approved. A single line could impact 15 protected natural areas, threatening over 1,800 campesino communities, as well as territories inhabited by Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. 

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

Mexico’s Mercury Boom is Poisoning People and the Environment (Associated Press)

In Mexico’s Sierra Gorda mountains, soaring international gold prices also have created a mercury boom. Since 2011, mercury prices have skyrocketed from $20 per kilogram to between $240 and $350 per kilogram today. Most of Mexico’s mercury is trafficked to Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru for use in illegal Amazon gold mining operations that contaminate rivers and ecosystems. Yet the country’s adoption of a 2017 UN convention banning mercury mining and exports also allows artisanal mines to operate until 2032.

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

The World’s Children Face the Most Severe Impacts from Wildfire Smoke (Mongabay)

Evidence of the alarming impacts of wildfire smoke on child health is growing. Children’s developing lungs, faster breathing rates, and greater outdoor exposure make them uniquely vulnerable, and the threat is intensifying as wildfires grow more extreme, incinerating not just forests but urban areas, releasing toxic heavy metals and chemicals. 

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.

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.