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Climate, Conflict, and Changing Demographics Command Attention in New Global Health Security Report
›A new report by the US Intelligence Community highlights what the world stands to lose if it fails to cooperate on global health. The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) “Dynamics Shaping Global Health Security In the Next Decade” outlines the dire effects of climate change, changing demographics, and the erosion of trust in institutions on global health security. The NIE on Global Health Security was made publicly available in April 2024, on the heels of the Biden-Harris Administration’s launch of a new Global Health Security Strategy.
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ECSP Weekly Watch | May 6 – 10
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
2024 World Migration Report Highlights Climate-Food-Mobility Nexus (International Organization for Migration)
The International Organization for Migration’s flagship World Migration Report 2024 highlights a wide variety of factors contributing to global migration, including conflict, economic or political insecurity, and climate change. Between 2020 and 2022 the number of asylum seekers increased more than 30% to 5.4 million people. The report centers climate change’s impact on food security as a core driver of migration. In 2022, 275 million people faced acute food insecurity, which represents a 146% increase since 2016.
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ECSP Weekly Watch: April 29 – May 3
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security ProgramEnvironmental Prize Winners Highlight Local Communities’ Fight Against Fossil Fuels (New York Times)
On Monday, several environmental leaders won the Goldman Environmental Prize, which the Goldman Environmental Foundation awards annually to grassroots environmental activists from each of the world’s six geographic regions. This year’s prize comes as environmental advocacy groups, especially indigenous ones, increasingly fight legal battles against companies or government entities that wish to use their land for oil and gas acquisition or coal mining.
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Beyond Complicity, Obstruction and Geopolitics: Military Forces and Climate Security
›The contentious and ambiguous entanglement that military forces have with their natural environment inevitably sparkles public interest and academic research. So how does the existing scholarly work inform our assessment of this convergence?
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ECSP Weekly Watch | April 8 – 12
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
Cholera in Southern Africa Linked to Climate Threats (The New Humanitarian)
In Southern Africa, climate change is encouraging rural-to-urban migration that is also creating a public health crisis. Cholera outbreaks have infected 188,000 Southern Africans since 2022, with 4,100 deaths. Zambia currently faces the harshest impacts, with 705 reported deaths and 21,000 infections since October. Its president, Hakainde Hichilema, even called for citizens to move out of cities to prevent the spread of cholera in January—largely due to increasing concern of the diseases’ spread in informal settlements.
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Water @ Wilson | MODSNOW: A New Tool for Water Security in Central and South Asia
›Central and South Asia’s water resources are critical for the region’s water, energy, food and environmental security. Major rivers in the region originate from the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya, Pamir, and Tien Shan Mountain Ranges and flow across multiple countries. Unique geographical characteristics make water management a complex and challenging task that is further complicated by a changing climate and increasing demand affecting diminishing water resources.
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ECSP Weekly Watch | March 11 – 15
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
China is Leading the World on Renewable Energy (Yale 360)
In November, Chinese and U.S. climate envoys pledged to triple global renewable energy by 2030, signaling renewed cooperation between the top two greenhouse gas emitters. However, the two countries are not quite on equal footing when it comes to renewable energy.
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ECSP Weekly Watch: February 19 – 23
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security ProgramProgress—and Room for Improvement—in UNEP’s Annual Report (United Nations Environment Programme)
How effective is the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s work on the fight against climate change? Its Annual Report analyzed the work it has done over the past year to do so. The UNEP supports key areas in which progress has been made, including waste reduction through the Global Framework on Chemicals and global instrument on plastic pollution, biodiversity protection efforts through various frameworks, and loss and damage mobilization through COP28.
Showing posts from category geopolitics.