The harm that comes to the environment during armed conflict is often permanent, yet the lack of advocates to fight for its protection as they happen creates a deafening stillness. Indeed, this state of affairs has led to the environment to be seen as the “silent victim of war.” Vietnam, Kuwait, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and several more nations have been permanently damaged due to the destruction of the environment during armed conflict which can persist long after hostilities have ceased.

In Iraq, climate change is adding stress to an already precarious situation. Weak public services,  growing unemployment, fossil fuel-related environmental and health hazards, and other factors have generated high levels of social vulnerability and contributed to recent protests. In the top post for May, Dylan O’Driscoll and Shivan Fazil write about how, against this fragile backdrop, insecurity is heightened by increasingly deadly flash floods and more frequent dust storms that pose a public health threat.

Is a “green resource curse” on its way? Kimberly Thompson, a Senior Advisor for Natural Resources and Conflict and the Industry Lead for Mining at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), says that the current status quo in the green mining industry risks “inadvertently creating the conditions” for it to happen.

In an increasingly unpredictable world of pandemics, conflict, and disasters, climate change is often at the center of conversations about the instability of global affairs. From California wildfires to droughts across East Africa, the role of climate cannot be ignored in any analysis of global unpredictability. And citizens around the world know it. Growing global public support for governments to aggressively act on climate change has led to an increase in policy action on climate issues.

Reducing maternal mortality is key to promoting population health. It is also a main priority of the UN General Assembly’s Sustainable Development Goals. And the reasons for concern are clear. Globally, 800 women and 6,500 infants die during pregnancy and birth every day. More than 94 percent of these deaths occur in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs).

The massive floods, heat waves, raging wildfires, and devastating droughts of 2021 brought the present reality of climate change’s catastrophic impacts on people and ecosystems home to our doorsteps.

Cristina Dorador has decided that science is not enough. The Chilean microbiologist’s decades of research have convinced her that the unique ecosystem of her country’s Atacama desert is threatened by ever-expanding lithium mines. She has spent years trying to convince the nation’s leaders to protect the place, with little success.

Now, she’s seizing a historic opportunity: Her election to Chile’s constitutional assembly in 2021 has given Dorador a chance to try to change not only Chile’s lithium industry, but the country’s whole approach to natural resources. But will her endeavor have broader implications for the worldwide shift to renewable energy?