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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category water security.
  • Water @ Wilson Event | Water, Peace, & Security: New Tools for a New Climate

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    From the Wilson Center  //  December 16, 2022  //  By Claire Doyle
    Untitled (645 × 430 px) copy

    Water sustains life on our planet. And access to clean and safe water is foundational to society. So why has it only been in recent years that water has risen to the top of discussions of climate and security? Richard W. Spinrad, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, says that one of the biggest reasons is the major impact that climate-related changes in precipitation like droughts and extreme rainfall are having across the globe: “We’re starting to see things like we’ve never seen before. The nature of storms is changing: We saw five feet of rain fall in Hurricane Harvey. Five feet.”

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  • Water at COP27: Hydrating Climate Policy Negotiations in the Desert

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    Guest Contributor  //  December 6, 2022  //  By Ingrid Timboe & John Matthews
    Sunset,Over,The,Nile,River,In,The,City,Of,Aswan

    Is water important in climate policy? It seems obvious. Water has a well-established link as the medium of most negative climate impacts. Yet when it comes to addressing the climate crisis, the answer depends very much on who you ask.

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  • New Analysis by Peter Schwartzstein: How Water Strategizing is Remaking the Middle East

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  October 27, 2022  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    Elazig,-,Turkey.,08.28.2019,Panoramic,View,Of,The,Elazig,Keban

    In the run up to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the first summit of its kind to be hosted in the region, water is rising on the agenda, and for good reason. In a new essay for the Wilson Center, Global Fellow Peter Schwartzstein explores how governments across the Middle East are approaching a world with less water – and to what effect. Drawing on a decade of environmental reportage from the Middle East, Schwartzstein sketches out how, why, and with what consequences states have adopted often dramatically divergent strategies.

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  • Water Diplomacy can Learn from Realist Ideas

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    Guest Contributor  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  July 19, 2022  //  By Sumit Vij, Jeroen Warner, Mark Zeitoun & Christian Bréthaut
    UNSC - 1

    As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and nations are returning to behaviors best explained by realism, we are wrestling with these trends’ longer-term implications on water diplomacy. States are becoming inward-looking and prioritizing national sovereignty. Debates about water and climate are resurfacing, and we should better understand how hard power and inward-looking approaches can impact water diplomacy and cooperation. To inform policymakers about power sensitivities and power games played in diplomacy, water diplomats must rethink the future of water security and peace. They should reexamine leadership styles, cultural sensitivities, and knowledge exchange from the lens of realism.

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  • Top 5 Posts for June 2022

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    What You Are Reading  //  July 18, 2022  //  By Abegail Anderson
    shutterstock_512818693-645x430

    From climate change to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, the world is a landscape of increasing instability. Book-ending the Top 5 posts of June are two articles that explore different aspects of these converging risks. In the top post for June, Steven Gale and Mat Burrows write that globally, younger generations are becoming increasingly disengaged and discontent with their democratic governments, civil society, and institutions. Youth disillusionment is not a result of ignorance to current affairs, but rather a lack of faith in democratic institutions to address today’s most pressing global issues. Tackling youth disillusionment, suggest Gale and Burrows, begins with examining youth engagement trends and placing it at the top of the agenda.

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  • Top 5 Posts for May 2022

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    What You Are Reading  //  June 28, 2022  //  By Claire Doyle
    shutterstock_1669215115-645x430

    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.

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  • Sustaining Shared Waters: An African Case Study

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    Guest Contributor  //  June 3, 2022  //  By Sarah Davidson

    African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Bwabwata National Park (Buffalo core area) in the Zambezi Region of Namibia.

    As we face the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, natural resource management is now more critical than ever—especially in the protection of one of our most precious resources: water.

    The stakes of getting it wrong couldn’t be higher: increasing economic inequities and substandard public health for a growing population. And the evidence that such issues have won the attention of political leaders is increasing, with the June 2022 introduction of a White House Action Plan on Global Water Security that links this crucial issue directly to U.S. national security and offers pathways and proposed resources to advance progress broadly on multiple fronts.

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  • The “Fuel of the Future” and Water Insecurity in South Africa’s Platinum Belt

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    May 16, 2022  //  By Tokollo Matsabu

    Chrome,And,Platinum,Mine,,North,Eastern,Part,Of,South,Africa;

    A new contribution in a continuing series examining “backdraft“—the unintended consequences of climate change responses—and how its effects might be anticipated and minimized to avoid conflict and promote peace.

    Hydrogen fuel is becoming a central pillar of global decarbonization strategies. The hype over green hydrogen (the “fuel of the future”) and its potential to provide an abundance of low carbon fuel to transportation and industry has enticed several major emitting countries to scale up its production. And a UN-backed initiative wants to achieve a 50-fold production increase in the next six years.

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