-
No, the Panama Canal is Not Running Dry
›Earlier this year the media made much ado about drought conditions constraining traffic through the Panama Canal. But is it really all they’re making it out to be?
The most recent drought conditions started with below-average rainfall in late 2022, and by January 2024 were being described as the worst drought in Canal history. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) ranked 2023 as the second driest year since 1950. News articles reported cargo traffic was reduced by nearly 40% and that the world faced a $270 billion traffic jam in Panama.
-
Climate Change and Children’s Mobility
›Environmental shocks have been linked to significant changes in human migration around the world. Yet the large literature on environmental change and migration to date has primarily focused on working-age adults, working largely on the assumption that climatic impacts are most likely to influence labor migration.
-
Climate Security and Europe’s Greens: A Match Made in Political Heaven?
›When Luxembourg’s Green Party was offered the defense portfolio in coalition talks after performing strongly in the country’s 2019 elections, its senior members faced a dilemma. Never before had a party of its political stripe held that brief anywhere in the world.
Some of the Green rank and file, drawn from pacifist backgrounds, seemed uncertain as to what to make of it all. But to François Bausch, the Green politician who ultimately took on the roles of defense minister and deputy prime minister there, the answer seemed obvious. Here was an opportunity for the party to advocate for climate security from a highly relevant perch, all while showing voters that it could be trusted with such strategic concerns.
-
ECSP Weekly Watch | June 3 – 7
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
The Perils of Climate Reporting: Global Threats to Journalists Surge
Environmental journalists are under attack. That is the conclusion of a new global survey conducted by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and Deakin University. These researchers found that nearly 40% of climate and environment journalists have been threatened with harm, with 11% experiencing actual physical violence—often from individuals involved in illegal logging, mining, and other activities. Testimony from journalists at a recent ECSP event titled Environmental Journalists on the Frontlines of Democracy also made it clear that covering such illegal activities is increasingly perilous.
-
ECSP Weekly Watch | May 27 – 31
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program
Panama’s First Climate-Related Relocation
The Guna Indigenous people of Gardi Sugdub—an island in Panama’s San Blas Archipelago—are moving to new mainland homes in Carti Port’s Isber Yala neighborhood. This move is part of a larger relocation effort supported by the country’s government since 2010 to address the impacts of climate change on its indigenous peoples.
-
The Arc | Dr. Mizan Khan on Loss and Damage and Bangladesh’s Role as a Climate Adaptation Leader
›
In today’s episode of New Security Broadcast, ECSP’s Claire Doyle and Angus Soderberg speak with Dr. Mizan Khan, Technical Lead at the Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change. Dr. Khan was formerly the Deputy Director at the International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), a research institute based in Bangladesh.Dr. Khan describes Bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change and its unique role as an adaptation leader. He also discusses what he believes the core principles of the Loss and Damage Fund should be, and the legacy of the late Dr. Saleemul Huq.
-
ECSP Weekly Watch | May 13 – 17
›A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security ProgramUN World Wildlife Crime Report Reveals Harm of Wildlife Trafficking (UN Office on Drugs and Crime)
In the third World Wildlife Crime Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) discussed trends in illicit trafficking of protected species, analyzed wildlife crime harms and impacts, and took stock of all current knowledge on intervention effectiveness. This report is more comprehensive than its predecessors in 2016 and 2020 due to increased reporting. Despite 20 years of effort, wildlife trafficking persists and is connected with powerful organized crime groups operating in fragile ecosystems. This has implications not only for the spread of organized crime, but also for biodiversity loss and subsequent impacts on climatic fragility.
-
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.
Showing posts from category extreme weather.