Image Source: U.S. Fire Administration Wildfire in the United States is reaching a crisis point. As global climate change continues, every fire season is becoming longer and drier. However, despite the growing risk, the United States still relies on old methods of firefighting and inefficient organizations to coordinate responses. To prepare for a fire-filled future, … Continue reading Burnt Out: Rethinking U.S. Wildfire Fighting Strategy
Category: Environment & Health
Mad Max: Climate Change, the Panama Canal, and U.S. National Security
Image Source: Shutterstock Rodolfo Sabonge served for 27 years as the Vice President for Planning and Development at the Panama Canal Authority. During the keynote remarks for the annual Climate Mobility Summit in September 2022, Mr. Sabonge briefly discussed the scenario design work he and his team undertook in the mid-1990s. Each scenario demonstrated the … Continue reading Mad Max: Climate Change, the Panama Canal, and U.S. National Security
The Need for Private Investment to Tackle Climate Change in Africa
Image Source: Focal Foto The evidence is clear: within ten years the world is likely to surpass the 1.5°C global warming threshold. Surpassing this threshold will significantly endanger natural systems and will be accompanied by major climate catastrophes. Even if the threshold is avoided, climate change will have a significant – although highly disproportionate – … Continue reading The Need for Private Investment to Tackle Climate Change in Africa
China’s Monopoly over Critical Minerals
Image Source: BBC As part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken to investing in critical mineral mines globally. One of these investment hotspots is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 2020, the DRC was the world’s largest cobalt miner, producing 41 of all cobalt resources. Although not … Continue reading China’s Monopoly over Critical Minerals
Climate Change and Boots on the Ground: A New Frontier for Humanitarian Intervention?
Image source: Department of Defense. U.S. Marines and Nepalese soldiers unload tarps off of a UH-1Y Venom helicopter at Orang, Nepal, during Operation Sahayogi Haat, May 2015. Climate change is now at the forefront of the Pentagon’s priorities. So far, the U.S. military’s mission on climate change mitigation has focused on cleaning up and developing … Continue reading Climate Change and Boots on the Ground: A New Frontier for Humanitarian Intervention?
Blame Governments, Not the Environment: How Political Failures Worsen the Effects of Climate Change in West Africa
With seven coups since 2020, West Africa is drawing global attention as a hotspot for conflict and a critical locus of discourse on climate security. Rising temperatures and scarce rainfall have amplified the dangerous effects of weak governance, ethnic rivalries, lack of economic opportunities, and violent extremism in the region. Government policy failures in the … Continue reading Blame Governments, Not the Environment: How Political Failures Worsen the Effects of Climate Change in West Africa
Feeding the Hungry with Feminist Theory
Image Source: Food Navigator (Getty Images) Food security, when every person has access to enough food to meet their dietary needs for a healthy lifestyle, is more important now than ever before. It’s estimated that roughly 345 million people worldwide are struggling with food security. Effects of climate change, the war in Ukraine, and the … Continue reading Feeding the Hungry with Feminist Theory
PRC’s Renewed Soft Power Strategy and U.S. Global Health Security Efforts in Latin America
Image Source: Observer Research Foundation, Diplomacy Gone Amiss. When Joseph Nye coined the term “soft power” in 1990, he could not have known how strongly the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would buy into the concept; China’s leader Hu Jintao declared in 2007 that the PRC needed to invest more into soft power. Since that … Continue reading PRC’s Renewed Soft Power Strategy and U.S. Global Health Security Efforts in Latin America
What Russia’s Weaponization of Hunger Can Tell Us About the Power of Shame
The Black Sea Grain Initiative is a UN-brokered agreement between Russia and Ukraine signed in July 2022 (Public Domain Pictures). The global humanitarian community had whiplash last week. This stems from Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement facilitating the exportation of wheat from the region, and then promptly re-entered … Continue reading What Russia’s Weaponization of Hunger Can Tell Us About the Power of Shame
Health on the (Red) Line: Refocusing on Malaria in the Discourse of Climate Change
(Image source: Gerald Yuvallos - flickr/Yuvallos/2005) Malaria: The Silent Killer The second most deadly animal in the world is the human; the first is the mosquito. Different species of mosquitoes transmit parasitic infections, such as Zika virus, West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, dengue, and malaria. The Anopheles mosquito carries malaria and in the 20th and … Continue reading Health on the (Red) Line: Refocusing on Malaria in the Discourse of Climate Change