Sunsets started to tease the Arctic horizon as scientists on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy headed south in the Chukchi Sea during the final days collecting ocean data for the 2011 ICESCAPE mission. Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Climate change already devastates our environment, most visibly in the form of massive … Continue reading Climate Change: A Dynamic Threat
Category: Environment & Health
The Resource Curse, Colonialism, and The Hypocrisy of Western “Climate Leadership”
Photo Credit: Getty Images Introduction: Is Colonialism still in the Atmosphere? Western countries are often hypocrites, especially when it comes to climate change mitigation. As the world works to curb emissions and tackle climate change, many Western countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany, are investing in green energy sectors across African countries attempting … Continue reading The Resource Curse, Colonialism, and The Hypocrisy of Western “Climate Leadership”
How Air Pollution Acts as a Force Multiplier for Aggressive Behavior, and What Can Be Done About it
By now, we are well aware of the catastrophic effects of greenhouse gas emissions and corrupt industrial practices. We are pumping pollutants into our atmosphere at least 10 times the rates at which humans did 250 million years ago when the largest extinction event in Earth’s history nearly wiped out all life on Earth. Low-altitude … Continue reading How Air Pollution Acts as a Force Multiplier for Aggressive Behavior, and What Can Be Done About it
Are Almonds the National Security Threat of the Moment?
An Abandoned Almond Orchard in Newman, California. Photo Credit: Terry Chea/AP It is not a coincidence that both the Southwest and California, agricultural centers of the U.S., are increasingly water stressed. Though megadroughts are now a characteristic of the region, California alone produces more than 90 percent of some U.S. agricultural products, including broccoli, almonds, … Continue reading Are Almonds the National Security Threat of the Moment?
Environmental Racism and Climate Justice: The Racialized Climate Catastrophe
A child navigates flooding in the Kurigram District of Bangladesh. Photo Credit: The United Nations Children's Fund/Akash In policymaking circles at home and abroad, there is a growing consensus that climate change represents a grave threat to both national and global security. From Southeast Asia to the Arctic Circle, disparate regions will contend with rising … Continue reading Environmental Racism and Climate Justice: The Racialized Climate Catastrophe
Rethinking the Traditional US National Security Agenda: Part One
Photo Credit: Science|Business The events that have unfolded in 2020 thus far underscore the need to rethink the US national security agenda. For decades, the U.S. has zeroed in on great power competition and terrorism as leading US national security concerns. This ordering reflects the traditional security paradigm, which places the state at the center … Continue reading Rethinking the Traditional US National Security Agenda: Part One
Climate Change and Armed Conflict: Assessing the World’s Most Vulnerable Region
Global map depicting warming temperatures. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Perhaps no region on Earth is positioned to suffer the horrors of climate change more acutely than the Middle East, which already contends with limited rainfall, prolonged droughts, and scorching heat. This is especially worrisome given that scholars posit a direct connection between rising global temperatures and … Continue reading Climate Change and Armed Conflict: Assessing the World’s Most Vulnerable Region
Beijing-Moscow Relations Will Cool As the Arctic Heats Up
President Putin and President Xi. Photo Credit: AP By: Ezra Shapiro, Columnist In recent years, Russia and China’s growing collaboration on energy and shipping projects in the Arctic has caused some consternation among U.S policymakers. Despite the countries’ current cooperation, Moscow and Beijing’s long-term ambitions are fundamentally at odds with each other. Russia places a … Continue reading Beijing-Moscow Relations Will Cool As the Arctic Heats Up
A “Near-Arctic” Newcomer: China’s Maturing Arctic Strategy
Graphic design for annual Barents Spektakel in Kirkenes, Norway, depicting Chinese characters in celebration of the festival’s 2019 theme: ‘The World’s Northernmost Chinatown’” Photo Credit: Pikene på Broen AS, featured at Crypolitics. By: Ashley Postler, Columnist The globalized nature of climate change—“what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic”[i]—and the vast economic … Continue reading A “Near-Arctic” Newcomer: China’s Maturing Arctic Strategy
The Competition Heats Up: Climate Change and the Erosion of U.S. Military Power
A fire burns several miles behind Space Launch Complex-3, housing the Atlas V rocket & WorldView 4 satellite, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Photo Credit: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP. By: Christine Bang-Andersen, Columnist The costs and risks associated with climate change have long been exacerbated by its denial, but the … Continue reading The Competition Heats Up: Climate Change and the Erosion of U.S. Military Power