Environmental security

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Environmental security examines threats posed by environmental events and trends to individuals, communities or nations. It may focus on the impact of human conflict and international relations on the environment, or on how environmental problems cross state borders.

General

The Millennium Project assessed definitions of environmental security and created a synthesis definition:

Environmental security is environmental viability for life support, with three sub-elements:

  • preventing or repairing military damage to the environment,
  • preventing or responding to environmentally caused conflicts, and
  • protecting the environment due to its inherent
    moral value
    .

It considers the abilities of individuals, communities or nations to cope with environmental risks, changes or conflicts, or limited natural resources. For example, climate change can be viewed a threat to environmental security (see the article climate security for more nuance to the discussion.) Human activity impacts CO2 emissions, impacting regional and global climatic and environmental changes and thus changes in agricultural output. This can lead to food shortages which will then cause political debate, ethnic tension, and civil unrest.[1]

Environmental security is an important concept in three fields: international relations and international development and human security.

Within international development, projects may aim to improve aspects of environmental security such as

fisheries on which many people depend for food. Fisheries are an example of a resource that cannot be contained within state borders. A conflict before the International Court of Justice between Chile and Peru about maritime borders and their associated fisheries[3]
is a case study for environmental security.

History

The

Copenhagen School defines the referent object of environmental security as the environment, or some strategic part of it.[4]

Historically, the definition of international security has varied over time. After World War II, definitions typically focused on the subject of realpolitik that developed during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

As tensions between the superpowers eased after the collapse of the Soviet Union, academic discussions of definitions of security significantly expanded, particularly including environmental threats associated with the political implications of resource use or pollution.[5] By the mid-1980s, this field of study was becoming known as "environmental security". Despite a wide range of semantic and academic debates over terms, it is now widely acknowledged that environmental factors play both direct and indirect roles in both political disputes and violent conflicts.

In the academic sphere environmental security is defined as the relationship between security concerns such as armed conflict and the natural environment. A small but rapidly developing field, it has become particularly relevant for those studying resource scarcity and conflict in the developing world. Prominent early researchers in the field include

Joseph Romm
.

Origins

According to Jon Barnett, environmental security emerged as an important concept in

World Wildlife Fund (1961), Friends of the Earth (1969), and Greenpeace (1971) were founded during that time.[6] Climate security
is an extension of environmental security.

The second notable development which brings the emergence of concept of environmental security was number of scholars started to criticize the traditional notion of security and mainstream security debates in their work from 1970s by emphasizing its inability to handle environmental problems at national and international security level.

Richard Falk who published 'This Endangered Planet' (1971), and Harold and Margaret Sprout who wrote 'Toward a Politics of Planet Earth' (1971). These two commentators asserted in their book that the notion of security can no longer be centered only on military power, rather nations should collectively take measurements against common environmental problems since they pose threat to national well-being and thus international stability. These main ideas about environmental interdependence between countries and common security threat have remained key themes of environmental security studies.[6][8] However, not until Richard Ullman publishes an academic article named "Redefining Security" (1983), radical departure from the dominant security discourse haven't happened. Ullman offered the following definition of national security threat as "an action or sequence of events that (1) threatens drastically and over a relatively brief span of time to degrade the quality of life for the inhabitants of a state, or (2) threatens significantly to narrow the range of policy choices available to the government of a state, or to private, nongovernmental entities within the state".[9] Significant other scientists onward also linked the issue of security by focusing on the role of environmental degradation in causing violent conflict. Others, while recognizing the importance of environmental problems, argued that labeling them 'environmental security' was problematic and abandoned analytical rigor for normative and emotional power.[10]

Environmental change and security

Even though

human society
.

Climate change also could, through extreme weather events, have a more direct impact on

military bases, naval yards and training grounds, thereby severely threatening essential national defense resources.[13]

Selected early literature

See also

References

  1. ^ Chalecki, Elizabeth. Environmental Security: A Case Study of Climate Change. Pacific Institute for Studies of Development, Environment, and Security
  2. SSRN 2695579
    .
  3. ^ "Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile)". The Hague Justice Portal. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  4. ^ Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998).
  5. doi:10.3917/ri.125.0097
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780199694778
    .
  7. ^ "Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson". Archived from the original on 29 May 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  8. ISBN 9780262013406
    . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  9. S2CID 201778290. Retrieved 29 September 2016.[permanent dead link
    ]
  10. S2CID 143290289
    .
  11. doi:10.3989/pirineos.2008.v163.22
    .
  12. ^ "Renewable Resources and Conflict" (PDF). Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  13. ^ "Climate Change and National Security". Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2016.

Further reading

Library resources about
Environmental security

External links
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