Welcome to Read, Watch, Listen from the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), a monthly round-up highlighting some of the articles, interviews, and podcasts featuring the CCS network of experts.
This month, our experts were largely focused on the crisis in Ukraine and how it might intersect with a changing climate and policies to address it. In addition to the CCS briefer on the topic, experts were featured in print and on the air talking about the climate connections, from the energy transition to food security.
Articles
- Rod Schoonover, head of the Ecological Security Program at the Council on Strategic Risks and member of the CCS advisory board, spoke about the way the Ukraine crisis is going to impact the climate crisis. (BRINK)
- Sherri Goodman, CCS Senior Strategist, spoke about the diplomatic fallout of the Russian invasion for Arctic cooperation. (Arctic Today)
- Director Erin Sikorsky spoke about the crisis in Ukraine, covering a variety of topics including: Why the conflict is still a climate story (LA Times); why it does not diminish the need for climate action from NATO (Scientific American); and what Russia’s use of fossil fuel as leverage should mean for the future. (Rolling Stone)
- Schoonover highlighted the importance of focusing on climate and Ukraine at the same time—especially in light of the new IPCC Working Group II report on Risk, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. (Inside Climate News)
- The CCS briefer on the climate dimensions of the Ukraine crisis, written by Sikorsky and Program Assistants Elsa Barron and Brigitte Hugh, was drawn on for analysis by World War Zero.
- Outside of coverage of the war in Ukraine, Sikorsky and CCS co-founder Francesco Femia contributed an alternate ending for Don’t Look Up, the Netflix film that debuted at the end of 2021 (Don’t miss the key role played by the Ukrainian missions to the UN and sunflower seeds). (Netflix)
- Non-resident fellows David Michel and Michael Thomas each contributed chapters—on water security and military forces, respectively—to a future-looking publication “Geopolitics of Climate and Security IndoPacific.” (Australian Strategic Policy Institute)
- CCS Senior Fellow Colin Kelley, and CCS co-founders Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell, published a chapter on climate and water security in the Middle East in the French volume “La Guerre Chaud (The Hot War)” published by SciencesPo.
Op-Eds
- Admiral Dennis V. McGinn (ret.), CCS advisory board member, writes that Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a warning to the US to achieve energy independence with renewables. (The Hill)
- Beyond just the US, the war in Ukraine exposed the global security risk that is fossil fuel dependence. Sikorsky writes that the transition to clean energy is the answer. (International Politics and Society)
- Non-resident senior research fellow, Cullen Hendrix, shows how the conflict in Ukraine will ultimately impact global food and energy prices. (Washington Post)
Podcasts
- Goodman was featured on the Threshold podcast to talk about the climate crisis. (Threshold)
- Sikorsky appeared on Here and Now to discuss rising gas prices as a result of the Russian invasion and what it means for the climate. (NPR/WBUR)
- Marisol Maddox, a non-resident research fellow at CCS, appeared on the Chatter podcast to discuss the implications of the war in Ukraine for Arctic cooperation. (Chatter)
- Elsa Barron spoke with Russian climate activist Tatiana Shauro about the impact of war on climate. (Olive Shoot)
At the end of the month, CCS published Challenge Accepted: A Progress Report on the Climate Security Plan for America and Recommendations for the Way Ahead. The report assesses the ambition and action of the Biden Administration on climate security, laying out its achievements, highlighting room for improvement, and making recommendations for future prioritization. Nearly 80 U.S. national security experts, including former Ambassadors, senior intelligence officials, and generals, have endorsed the report.
- Defense One highlights the recommendations to improve climate forecasting and wargaming, noting that even with progress made, there is considerable work left to do.
- With climate change impacts growing, the United States will need to plan now to prevent the military becoming overwhelmed, noted Thomson Reuters Foundation in its story on the report.
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