Home » Articles posted by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell (Page 18)
Author Archives: Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell
New Analysis from the Center for Climate and Security – Ten Years After its Founding
By Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) has been producing cutting-edge analysis on the security risks of climate change since its founding ten years ago – back when few were paying attention to this dimension of national and international security. Today, climate security risks are unfortunately on the rise across the world, and the need for continued analysis (and urgent policy action) on the issue has never been greater. In this context, the CCS team continues to deliver informed warnings about the state of climate security, and to offer solutions. Here is a list of notable output from CCS, and its experts, over the past few months.
The U.S. Department of Defense Releases its Climate Adaptation Plan
Today, the U.S. Federal Government released Climate Adaptation Plans from all of its agencies.
The Department of Defense (DoD) plan can be found here, as well as a statement from Secretary of Defense Austin and the DoD press release. It’s an impressive successor to the 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap, and its ambition reflects the tone of this Administration – a tone set within its first week when President Biden signed Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
See a more detailed assessment in this Defense One op-ed on the new strategy, by the Center for Climate and Security’s John Conger.
Stay tuned for more on other agency plans covering climate security.
We’re Hiring: Program Assistant for the Center for Climate and Security
The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) seeks to hire a full-time program assistant for its Center for Climate and Security (CCS), an institute of CSR. This is an entry-level position focused on addressing climate security risks and solutions. The person in this role will work closely with CCS Director Erin Sikorsky and other members of the CCS team.
The person filling this role will:
(more…)Why I’ve Joined the Council on Strategic Risks as Head of its Ecological Security Program
We are in the midst of an ecological crisis. Biodiversity loss is quickening, ecosystems are collapsing, mass die-offs are rising, zoonotic spillovers are escalating, and populations of harmful organisms are booming. In a January 2021 article titled Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future, 17 of the world’s leading ecologists argued “the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all of its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts.”
Both connected to—and separate from—the climate emergency, ongoing ecological disruption has portentous implications for human, national, and global security. We should expect concomitant risks to political stability, social cohesion, human health, and economic stability.
Surprisingly sparse comprehensive analysis exists in this nascent field of ecological security, however.
That’s why I’m pleased to join the Council on Strategic Risks as head of the Ecological Security Program in the Converging Risks Lab.
(more…)