Analysis | Refocusing on climate change is a constant battle
For a number of days beginning on Monday, August 9, social media, major newspapers, and mainstream news organizations were awash in breathless coverage of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. And rightfully so. The study, compiled by over 200 authors looking at thousands of scientific studies, paints the gloomiest picture yet of our planet’s future, and calls for drastic and immediate action.
Since then however, this existential human challenge has virtually disappeared from Twitter feeds and news channels. The rapid Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, the resulting struggle to get American citizens and Afghan allies out of Kabul, and — to a lesser degree — the horrific earthquake in Haiti, took over the air waves. The situation in Afghanistan is extremely pressing and worthy of immediate attention, as thousands of Afghans attempt to flee possible Taliban retribution, and the United States struggles to deal with the chaos of the government’s collapse and 20 twenty years of failed policies. Likewise, the earthquake in Haiti led to almost 2,000 deaths and has destroyed thousands of homes and structures. Immediate humanitarian aid is needed to feed, house, and provide medicine to a large proportion of Haitians.
It is right for Afghanistan and Haiti to dominate the news right now. They are major news stories with life and death consequences. However, the constant urgency of crises like Afghanistan and Haiti highlights why those who work to mitigate climate change find themselves in a continuous battle for media coverage. Unfortunately, as the IPCC report noted, climate change is increasingly forcing its way into the news, as the number of extreme weather events, droughts, and wildfires has increased around the globe. However, it remains a challenge to hold the attention of the public, media, and policymakers on climate change.
With that in mind, we at ISD want to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the “New Global Commons” working group reports that we have published in recent years that tackle the problem of climate change.
To analyze how environmental shifts shape both internal and external patterns of migration, ISD’s “New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility” report explores the nexus between climate change and human security. This report looks at what experts in human mobility, climate change, and resource management understand about the environmental drivers of migration, as well as what local and national governments are already doing to mitigate the impact of climate change on communities, as well as prepare for planned migration events.
A July 2018 ISD report on “The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems” explores the implications of the New Arctic, and the broader geopolitical repercussions of these changes. The Arctic region has become a New Global Common. Increasingly navigable seaways and new access to natural resources create both opportunities for greater collaboration between Arctic and non-Arctic nations, as well as potential flashpoints, environmental disasters, and threats to indigenous communities.
Finally, our most recent report, “Peace Through Food: Ending the Hunger-Instability Nexus,” tackles the issue of food insecurity and conflict. Today, climate change, high on the list of numerous drivers, leads to increasingly vulnerable food supplies and supply chains. Nearly a billion people, at a minimum, are malnourished or suffer the pains of hunger — while the world wastes a third of food produced. This pain, or the fear of it, drives political instability and conflict as people seek reliable access to food.
Kelly McFarland is a U.S. diplomatic historian and the director of programs and research at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Follow him on Twitter @McFarlandKellyM
