Washington Independent: New Report Details Climate Security Threats
September 10, 2009
By Kate Sheppard
As part of its The Day Before event on climate and national security, the nonpartisan national security think tank the American Security Project released a new report on Thursday indexing climate security threats around the world.
The Climate Security Index presents the impacts of climate change, and the potential hot spots around the world where those impacts will pose the biggest security concerns. In Central America, the report predicts that resource strains will increase migration to North America, stressing border controls. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it estimates that drought and famine will increase poverty, hunger and the spread of disease, and the migration of refugees will exacerbate conflicts between and within countries.
In South Asia, it foresees coastal flooding that will displace at least a million people and spark conflicts over water resources farther inland:
“South Asia is already a dangerous region. India and Pakistan remain locked in a decades long confrontation, and both sides continue to build up their nuclear arsenals. Violence by extremists in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan could destabilize the region and all three states are among the top-ten countries surveyed by the U.S. Marine Corps for instability and potential conflict.”
The index also looks at threats created by dependence on foreign energy sources. Of the top nine countries that provide the U.S. with oil imports, six are nations considered to be at “high” risk for insecurity, while two — Iraq and Angola — face a “very high” risk. There are also risks in transporting oil through insecure regions, and the report details the “choke points” in eastern Africa and southern Asia where high rates of piracy and transportation routes coincide.
The full report is available here: www.secureamericanfuture.org
http://washingtonindependent.com/58488/new-report-details-climate-security-threats
