Blogs & Opinions
Environmental Justice: Why Civil Rights and Protecting the Planet Go Hand-in-hand
Sep 15, 2021
As the global ecological crisis impacts ever-more lives, it is becoming clearer that we cannot talk about cimate change, pollution or biodiversity loss without talking…
Climate Security: It’s about Time
Sep 15, 2021
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Sharon Burke
Like most of us who were alive at that time, Sharon Burke knows exactly where she was on 9/11 when she heard the news. She…
Butterfly Effect: Why Spies Need to Focus on Climate Change
Sep 15, 2021
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Charu Sudan Kasturi
When President Joe Biden and 40 other world leaders gathered for a virtual summit on climate change organized by the U.S. in April, the list…
How Inaction on Climate Change Can Worsen the Crisis in Afghanistan
Sep 15, 2021
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Jariel Arvin
After decades of foreign intervention and violent conflict, the American mission in Afghanistan has ended and the Taliban have announced a new government. But for…
Sudan and Ethiopia Are Nearing a Fight over Land and Water
Sep 15, 2021
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Christopher Rhodes
Humanitarian agencies and the international community have rightly decried the growing conflict within Ethiopia as a humanitarian disaster. Last November, conflict broke out between the…
Tree Planting as Resistance in Palestine
Sep 8, 2021
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Elle Ambler
In Palestine, the struggle for land cannot be separated from the fight for agricultural and environmental rights. Restrictions and attacks on agriculture are used by…
Federal Election 2021: Gender-Based Violence is an Issue We Should All Prioritize
Sep 8, 2021
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Nancy Marie Ross and Stephanie Zubriski
National strategies to end gender-based violence, public activism movements like #MeToo and One Billion Rising and the continued use of tough-on-crime policies have failed to reduce rates of…
Conflict in the Sahel Likely to Worsen as Climate Change Impacts Increase
Sep 7, 2021
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Steve Killelea
Currently there isn’t a lot of good news coming out of the Sahel, the area in Africa that borders the Saharan desert to the north,…
Heat Is on When It Comes to Cross-Border Environmental Threats
Sep 6, 2021
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Kerry Boyd Anderson
Last week, an oil spill from a refinery in the northwest Syrian town of Baniyas drifted toward Cyprus, forcing authorities on the island to take…
Avoiding Transboundary Waters Conflicts: A Tale of Two Treaties
Sep 5, 2021
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Robert Sandford
The outdated treaties, compacts, bilateral agreements, acts, laws, policies and hardened institutions globally that stand in the way of effective, just and resilient 21st century…
To Address Climate Change, Address Gender Inequity
Sep 3, 2021
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Elizabeth Chun Hye Lee
Hurricane Ida has devastated communities in Louisiana, leaving many without electricity during one of the hottest months of the year. Because of a lack of…
Kazakhstan Moves to Ease Water Conflict in Central Asia
Sep 3, 2021
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Wilder Alejandro Sanchez
An early August meeting of Central Asian heads of state in Turkmenistan addressed issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and regional consequences of renewed Taliban…
The Uncertain Future of Afghanistan’s Nascent Environmental Laws
Sep 2, 2021
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Elizabeth Hessami
Afghanistan is in turmoil. The abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces set in motion by a deal between former President Trump and the Taliban, and executed…
Integrating Conflict Prevention and Climate Change in US Foreign Policy and Development Assistance
Sep 1, 2021
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Cynthia Brady, Liz Hume, and Nick Zuroski
Climate change is no longer an abstract issue we may face in the future. Devastating forest fires, the hottest June on record in the United States, lethal flooding…
It's Time to Let Young People Help Shape Climate Policy
Sep 1, 2021
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Jessica Cooke
The climate crisis is one of the defining injustices of our time, and young people will live with the consequences for the longest. It’s no…
Deforestation in Colombia's Amazon: Outlining the Problem
Sep 1, 2021
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Katie Jones and María Fernanda Ramírez
Deforestation is the most visible face of environmental crime in Colombia’s Amazon. From around 2016, the region’s forests registered accelerating encroachment and destruction. According to…
Integrating Conflict Prevention and Climate Change in US Foreign Policy and Development Assistance
Sep 1, 2021
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Cynthia Brady, Liz Hume, and Nick Zuroski
Climate change is no longer an abstract issue we may face in the future. Devastating forest fires, the hottest June on record in the United…
Peaceful Minefields: Environmental Protection or Security Risks?
Aug 30, 2021
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Darcie DeAngelo
It’s no surprise that minefields and other military waste can prevent development and economic prosperity, but perhaps counterintuitively, their presence can also provide ecological protections…
What Does Taliban's Takeover Mean for Environmental Protection in Afghanistan?
Aug 27, 2021
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Austin Bodetti
The Taliban's ascent has significant implications for environmental protection in Afghanistan. The militants cannot afford to ignore the consequences of climate change and need to…
How Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion Mining Wealth Sold the War
Aug 27, 2021
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Frik Els
Search for Afghanistan minerals and you get dozens of articles written in the last few days quoting a magical $1 trillion number including gems like The…
“Crimea River”: Russia & Ukraine’s Water Conflict
Aug 26, 2021
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Willis Sparks and Alex Kliment
Russia and Ukraine have been at odds over lots of things in recent years, but the latest spat is over something particularly fluid and intractable:…
Are Assessments of Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth Accurate?
Aug 25, 2021
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TRT World
With increasing global demand for rare earth minerals and lithium driving advanced technology, Afghanistan is at the forefront of economic speculation given its famed mineral…
The Climate Crisis Is Worse for Women. Here’s Why.
Aug 24, 2021
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Lauren Jackson
The world’s leading climate scientists issued a landmark report this month with their clearest clarion call to date: The climate crisis is here, it’s humanity’s fault,…
Why Addressing the Climate Crisis Can Help Build More Sustainable Peace
Aug 23, 2021
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Florian Krampe, Farah Hegazi, and Stacy D. VanDeveer
Thirty years of research underlies the realization that climate change poses substantial national, international and human security risks, but analysts have only recently shifted their…
How Ethiopia’s Conflict Has Affected Farming in Tigray
Aug 22, 2021
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Jan Nyssen, Emnet Negash, and Sofie Annys
Since fighting broke out in November 2020 between the Tigrayan regional government and the Ethiopian army, the conflict has wreaked havoc on the lives of…
After Climate Change Forced Her to Miss School, Meet the Activist Fighting Back
Aug 20, 2021
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Joe McCarthy
Aryaana Khan would rather not spend her days thinking about how humans are destroying the environment.
But no matter where she goes, the climate crisis has…
Amplify: Elevating Women’s Voices is Key to our Success in Tackling Climate Change
Aug 20, 2021
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Sierra Bien
Achieving A Gender Just World: Thought Leaders Provide Actionable Ways To Break Through Equality's Biggest Barriers
Aug 19, 2021
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Marianne Schnall
In the first article for the Envision Equality campaign, we highlighted diverse inspirational visions of what a gender just world could be. In this next installment,…
International Response to Haiti's Earthquake Must Avoid 2010 Mistakes
Aug 19, 2021
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Brian Concannon and Kathleen Bergin
As the death toll and displacement from Saturday’s earthquake in Haiti mounts, the United States must urgently mobilize to provide help. But we must, just…
How Can Empowering Women & Girls Help End World Hunger?
Aug 18, 2021
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Leah Rodriguez
World hunger reached a five-year high in 2020 and a third of the world population — 2.3 billion people — did not have access to adequate nutrition.
Conflict,…