A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Bolivian Presidential Vote Raises Environmental Concerns (Associated Press)

Bolivia’s presidential runoff election on October 19 between centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz and right-wing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga has seen both candidates promise change. Yet Indigenous and environmental leaders remain skeptical that either hopeful will effectively address Bolivia’s severe environmental crises.

Tobias Ide’s recent article on his experiments with Generative AI should send a chill down the spine of any researcher, including those who work on climate and environmental security.

When Ide asked leading AI platforms to summarize academic literature, they didn’t simply generate errors; they also confidently invented nonexistent articles, fabricated authors, and profoundly misrepresented real research. Worse yet, these results were presented without a hint of self-doubt.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 has kept two nuclear-armed rivals – India and Pakistan – in a stable river sharing arrangement for more than six decades. Yet that significant achievement now seems to be at risk.

India’s government has stated it is holding the treaty in abeyance and is threatening to cut off water to Pakistan after a terrorist attack killed more than 20 Indian citizens in late April 2025. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the treaty as a “blunder” and a “betrayal” of India’s dignity committed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and proclaimed that “blood and water cannot flow together.”

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

The Mining Town Funding Congo’s Rebels and Tech Giants (Reuters)

In April 2024, the M23 rebel group seized control of Rubaya, a mining town that produces 15% of the world’s coltan—a critical mineral worth used in mobile phones, computers, and aerospace components. Rebels imposed a parallel administration in the town, and placed a 15% tax on mineral traders that generates $800,000 monthly from levies. Thousands of impoverished miners in the town, however, still work 12-hour shifts in dangerous conditions earning just $5.15 per day.

Global plastic production is increasing almost exponentially.  Not only has it grown 250-fold since the 1950s, but it is on track to double by 2040, and nearly triple by 2060. The waste associated with its creation has accumulated in parallel. An estimated 8 billion metric tons of discarded plastic now pollute the planet, breaking down into micro-and nanoplastic particles (MNPs) that are ubiquitous in the environment.

In today’s world of fast fashion, a $4 crop top travel across continents faster than a letter, and new trends die before a customer hits the “checkout” prompt. Yet the global obsession with cheap clothing creates apparel soaked in a cocktail of dyes, plasticizers, and forever chemicals, that linger far longer than the consumer forces that make them trendy.

The global apparel sector is valued at over $1.8 trillion, and it is the world’s second most chemical-intensive industry after agriculture. For big manufacturing hubs in Southeast Asia (particularly India, Bangladesh, Pakistan), textiles represent an economic lifeline.

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

A Water Security Crisis Grips Pakistan’s Indus Delta (Al-Jazeera)

The Indus delta in Pakistan is experiencing severe environmental collapse as seawater intrusion makes farming and fishing impossible. Salinity levels have risen 70% since 1990, forcing tens of thousands from coastal districts. Over 1.2 million people from the broader delta region have abandoned their homes in the past two decades. The construction of irrigation canals and hydropower dams, compounded by the impacts of climate change on glacial melt, has accelerated the crisis and reduced downstream flow by 80% since the 1950s. More than 16% of fertile Indus delta land has become unproductive, as salt crusts cover the ground and boats must transport drinking water to the region’s remaining villages.

Recent studies indicate that over 90% of all students – and an increasing number of policy makers – are using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to process large amounts of data and rapidly collect dispersed information in 2025. In a burgeoning field of knowledge such as climate security, having tools to process and analyze large amounts of information might prove particularly helpful.  Some studies on climate security research detect over 1,000 (and counting) academic articles, in addition to an even larger grey literature.