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

As the Dead Sea Recedes, Local Ecology and Economies are at Risk (CNN)

A mix of human activity and climate change impacts shrink the Dead Sea by around four feet each year. The result is that over the past five decades, its surface area has shrunk by approximately a third, creating an unappealing landscape of sinkholes and salt-encrusted shorelines. Former resorts have been closed, and freshwater has seeped into the ground to dissolve ancient layers of salt and create underground cavities that can cause erosion and sudden ground collapse. The Dead Sea’s 6,000 sinkholes now threaten business and residents with no simple solution in sight.

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

Climate Health Risks Spur Public Support for Action (Climate Change News)

Climate Opinion Research Exchange’s late 2025 survey of over 30,000 respondents across Brazil, India, Japan, and South Africa found that more than 80% of respondents expressed concern about climate impacts. Those surveyed also backed government measures to address the public health risks associated with climate change. While researchers believe that framing these questions as public health issues is particularly effective at building broad support, the survey also revealed that the most resonant health messages vary by country. Water scarcity draw attention in South Africa, while mental health has significant resonance in Brazil. Those in Japan see extreme heat as a key issue.

The ongoing conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran imposes significant costs beyond the immense loss of life and destruction of vital infrastructure throughout the region. It also exacerbates the challenges posed by synthetic fertilizers, which play an essential but problematic role in feeding the planet.

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

AI Energy Demand Outpaces Its Climate Solutions (Eco-Business)

A new International Energy Agency report finds that AI’s significant promise in improving energy efficiency and grid reliability may not match the energy sector’s inability to keep pace with the explosive growth of AI’s physical infrastructure.

The infrastructure powering artificial intelligence (AI) has become both a political flashpoint and a signal for strategic warfare with significant military, geopolitical, and international security implications. Climate change is a “threat multiplier” that exacerbates fragility. The collision of these two forces is certain to create immediate and long-term impacts. AI’s environmental footprint risks externalizing environmental costs onto poorer countries– and the communities within them–that supply critical minerals, water resources, and host energy-intensive infrastructure, deepening ecological, economic, and social inequalities. Over the long run, it may also undermine long-term climate resilience and global stability  

The relationship between climate vulnerability and political instability is clear. Twenty-two of the 30 countries ranked as the most vulnerable to climate change in 2025 also were categorized as fragile and/or conflict affected. Within this contexts, the need for solutions that address the intersection of climate risks and instability is increasingly dire.  

A recent Stimson Center event hosted with the Green Climate Fund (GCF)—Climate Finance as a Tool for Global Stability—examined how early climate investments in climate adaptation, food systems, and water security can reduce the risk of conflict and displacement. 

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

Mexico City’s Rapid Land Subsidence is Visible from Space (CNN)

The foundation of much of Mexico City sits atop an ancient aquifer supplying over 60% the drinking water for the capital’s 22 million residents. Now a series of startling new images from space have revealed just how over-extraction of the aquifer and the added weight of urban development land in Mexico City to subside.

When armed groups began threatening a community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that had recently gained access to solar-powered electricity, something unexpected happened. Rather than flee, residents rushed to protect their mini-grid. They put themselves at risk to keep the lights on.