Earlier this year the media made much ado about drought conditions constraining traffic through the Panama Canal. But is it really all they’re making it out to be?

The most recent drought conditions started with below-average rainfall in late 2022, and by January 2024 were being described as the worst drought in Canal history. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) ranked 2023 as the second driest year since 1950. News articles reported cargo traffic was reduced by nearly 40% and that the world faced a $270 billion traffic jam in Panama.

A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Climate Security and Canada’s Promises to NATO  (Global News) 

As a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada has been influential in the integration of climate change policy with the alliance’s mission. It supported the development of NATO’s Climate Change and Security Action Plan aligning with the alliance’s core tasks of deterrence and defense, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security. Following the Canadian proposal 2021, Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defense jointly lead NATO’s Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE) to research and identify best practices to address climate change and security-related challenges.  

Mildred is a fish trader in Kenya. I met her a few years ago, when I was conducting research. (“Mildred” is not her real name; I promised all my participants anonymity as I worked.) She mentors, trains, and educates young women on how to dry, gut, fry fish, and run successful fish businesses.  

LGBTIQ+ organizations and activists increasingly speak of “queering” systems such as global climate action, global refugee systems, or humanitarian response. Sometimes, this is a rhetorical reboot of existing strategies for increasing inclusion, with ‘queer’ used as a reclaimed shorthand for LGBTIQ+ people. The process of tweaking existing social and economic systems to address climate change and security threats should also certainly ensure the inclusion of LGBTQI+ people.

A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Renewable Energy Needs a Social Vision (Mongabay)

The Zapotec of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have accused energy giant EDF (Électricité de France) of causing human rights abuses while building wind farms in Oaxaca state. They also claim the company intimidated and harassed social movements who opposed this construction on their ancestral lands. The Zapotec are indigenous peoples of Mexico who call themselves Bën Za or “The People”—and after three years of struggle and stalling tactics by EDF’s legal representatives, French courts have authorized their civil case filing at last. 

“There is a really important need in talking about knowledge equity around what is actually happening with the climate crisis, and what happens to maternal [and] neo-natal health as a result of it,” said Neha Mankani, Midwifery Association Capacity Assessment Strengthening Lead at the International Confederation of Midwives, at a recent Wilson Center event titled “Midwives Are Key to Climate Resilience.”