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

Thirst for Relief: Prolonged Drought Intensifies Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis

Afghanistan is the world’s sixth most affected country by climate-related threats—and its present acute challenge is water scarcity, intensified by climate change. The country is heavily reliant on agriculture, which makes up a third of its GDP.

The riparian states of the Aral Sea Basin are experiencing growing water demands, land, and environmental degradation, aging and inefficient infrastructure, and the rapid melting of glaciers. These increasing challenges are compounded by the lack of an effective transboundary water governance system.

In December 2022, at the Nansha District port in the Pearl River Delta, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation unveiled China’s first oceanographic drilling ship—capable of mining 10,000 meters deep. This launch showcased China’s rapid advances as a major player in the global race to extract critical minerals at the bottom of the ocean.

It is uncomfortably easy to find connections between environmental change and security around the globe. 2023 began with heat records in Europe, a deadly cyclone in New Zealand, and military deployments in response to forest fires ravaging Canada. An untimely early heatwave scorched Spain and endangered its agricultural production. Cyclone Mocha destroyed the livelihoods of thousands in northwestern Myanmar, and Typhoon Mawar caused “significant damage” to a terminal building on Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base.

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population experiences some level of water scarcity—and an estimated one billion urban residents face unreliable drinking water supplies. This global water crisis not only has been recognized by the United Nations, but also prioritized for action as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: “Access to Water and Sanitation for All”.

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

Fixing the World’s Broken Food Systems

The United Nations summit on the state of the world’s food systems took place in Rome, Italy, this week, building on the work of a previous convening in 2021. The meeting focused on the environmental impact of agriculture and making food production more sustainable.

Picture this: A parade of yaks carrying insulated boxes containing meter-long ice core samples from Tibetan glaciers. “Yaks are like cats,” elite glacier scientist Lonnie Thompson explained in a 2023 Wilson Center webinar. They like to wander off — and it takes experienced Tibetan yak herders to keep them moving in the same direction. 

Yet these yak-schlepped ice cores are essential to climate science, added Ellen Mosely Thompson. They store thousands of years of atmospheric dust and gasses in distinct layers and serve as a record of our changing climate.