Whether or not we respond to climate change – and the security implications of that decision – is a major public policy question. But increasingly experts are paying closer attention to how we respond.

Do you experience information overload? Feel like there’s always another crisis to worry about? Sense a kind of chaos? Well, you may be a citizen of the early 21^st century.

A roughly three-foot increase in sea level will threaten 128 coastal military installations in the United States, valued at $100 billion, according to a study from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report, The U.S. Military on the Front Lines of Rising Seas, argues that the growing exposure to storm surge and sea-level rise puts vital infrastructure, training and testing grounds, and housing for thousands of personnel at risk.

Environmental security? Climate security? How about planetary security. Last week at the venerable Peace Palace in The Hague, nearly 300 experts from around the world met for the somewhat dramatically named Planetary Security Conference, a new initiative aimed at bringing together people working on all things related to the environment, climate change, and their security implications.

At this year’s International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, more than 10,000 scientists, activists, and leaders from around the world committed to finding “nature-based solutions” to reversing environmental declines and securing a healthy, livable planet.

Last month, headlines around the world heralded a breakthrough for international environmental cooperation. During ongoing ozone treaty negotiations in Rwanda, China broke with the developing world, agreeing with the United States to aggressively phase out hydrofluorocarbons, a significant global warming pollutant found in refrigerators and air conditioners. These changes are expected to make a big difference in combating climate change, mitigating half a Celsius degree of warming.

 For island nations already dealing with more frequent and intense extreme weather events, climate change is an imposing burden. But many island states are responding and becoming “incubators of resilience,” as Lynae Bresser recently wrote.

It had been raining for two full days when the landslide came. Nirjala Adhikari vividly remembers the instant it hit her village in Sindhupalchok District, Nepal. “It was a very scary moment, and I couldn’t think of anything else than grabbing my mobile phone and my school certificate before I ran out of the house,” she recalled. “I secured my certificate because only this will help me establish a bright future.”