Sea-level rise will put approximately 13 million coastal Americans at risk of displacement by 2100, but the first to move will be the most vulnerable communities. In Reaching Higher Ground: Avenues to Secure and Manage New Land for Communities Displaced by Climate Change, Wilson Center Global Fellow Maxine Burkett and her coauthors look at Native American communities on the frontlines of climate change as a model for how vulnerable coastal communities can successfully relocate. Currently, there is no central mechanism within the federal government for relocating communities displaced by climate change. Federally recognized Native American communities have historically coexisted alongside the United States government as sovereign entities, and their many avenues – legal, policy, and corporate – to acquire land could provide a starting point for addressing this imminent challenge. The authors identify tools communities can use to secure new homes and preserve their ownership of evacuated lands.

“All of Reykjavik might be able to fit in that apartment block,” remarks Einar Magnusson, the vice president of business development for Iceland-based Arctic Green Energy Corporation (AGEC), as he drives past miles and miles of Beijing’s residential skyscrapers. Following Jiang Zemin’s visit to Iceland in 2002 – the first-ever by a Chinese President – the two nations opened a new chapter in their partnership, which was originally founded upon shared strategic interests. China’s interest in cleaner energy sources has led to a fruitful area of cooperation with Iceland, where geothermal plants generate 66 percent of the country’s primary energy and provide nine in ten households with heat.

“If we really cared about the polar bears, we would have done something,” quipped retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral David Titley, who gave an Environmental Research and Education Distinguished Lecture at the National Science Foundation on June 27, 2017. Titley framed climate change in terms of U.S. national security interests, focusing on infrastructure, the changing Arctic, and how environmental factors can exacerbate conflict.

Unless you are cocooned in a tourist bubble, it is hardly possible to miss God when you visit the Pacific Islands. In every village and on every main street there seems to be a church or temple, packed to bursting point on holy days. It is testament to the considerable influence of spirituality on the way people live in the Pacific.

Coal — the reigning king of China’s energy sector — generates 74 percent of the country’s electricity and is the main source of the staggering air pollution blanketing Chinese cities. Prompted in large part by the air pollution problem, the Chinese leadership has begun to pivot away from coal by strengthening monitoring and enforcement to limit coal-fired power plant emissions, piloting CO₂ emissions trading projects, accelerating expansion of renewables, and committing to CO₂ reductions in the Paris climate agreement.

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink: All five of the most popular posts last month focused on water scarcity.

The final two parts of our “Choke Point: Tamil Nadu” series, which explores the conflicting demands for water, food, and energy in the South Indian state, took the top spots. In June’s most popular post, Circle of Blue’s Keith Schneider reports on Tamil Nadu’s leadership in India’s transition to solar and wind energy, which use far less of the country’s scarce water resources than coal and nuclear power plants. Schneider also wrote “New Media Helps Galvanize Tamil Nadu to Fight a Toxic Legacy,” which describes an environmental activist’s fight against industrial water contamination.