-
New Security Broadcast | US Climate Envoy John Kerry on the Importance of Our Oceans
›
It is fully within our power to guarantee a healthy ocean and protect it for the future, says Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in today’s episode of the New Security Broadcast. Kerry spoke at a recent Wilson Center event hosted in partnership with the Embassy of Panama to spotlight the 8th Our Oceans Conference, scheduled to take place in March in Panama. In his remarks, Kerry emphasized the vital role the ocean plays in supporting global food security and economic prosperity as well as the imperative to take action to protect the ocean from climate change. -
Water @ Wilson Event | Water, Peace, & Security: New Tools for a New Climate
›Water sustains life on our planet. And access to clean and safe water is foundational to society. So why has it only been in recent years that water has risen to the top of discussions of climate and security? Richard W. Spinrad, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, says that one of the biggest reasons is the major impact that climate-related changes in precipitation like droughts and extreme rainfall are having across the globe: “We’re starting to see things like we’ve never seen before. The nature of storms is changing: We saw five feet of rain fall in Hurricane Harvey. Five feet.” -
Klamath Dam Removal: A Key Step in Freshwater Restoration and Protection Goals
›The Klamath River Dam removal, slated for early 2024, is a significant milestone in the journey towards bringing back healthy rivers in the United States. This action will restore nearly 300 miles of river habitat in the Klamath and its tributaries across Southern Oregon and Northern California, allowing salmon, a critical source of economic and nutritional value for the local communities, to return. As the world’s largest dam removal and river restoration project in history, this project will have lasting impacts on the health of this river and represents an opportunity for building momentum to continue global river protection and restoration.
-
Water at COP27: Hydrating Climate Policy Negotiations in the Desert
›Is water important in climate policy? It seems obvious. Water has a well-established link as the medium of most negative climate impacts. Yet when it comes to addressing the climate crisis, the answer depends very much on who you ask.
-
Celebrating “Long Man”: Eastern Band Cherokees Work Together to Care for their Rivers
›On a crisp autumn morning, the Yellow Hill Community Center in western North Carolina buzzed with excitement as more than 120 Cherokees and their allies shared conversations, laughter, and a hearty breakfast. They had descended upon the center in the Qualla Boundary on October 19, 2022 to mark the second annual Honor Long Man Day in the homelands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
-
How AGWA is Tracking and Shaping Water’s Crucial Role in Climate Adaptation
›As the last decade has brought about a dramatic shift in approaches to addressing climate change, water is increasingly at the forefront of the conversations around adaptation and resilience. In part, this is because more countries now experience the damaging effects of climate change through water-related events including rising sea levels, intensification of natural disasters, droughts, and flooding.
In this week’s New Security Broadcast, John Matthews, Executive Director of the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), observes that the heightened attention to water has placed his group at the center of discussions at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
-
New Analysis by Peter Schwartzstein: How Water Strategizing is Remaking the Middle East
›In the run up to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the first summit of its kind to be hosted in the region, water is rising on the agenda, and for good reason. In a new essay for the Wilson Center, Global Fellow Peter Schwartzstein explores how governments across the Middle East are approaching a world with less water – and to what effect. Drawing on a decade of environmental reportage from the Middle East, Schwartzstein sketches out how, why, and with what consequences states have adopted often dramatically divergent strategies.
-
Catastrophe and Catalyst: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister on His Nation’s Climate Tragedy
›On a recent visit to the Wilson Center, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari remarked on the historic nature of the monsoon-related floods that have submerged a huge swath of his country over the last several months.
“These are no normal monsoons and no normal floods,” said Zardari. “We are used to monsoons. We are used to floods. We have provincial mechanisms [and] national mechanisms to deal with such disasters. What we were not prepared for was for floods to descend from the sky.”
Showing posts from category water.
