Climate Change and Human Security

1. Climate Change and Human Security by Richard A. Matthew Emma Lawlor & Lydia Walker

2. In your opinion… Developed nations such as the United States and Japan are the leading contributors to anthropogenic climate change. Many say that because of this fact, these countries are morally obligated to poorer nations that are greatly afflicted by climate change disasters. Should these leading polluting countries help the poorer nations just out of such moral obligations or also out of self interest?

3. Overview • Social effects of climate change are varied and hard to predict • Human security- freedom from fear and want at the level of the individual, family, or community • Importance of reducing vulnerability to climate change • Scale-free networks around the world connect poor and rich countries and affect human security • Case studies demonstrating local effects of global climate change • Possible courses of action in the face of global warming from security-related and moral standpoints

4. Human Security • Human security- freedom from fear and want at the level of the individual, family, or community • Main aspects: - Safety from chronic threats - Protection from sudden and harmful disruptions • Vulnerability- exposure to a hazard - A way of assessing human security • Vf(E x S x A x M) • Even without the issue of global warming, lack of human security has always been a problem for a large portion of humankind

5. Aid agencies’ warning on climate • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3756642.stm • Report by environmental groups, aid agencies, economic foundations, etc. - foreword by chair of the IPCC • In addition to drastically and quickly cutting carbon emissions, industrialized nations must help developing countries adapt to climate change. • Global warming threatens the Millennium Development Goals- to cut world poverty in half by 2015 • “every policy decision at every level must pass the test of whether it will increase or decrease vulnerability to the effects of climate change” • video

6. In your opinion… What can be done to reduce vulnerability to climate change? California and the Netherlands have invested in flood-control infrastructure, for instance.

7. Networks • Networks are related to a society’s vulnerability to environmental stress • Random networks- nodes linked to each other without pattern - each node has about the same number of connections - cumbersome and of limited value as it grows in size • Scale-free networks- a small number of hubs with connections to many other nodes - resilient, difficult to regulate, easy to use and exploit - see many examples of in the real-world and in relation to climate change

9. Scale-free Networks • Networks can be beneficial for many people, but they also amplify vulnerability (Vf(E x S x A x M)) • Disruption of networks- “Everything is connected to everything” • Real-world scale-free networks - The internet -research collaborations -sexual relationships - Airports -cell protein interaction -Hollywood actors • What are some global networks that you can think of related to or affected by climate change?

10. Networks & Climate Change • “In a networked world, we are all vulnerable, all the time, although not at all equally.” • Social effects of climate change are varied and hard to predict - Physical environmental changes can be beneficial or detrimental - Living systems differ in ability to adapt, escape, or profit - Most harm is to poor and benefit to rich • In today’s interconnected world, the poor are vulnerable to the harmful networks but lack access to those that grant opportunities • These giant disparities lead to threats to human security

11. Self-interest standpoint - disease, crime, terrorism, refugees, etc. • Moral view - rich citizens contribute the majority to climate change, but poor citizens bear the worst effects of it • No guarantee that our political agreements will stop global warming trends anytime soon, but we can at least address the issue from a human security standpoint and try to reduce vulnerabilities of the poor

12. Six Degrees of Climate Change • Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon- popular game about scale-free network of actors in Hollywood - most actors have only a few links to others - handful of “hubs”: Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts, etc. with thousands of connections - (Bacon is 876th on connectivity list) • Six Degrees of Climate Change- try to connect these • possible effects of global climate change occurring • elsewhere in the world to the lives of a typical American • You try: -unprecedented European heatwave -corals die in Australia -melting of Canadian permafrost -drought in Africa