Event CLIMATE CHANGE AS A SECURITY THREAT (created)
CLIMATE CHANGE AS A SECURITY THREAT - STRATEGIES FOR POLICY-MAKERS, SCIENCE AND BUSINESS
On November 6 to 7, 2008 the international conference of the German Federal Foreign Office "Climate Change as a Security Threat - Strategies for Policy-Makers, Science and Business" will take place in Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany.
The event will focus on potential conflict constellations caused by climate change and the impacts these conflicts may have on peace and security. Moreover the conference will bring these issues to the attention of a broader public and further support opportunities for dialogue.
The Federal Foreign Minister Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Minister of State Dr h.c. Gernot Erler and Lord Mayor of the City of Freiburg Dr Dieter Salomon will open the international conference on November 6 in the Freiburg Concert Hall. Highly regarded speakers will enrich the programme, among them Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Director General of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri.
The conference programme will be complemented by two special events: a Benefit Concert of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and an Exhibition entitled "Environment, Conflict and Cooperation".
For more information, please visit the conference website at http://www.freiburg-konferenz.de/home_en.htm
Event, Conflict and Cooperation over International Freshwater Resources (created)
Speakers: Aaron Wolf from Oregon State University will be presenting a lunch seminar for our Cross-Cutting Initiative on Environment-Security Linkages. Professor Wolf's Bio
Tuesday May 6th
Lunch will be served.
Following our emergent custom, Geoff Dabelko from the Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Project will be with us and has agreed to provide brief initial reactions to Aaron's talk. Geoff has led an effort at the Wilson Center to examine water conflict issues, some findings of which are available at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1413&fuseaction=topics.publications&group_id=196904.
Please RSVP so that we can plan the food.
Event, UNEP Andrew Morton Talks about Sudan (created)
Tomorrow at 1130 Andrew Morton from the UNEP Post-conflict and Disaster Management Branch will
speak on "The Sudan Conflict environmental drivers and consequences"
This talk is part of a new partnership between the Earth Institute of Columbia University and the UNEP to encourage research
and practice in the study of environmental factors surrounding disasters, conflict and development.
AFGHANISTAN Influx of Pakistani refugees could spark crisis (created)
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=80760
KABUL, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Any increase in the flow of refugees from northwestern Pakistan into eastern parts of Afghanistan could lead to a humanitarian crisis unless international aid organisations deliver urgent assistance, a senior official at Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRRA) has said.
"We are deeply concerned about insecurity in the Tribal Areas [of Pakistan] and the influx of Pakistani refugees into Afghanistan," Abdul Qader Ahadi, deputy minister in the MoRRA, told IRIN in Kabul on 5 October.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said over 3,900 families (about 20,000 individuals) had abandoned their homes in the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and sought refuge in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar over the past few weeks.
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Afghan refugees in FATA?
Armed clashes between Pakistani security forces and Islamist militants associated with the Taliban in FATA and elsewhere in Pakistan have affected local people and Afghan refugees living there, aid agencies said.
In a bid to clear the FATA of Islamist insurgents, the Pakistani government on 3 October reportedly called on Afghan refugees living in the Bajaur border region to vacate the area within three days.
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Humanitarian response
Afghan government bodies and several aid organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have delivered food and non-food assistance to some Pakistani refugees in Kunar Province, the MoRRA said. No figures were available.
The UNHCR said it had distributed non-food items such as plastic sheets, blankets, jerry cans and lanterns to families and was coordinating aid activities for the Pakistani refugees.
"We know those refugees need more assistance but we don't have adequate resources to respond," MoRRA's Ahadi said.
There were also no preparations in hand to avert a humanitarian crisis if more people flee in future, Ahadi added.
Haiti Affirmative Engagement or Malign Neglect, Donald Steinberg in Haitan Times (created)
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5723
9 October 2008
Haitian Times
In December 2000, just before a newly elected George Bush took office, former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and I went to see Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Port-au-Prince. Haiti was still in a state of confusion following flawed elections, tarnishing the mandate under which Aristide would return to the presidency. Already, Jesse Helms had publicly warned Bush that Aristide had surrounded himself with "narco-traffickers, criminals and other anti-democratic forces." Helms' aide, Roger Noriega, slated to become US ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), had a visceral hatred of Aristide, whom he frequently derided as a "defrocked psychopath."
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At the same time, the new Haitian government under Pierre-Louis must demonstrate that it is a credible partner by vetting judges and police to get rid of corrupt officials and human rights abuses. It must expand support for police in counter-drug, anti-kidnapping and non-lethal crowd control sectors. And it must engage civil society as a full partner in these efforts.
It has been said that Haitian leaders never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The transition to new administrations in Port-au-Prince and Washington provides yet another chance for cooperation. Malign neglect or affirmative engagement? The choice is clear.
Donald Steinberg, deputy president of International Crisis Group, served as the State Department's Special Haiti Coordinator from 1999-2001.
Water seen as the new oil for U.S. Army (created)
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/38361
From: Reuters
Published October 8, 2008 09:00 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soldiers, weapons, food and fuel are important but the U.S. Army absolutely cannot operate for long without water, a top Pentagon official said on Tuesday.
This simple fact is just as true for domestic bases as it is in "austere" forward installations in Iraq, said Tad Davis, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and occupational health.
"Somebody recently said water's the new oil and there's a lot to be said for that," Davis said at the Reuters Global Environment Summit.
"You can get out there ... and deploy to an area for conducting operations, but if water's not there for drinking purposes and for cooking, showering, laundry, things like that, then you're not going to be able to sustain the force."
In Iraq, 80 percent of cargo in Army convoys headed into forward areas over the last several years consisted of fuel and water. To make the convoys shorter – and therefore less of a target – the Army worked on making bases more fuel-efficient and looked for ways to reuse or purify existing water supplies, Davis said.
Ultimately, they set up six water bottling facilities in Iraq to serve U.S. Army needs.
ARMY CONSTRUCTION BOOM
In the United States, the dimensions of the problem are more complex, because the Army is in the midst of a construction boom to accommodate an additional 75,000 soldiers over the next three or four years, Davis said.
Over that period, the Army expects to spend $56 billion on new construction and every new building must meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council for environmental sustainability.
In addition to an absolute rise in the number of troops, some soldiers are returning to the United States from posts in Germany and South Korea, while others are transferred from domestic bases that are being closed, meaning the biggest bases are going to need more water in the future, Davis said.
The U.S. bases that will accommodate all this increased population are already under stress, Davis said. Many were built before the U.S. population migrated to the suburbs and now are hemmed in by suburban sprawl, with nowhere to expand to training facilities or other functions.
To determine how much water will be needed, Davis said the Army is conducting pilot studies at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Bliss in Texas to measure current water consumption, future consumption in five-year increments, the surrounding communities' water needs and the available sources of water.
"It all goes back to security," Davis said. "If we don't have water, then we don't have the ability to perform at those installations."
(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko)
