Impacts of Climate Change

Question 1

What are some impacts of climate change with regard to human security?

Answer 1

• undermines people’s livelihoods, especially in the gloabl south
• devastating for agriculture and at times survival (eg wildfires)
• undermines state’s ability to provide for citizens’ welfare (in domestic and international politics)
• drives internal and inter-state refugee flows and cross-border pressures

Question 2

Why don’t states address climate change as much as possible?

Answer 2

-they fear losing ‘edge’

Question 3

climate change is a _____ problem

Answer 3

collective action

Question 4

What are some key impacts of climate change (more environmental)?

Answer 4

• diminished agricultural output
• water scarcity
• drought and rising sea levels trigger refugee flows

Question 5

what kind of threat is CC?

Answer 5

equal opportunity threat

–ultimately developed and developing countries face the same issues

Question 6

climate change endangers human security by _______

Answer 6

reducing access to resources and the quality of those resources

Question 7

Can human security be separated from the operation of states?

Answer 7

no

Question 8

What is the state’s integral role?

Answer 8

To provide security to its citizens

Question 9

there is a human tendency to _____ CC

Answer 9

compartimentalize

Question 10

there is an interactive dynamic between climate change threats (resources scarcity) and _____threats

Answer 10

IR threats (war, terrorism, migration of individuals)

Question 11

What does resource scarcity cause?

Answer 11

groups to fight for scarce resources and friction between states

Question 12

What is an example of terrorism escalating as a result of climate change?

Answer 12

terrorist group Boko Haram has been able to prey on people becoming more vulnerable to climate change

• -recruitment is increasing because you are essentially guaranteed to gave some food and opportunities to plunder for more
• -people can make a living joining these groups where they couldn’t otherwise (as agriculture starts to fail/they used to be able to rely on natural resources)

Question 13

What is happening at key global conferences (Kyoto Protocols (1997), Copenhagen Climate Conference (2009), Paris agreement (2015))?

Answer 13

states keep failing to commit to meeting a minimum threshold of carbon emissions reduction

Question 14

Since few violent conflicts are entirely local and usually involve regional and global forces (arms trading, private security companies, investors, third-party states), states are often simultaneously ________ and _______

Answer 14

working to solve human security problems and undermining them

Question 15

What is the difficulty with climate change agreements?

Answer 15

• if you make it effective and strict, few states will sign

- if you water-down the agreement more, more states will sign, but the agreement won’t be effective

Question 16

Why did Trump withdraw from Paris Accords?

Answer 16

• argues that the Accords will undermine the US economy
• believes that they will put the US at a permanent disadvantage
• the US is only country on Earth outside the Accords

Question 17

describe the situation in the Amazon and Bolsonaro’s response

Answer 17

• Pres. Bolsonaro encourages ranchers, miners to burn down Amazon rainforest
• 1 Dec. 2019: Bolsonaro blames burning Amazon forest on Leonardo di Caprio
• –accusation is that he is funding environmental NGOs that ‘set fire’ to Amazons to make government look bad
• Bolsonaro says at the UN General Assembly that the Amazon isn’t burning (Sept. 24, 2019)
• –he says Brazil will use its natural resources as it sees fit

Question 18

describe the collective action failure of CC

Answer 18

• some states face powerful domestic opposition to emissions reduction (eg Canada, USA)
• some states feel emissions reduction will curb their growth unfairly (eg China)
• many poorer countries still rely on oil, coal
• most states don’t want to commit if others will defect
• there’s no enforcement mechanism
• –nothing can be punished if states don’t comply

Question 19

describe Exxon and CC

Answer 19

• Exxon Mobil corp. understood threat of global warming since 1977
• for decades, it refused to acknowledge threat
• suppressed its own in-house research
• funded pseudo-science to fuel skepticism

Question 20

Who are the climate change scholars we studied?

Answer 20

Barnett and Adger

Question 21

What does Brig. General Stephen Cheney (US army) say is set to be the new normal?

Answer 21

migration of large numbers of people around the world because of food scarcity, water insecurity and extreme weather