climate change argumentative essay

Argumentative Essay Writing

Argumentative Essay About Climate Change

Make Your Case: A Guide to Writing an Argumentative Essay on Climate Change

Published on: Mar 2, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 31, 2024

What is an Argumentative Essay about Climate Change?

The main focus will be on trying to prove that global warming is caused by human activities. Your goal should be to convince your readers that human activity is causing climate change.

To achieve this, you will need to use a variety of research methods to collect data on the topic. You need to make an argument as to why climate change needs to be taken more seriously.

Argumentative Essay Outline about Climate Change

An argumentative essay about climate change requires a student to take an opinionated stance on the subject.

The outline of your paper should include the following sections:

Argumentative Essay About Climate Change Introduction

The first step is to introduce the topic and provide an overview of the main points you will cover in the essay.

This should include a brief description of what climate change is. Furthermore, it should include current research on how humans are contributing to global warming.

An example is:

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Thesis Statement For Climate Change Argumentative Essay

The thesis statement should be a clear and concise description of your opinion on the topic. It should be established early in the essay and reiterated throughout.

For example, an argumentative essay about climate change could have a thesis statement such as:

Climate Change Argumentative Essay Conclusion

The conclusion should restate your thesis statement and summarize the main points of the essay.

It should also provide a call to action, encouraging readers to take steps toward addressing climate change.

For example,

How To Write An Argumentative Essay On Climate Change

Writing an argumentative essay about climate change requires a student to take an opinionated stance on the subject.

Following are the steps to follow for writing an argumentative essay about climate change

Do Your Research

The first step is researching the topic and collecting evidence to back up your argument.

You should look at scientific research, articles, and data on climate change as well as current policy solutions.

Pick A Catchy Title

Once you have gathered your evidence, it is time to pick a title for your essay. It should be specific and concise.

Outline Your Essay

After selecting a title, create an outline of the main points you will include in the essay.

This should include an introduction, body paragraphs that provide evidence for your argument, and a conclusion.

Compose Your Essay

Finally, begin writing your essay. Start with an introduction that provides a brief overview of the main points you will cover and includes your thesis statement.

Then move on to the body paragraphs, providing evidence to back up your argument.

Finally, conclude the essay by restating your thesis statement and summarizing the main points.

Proofread and Revise

Once you have finished writing the essay, it is important to proofread and revise your work.

Check for any spelling or grammatical errors, and make sure the argument is clear and logical.

Finally, consider having someone else read over the essay for a fresh perspective.

By following these steps, you can create an effective argumentative essay on climate change. Good luck!

Examples Of Argumentative Essays About Climate Change

Climate Change is real and happening right now. It is one of the most urgent environmental issues that we face today.

Argumentative essays about this topic can help raise awareness that we need to protect our planet.

Below you will find some examples of argumentative essays on climate change written by CollegeEssay.orgâs expert essay writers.

Argumentative Essay About Climate Change And Global Warming

Persuasive Essay About Climate Change

Argumentative Essay About Climate Change In The Philippines

Argumentative Essay About Climate Change Caused By Humans

Geography Argumentative Essay About Climate Change

Check our extensive blog on argumentative essay examples to ace your next essay!

Good Argumentative Essay Topics About Climate Change

Choosing a great topic is essential to help your readers understand and engage with the issue.

Here are some suggestions:

Should governments fund projects that will reduce the effects of climate change?
Is it too late to stop global warming and climate change?
Are international treaties effective in reducing carbon dioxide emissions?
What are the economic implications of climate change?
Should renewable energy be mandated as a priority over traditional fossil fuels?
How can individuals help reduce their carbon footprint and fight climate change?
Are regulations on industry enough to reduce global warming and climate change?
Could geoengineering be used to mitigate climate change?
What are the social and political effects of global warming and climate change?
Should companies be held accountable for their contribution to climate change?

Check our comprehensive blog on argumentative essay topics to get more topic ideas!

We hope these topics and resources help you write a great argumentative essay about climate change.

Now that you know how to write an argumentative essay about climate change, itâs time to put your skills to the test.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good introduction to climate change.

An introduction to a climate change essay can include a short description of why the topic is important and/or relevant.

It can also provide an overview of what will be discussed in the body of the essay.

The introduction should conclude with a clear, focused thesis statement that outlines the main argument in your essay.

What is a good thesis statement for climate change?

A good thesis statement for a climate change essay should state the main point or argument you will make in your essay.

You could argue that “The science behind climate change is irrefutable and must be addressed by governments, businesses, and individuals.”

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The Center for Global Studies

Climate change argumentation.

Carmen Vanderhoof, Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, Penn State

Carmen Vanderhoof is a doctoral candidate in Science Education at Penn State. Her research employs multimodal discourse analysis of elementary students engaged in a collaborative engineering design challenge in order to examine students’ decision-making practices. Prior to resuming graduate studies, she was a secondary science teacher and conducted molecular biology research.

Subject(s): Earth Science
Topic: Climate Change and Sustainability
Grade/Level: 9-12 (can be adapted to grades 6-8)
Objectives: Students will be able to write a scientific argument using evidence and reasoning to support claims. Students will also be able to reflect on the weaknesses in their own arguments in order to improve their argument and then respond to other arguments.
Suggested Time Allotment: 4-5 hours (extra time for extension)

This lesson is derived from Dr. Peter Buckland’s sustainability presentation for the Center for Global Studies . Dr. Peter Buckland, a Penn State alumnus, is a postdoctoral fellow for the Sustainability Institute. He has drawn together many resources for teaching about climate change, sustainability, and other environmental issues.

While there are many resources for teaching about climate change and sustainability, it may be tough to figure out where to start. There are massive amounts of data available to the general public and students need help searching for good sources of evidence. Prior to launching into a search, it would be worthwhile figuring out what the students already know about climate change, where they learned it, and how they feel about efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. There are many options for eliciting prior knowledge, including taking online quizzes, whole-class discussion, or drawing concept maps. For this initial step, it is important that students feel comfortable to share, without engaging in disagreements. The main idea is to increase students’ understanding about global warming, rather than focus on the potential controversial nature of this topic.

A major goal of this unit is to engage students in co-constructing evidence-based explanations through individual writing, sharing, re-writing, group discussion, and whole group reflection. The argumentation format presented here contains claims supported by evidence and reasoning (Claims Evidence Reasoning – CER). Argumentation in this sense is different from how the word “argument” is used in everyday language. Argumentation is a collaborative process towards an end goal, rather than a competition to win (Duschl & Osborne, 2002). Scientific argumentation is the process of negotiating and communicating findings through a series of claims supported by evidence from various sources along with a rationale or reasoning linking the claim with the evidence. For students, making the link between claim and evidence can be the most difficult part of the process.

Where does the evidence come from?

Evidence and data are often used synonymously, but there is a difference. Evidence is “the representation of data in a form that undergirds an argument that works to answer the original question” (Hand et al., 2009, p. 129). This explains why even though scientists may use the same data to draw explanations from, the final product may take different forms depending on which parts of the data were used and how. For example, in a court case experts from opposing sides may use the same data to persuade the jury to reach different conclusions. Another way to explain this distinction to students is “the story built from the data that leads to a claim is the evidence” (Hand et al., 2009, p. 129). Evidence can come from many sources – results from controlled experiments, measurements, books, articles, websites, personal observations, etc. It is important to discuss with students the issue of the source’s reliability and accuracy. When using data freely available online, ask yourself: Who conducted the study? Who funded the research? Where was it published or presented?

What is a claim and how do I find it?

A scientific claim is a statement that answers a question or an inference based on information, rather than just personal opinion.

How can I connect the claim(s) with the evidence?

That’s where the justification or reasoning comes in. This portion of the argument explains why the evidence is relevant to the claim or how the evidence supports the claim.

Implementation

Learning context and connecting to state standards.

This interdisciplinary unit can be used in an earth science class or adapted to environmental science, chemistry, or physics. The key to adapting the lesson is guiding students to sources of data that fit the discipline they are studying.

For earth science , students can explain the difference between climate and weather, describe the factors associated with global climate change, and explore a variety of data sources to draw their evidence from. Pennsylvania Academic Standards for earth and space science (secondary): 3.3.12.A1, 3.3.12.A6, 3.3.10.A7.

For environmental science , students can analyze the costs and benefits of pollution control measures. Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology (secondary): 4.5.12.C.

For chemistry and physics , students can explain the function of greenhouse gases, construct a model of the greenhouse effect, and model energy flow through the atmosphere. Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Physical Sciences (secondary): 3.2.10.B6.

New Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Connections

Human impacts and global climate change are directly addressed in the NGSS. Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI): HS-ESS3-3, HS-ESS3-4, HS-ESS3-5, HS-ESS3-6.

Lesson 1: Introduction to climate change

What are greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect? (sample answer: greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane contribute to overall heating of the atmosphere; these gases trap heat just like the glass in a greenhouse or in a car)
What is the difference between weather and climate? (sample answer: weather is the daily temperature and precipitation measurements, while climate is a much longer pattern over multiple years)

Drawing of the greenhouse effect – as individuals or in pairs, have students look up the greenhouse effect and draw a diagram to represent it; share out with the class

Optional: figure out students’ beliefs about global warming using the Yale Six Americas Survey (students answer a series of questions and at the end they are given one of the following categories: alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, dismissive).

Lesson 2: Searching for and evaluating evidence

Compare different data sources and assess their credibility
Temperature
Precipitation
Storm surge
Ask the students to think about what types of claims they can make about climate change using the data they found (Sample claims: human activity is causing global warming or sea-level rise in the next fifty years will affect coastal cities like Amsterdam, Hong Kong, or New Orleans).

Lesson 3: Writing an argument using evidence

Claim – an inference or a statement that answers a question
Evidence – an outside source of information that supports the claim, often drawn from selected data
Reasoning – the justification/support for the claim; what connects the evidence with the claim
Extending arguments – have students exchange papers and notice the strengths of the other arguments they are reading (can do multiple cycles of reading); ask students to go back to their original argument and expand it with more evidence and/or more justification for why the evidence supports the claim
Anticipate Rebuttals – ask students to think and write about any weaknesses in their own argument

Lesson 4: Argumentation discussion

rebuttal – challenges a component of someone’s argument – for example, a challenge to the evidence used in the original argument
counterargument – a whole new argument that challenges the original argument
respect group members and their ideas
wait for group members to finish their turns before speaking
be mindful of your own contributions to the discussion (try not to take over the whole discussion so others can contribute too; conversely, if you didn’t already talk, find a way to bring in a new argument, expand on an existing argument, or challenge another argument)
Debate/discussion – In table groups have students share their arguments and practice rebuttals and counterarguments
Whole-group reflection – ask students to share key points from their discussion

Lesson 5: Argumentation in action case study

Mumbai, india case study.

Rishi is a thirteen year old boy who attends the Gayak Rafi Nagar Urdu Municipal school in Mumbai. There is a massive landfill called Deonar right across from his school. Every day 4,000 tons of waste are piled on top of the existing garbage spanning 132 hectares (roughly half a square mile). Rishi ventures out to the landfill after school to look for materials that he can later trade for a little bit of extra money to help his family. He feels lucky that he gets to go to school during the day; others are not so lucky. One of his friends, Aamir, had to stop going to school and work full time after his dad got injured. They often meet to chat while they dig through the garbage with sticks. Occasionally, they find books in okay shape, which aren’t worth anything in trade, but to them they are valuable.

One day Rishi was out to the market with his mom and saw the sky darken with a heavy smoke that blocked out the sun. They both hurried home and found out there was a state of emergency and the schools closed for two days. It took many days to put out the fire at Deonar. He heard his dad say that the fire was so bad that it could be seen from space. He wonders what it would be like to see Mumbai from up there. Some days he wishes the government would close down Deonar and clean it up. Other days he wonders what would happen to all the people that depend on it to live if the city shuts down Deonar.

Mumbai is one of the coastal cities that are considered vulnerable with increasing global temperature and sea level rise. The urban poor are most affected by climate change. Their shelter could be wiped out by a tropical storm and rebuilding would be very difficult.

Write a letter to a public official who may be able to influence policy in Mumbai.

What would you recommend they do? Should they close Deonar? What can they do to reduce air pollution in the city and prepare for possible storms? Remember to use evidence in your argument.

If students want to read the articles that inspired the case study direct them to: http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/climate-change/

http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2012-07-06/top-20-cities-with-billions-at-risk-from-climate-change.html#slide16

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-26/smelly-dumps-drive-away-affordable-homes-in-land-starved-mumbai

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/asia/mumbai-giant-garbage-dump-fire/

Resources:

Lines of Evidence video from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/videos-multimedia/climate-change-lines-of-evidence-videos/
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN)
Climate maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Sources of data from NASA
Explore the original source of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS) study

Differentiated Instruction

For visual learners – use diagrams, encourage students to map out their arguments prior to writing them
For auditory learners – use the lines of evidence video
For ESL students – provide them with a variety of greenhouse gases diagrams, allow for a more flexible argument format and focus on general meaning-making – ex. using arrows to connect their sources of evidence to claims
For advanced learners – ask them to search through larger data sets and make comparisons between data from different sources; they can also research environmental policies and why they stalled out in congress
For learners that need more support – print out excerpts from articles; pinpoint the main ideas to help with the research; help students connect their evidence with their claims; consider allowing students to work in pairs to accomplish the writing task

Argument write-up – check that students’ arguments contain claims supported by evidence and reasoning and that they thought about possible weaknesses in their own arguments.

Case study letter – check that students included evidence in their letter.

References:

Duschl, R. A., & Osborne, J. (2002). Supporting and promoting argumentation discourse in science education.

Hand, B. et al. (2009) Negotiating Science: The Critical Role of Argumentation in Student Inquiry. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

McNeill, K. L., & Krajcik, J. (2012). Claim, evidence and reasoning: Supporting grade 5 – 8 students in constructing scientiﬁc explanations. New York, NY: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/today/greenhouse-gases.html

http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/climate-change/

Workers fumigate in New Delhi, India, for mosquitoes,

Why climate change is still the greatest threat to human health

Polluted air and steadily rising temperatures are linked to health effects ranging from increased heart attacks and strokes to the spread of infectious diseases and psychological trauma.

People around the world are witnessing firsthand how climate change can wreak havoc on the planet. Steadily rising average temperatures fuel increasingly intense wildfires, hurricanes, and other disasters that are now impossible to ignore. And while the world has been plunged into a deadly pandemic, scientists are sounding the alarm once more that climate change is still the greatest threat to human health in recorded history .

As recently as August—when wildfires raged in the United States, Europe, and Siberia—World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that “the risks posed by climate change could dwarf those of any single disease.”

On September 5, more than 200 medical journals released an unprecedented joint editorial that urged world leaders to act. “The science is unequivocal,” they write. “A global increase of 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”

Despite the acute dangers posed by COVID-19, the authors of the joint op-ed write that world governments “cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.” Instead, they argue, everyone must treat climate change with the same urgency as they have COVID-19.

Here’s a look at the ways that climate change can affect your health—including some less obvious but still insidious effects—and why scientists say it’s not too late to avert catastrophe.

Air pollution

Climate change is caused by an increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, mostly from fossil fuel emissions. But burning fossil fuels can also have direct consequences for human health. That’s because the polluted air contains small particles that can induce stroke and heart attacks by penetrating the lungs and heart and even traveling into the bloodstream. Those particles might harm the organs directly or provoke an inflammatory response from the immune system as it tries to fight them off. Estimates suggest that air pollution causes anywhere between 3.6 million and nine million premature deaths a year.

“The numbers do vary,” says Andy Haines , professor of environmental change and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and author of the recently published book Planetary Health . “But they all agree that it’s a big public health burden.”

Family has dinner in flooded home in Central Java, Indonesia.

People over the age of 65 are most susceptible to the harmful effects of air pollution, but many others are at risk too, says Kari Nadeau , director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. People who smoke or vape are at increased risk, as are children with asthma.

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Air pollution also has consequences for those with allergies. Carbon dioxide increases the acidity of the air, which then pulls more pollen out from plants. For some people, this might just mean that they face annoyingly long bouts of seasonal allergies. But for others, it could be life-threatening.

“For people who already have respiratory disease, boy is that a problem,” Nadeau says. When pollen gets into the respiratory pathway, the body creates mucus to get rid of it, which can then fill up and suffocate the lungs.

Even healthy people can have similar outcomes if pollen levels are especially intense. In 2016, in the Australian state of Victoria, a severe thunderstorm combined with high levels of pollen to induce what The Lancet has described as “the world’s largest and most catastrophic epidemic of thunderstorm asthma.” So many residents suffered asthma attacks that emergency rooms were overwhelmed—and at least 10 people died as a result.

Climate change is also causing wildfires to get worse, and wildfire smoke is especially toxic. As one recent study showed, fires can account for 25 percent of dangerous air pollution in the U.S. Nadeau explains that the smoke contains particles of everything that the fire has consumed along its path—from rubber tires to harmful chemicals. These particles are tiny and can penetrate even deeper into a person’s lungs and organs. ( Here’s how breathing wildfire smoke affects the body .)

Extreme heat

Heat waves are deadly, but researchers at first didn’t see direct links between climate change and the harmful impacts of heat waves and other extreme weather events. Haines says the evidence base has been growing. “We have now got a number of studies which has shown that we can with high confidence attribute health outcomes to climate change,” he says.

Workers pick tomatoes in hot weather in California.

Most recently, Haines points to a study published earlier this year in Nature Climate Change that attributes more than a third of heat-related deaths to climate change. As National Geographic reported at the time , the study found that the human toll was even higher in some countries with less access to air conditioning or other factors that render people more vulnerable to heat. ( How climate change is making heat waves even deadlier .)

That’s because the human body was not designed to cope with temperatures above 98.6°F, Nadeau says. Heat can break down muscles. The body does have some ways to deal with the heat—such as sweating. “But when it’s hot outside all the time, you cannot cope with that, and your heart muscles and cells start to literally die and degrade,” she says.

If you’re exposed to extreme heat for too long and are unable to adequately release that heat, the stress can cause a cascade of problems throughout the body. The heart has to work harder to pump blood to the rest of the organs, while sweat leeches the body of necessary minerals such as sodium and potassium. The combination can result in heart attacks and strokes .

Dehydration from heat exposure can also cause serious damage to the kidneys, which rely on water to function properly. For people whose kidneys are already beginning to fail—particularly older adults—Nadeau says that extreme heat can be a death sentence. “This is happening more and more,” she says.

Studies have also drawn links between higher temperatures and preterm birth and other pregnancy complications. It’s unclear why, but Haines says that one hypothesis is that extreme heat reduces blood flow to the fetus.

Here’s what extreme heat does to the body

This summer's extreme weather is a sign of things to come

This African lake may literally explode—and millions are at risk

Food insecurity.

One of the less direct—but no less harmful—ways that climate change can affect health is by disrupting the world’s supply of food.

Climate change both reduces the amount of food that’s available and makes it less nutritious. According to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report , crop yields have already begun to decline as a result of rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events. Meanwhile, studies have shown that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can leech plants of zinc, iron, and protein—nutrients that humans need to survive.

A woman walk through a sandstorm in Beijing, China.

Malnutrition is linked to a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. It can also increase the risk of stunting, or impaired growth , in children, which can harm cognitive function.

Climate change also imperils what we eat from the sea. Rising ocean temperatures have led many fish species to migrate toward Earth’s poles in search of cooler waters. Haines says that the resulting decline of fish stocks in subtropic regions “has big implications for nutrition,” because many of those coastal communities depend on fish for a substantial amount of the protein in their diets.

This effect is likely to be particularly harmful for Indigenous communities, says Tiff-Annie Kenny, a professor in the faculty of medicine at Laval University in Quebec who studies climate change and food security in the Canadian Arctic. It’s much more difficult for these communities to find alternative sources of protein, she says, either because it’s not there or because it’s too expensive. “So what are people going to eat instead?” she asks.

Infectious diseases

As the planet gets hotter, the geographic region where ticks and mosquitoes like to live is getting wider. These animals are well-known vectors of diseases such as the Zika virus, dengue fever, and malaria. As they cross the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Nadeau says, mosquitoes and ticks bring more opportunities for these diseases to infect greater swaths of the world.

“It used to be that they stayed in those little sectors near the Equator, but now unfortunately because of the warming of northern Europe and Canada, you can find Zika in places you wouldn’t have expected,” Nadeau says.

In addition, climate conditions such as temperature and humidity can impact the life cycle of mosquitoes. Haines says there’s particularly good evidence showing that, in some regions, climate change has altered these conditions in ways that increase the risk of mosquitos transmitting dengue .

There are also several ways in which climate change is increasing the risk of diseases that can be transmitted through water, such as cholera, typhoid fever, and parasites. Sometimes that’s fairly direct, such as when people interact with dirty floodwaters. But Haines says that drought can have indirect impacts when people, say, can’t wash their hands or are forced to drink from dodgier sources of freshwater.

Mental health

A common result of any climate-linked disaster is the toll on mental health. The distress caused by drastic environmental change is so significant that it has been given its own name— solastalgia .

Solar and wind farms in western California.

Nadeau says that the effects on mental health have been apparent in her studies of emergency room visits arising from wildfires in the western U.S. People lose their homes, their jobs, and sometimes their loved ones, and that takes an immediate toll. “What’s the fastest acute issue that develops? It’s psychological,” she says. Extreme weather events such as wildfires and hurricanes cause so much stress and anxiety that they can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and even suicide in the long run.

Another common factor is that climate change causes disproportionate harm to the world’s most vulnerable people. On September 2, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an analysis showing that racial and ethnic minority communities are particularly at risk . According to the report, if temperatures rise by 2°C (3.6°F), Black people are 40 percent more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in related deaths. Another 34 percent are more likely to live in areas with a rise in childhood asthma.

Further, the effects of climate change don’t occur in isolation. At any given time, a community might face air pollution, food insecurity, disease, and extreme heat all at once. Kenny says that’s particularly devastating in communities where the prevalence of food insecurity and poverty are already high. This situation hasn’t been adequately studied, she says, because “it’s difficult to capture these shocks that climate can bring.”

Why there’s reason for hope

In recent years, scientists and environmental activists have begun to push for more research into the myriad health effects of climate change. “One of the striking things is there’s been a real dearth of funding for climate change and health,” Haines says. “For that reason, some of the evidence we have is still fragmentary.”

Still, hope is not lost. In the Paris Agreement, countries around the world have pledged to limit global warming to below 2°C (3.6°F)—and preferably to 1.5°C (2.7°F)—by cutting their emissions. “When you reduce those emissions, you benefit health as well as the planet,” Haines says.

Meanwhile, scientists and environmental activists have put forward solutions that can help people adapt to the health effects of climate change. These include early heat warnings and dedicated cooling centers, more resilient supply chains, and freeing healthcare facilities from dependence on the electric grid.

Nadeau argues that the COVID-19 pandemic also presents an opportunity for world leaders to think bigger and more strategically. For example, the pandemic has laid bare problems with efficiency and equity that have many countries restructuring their healthcare facilities. In the process, she says, they can look for new ways to reduce waste and emissions, such as getting more hospitals using renewable energy.

“This is in our hands to do,” Nadeau says. “If we don’t do anything, that would be cataclysmic.”

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Essay on Human

Climate Change Argument Essay: It's Happening And Fast

Type of paper: Argumentative Essay

Topic: Human , Climate Change , Global Warming , Environment , Environmental Issues , World , Nature , Development

Words: 1200

Published: 01/15/2020

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Introduction

Scientists over the years have been very pressing about the dangers and effects that a warming planet and changing climates can cause the world. Some of these effects include a drastic change in the weather, the likelihood of drought, an increased water demand coupled with a decreased supply, and a severe effect on health. Still, people do not seem to realize the gravity of their actions ignoring cautions and signs even if such are already in front of them. With or without regard to decades of piling evidences and many social and government efforts, one fact remains steadfast. “Climate change is happening and fast”. This argumentative essay about climate change is going to dig into that.

Main Cause of Climate Change: Nature and Human Activity

Many reports show that climate change can be mainly attributed to an imbalance to Earth’s energy brought about by: (1) changes in the greenhouse effect, (2) differences in the sun’s energy going to the Earth, and (3) changes in reflectivity of Earth’s atmosphere and surface (“Causes of Climate Change”). These occurrences are generally natural to the Earth, which means they occur to bring balance. The greenhouse effect is in reality beneficial to life on Earth. These gases retain heat from the sun in the Earth’s atmosphere instead of being released into space. Because of this, Earth becomes warmer making it more livable than any other planet in the solar system. During the past centuries, changes in climate are thought to be due to natural events such as volcanic eruptions, changes in solar energy and natural levels of greenhouse gases. The imbalance, on the other hand, is largely due to human activities and an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and some chloroflourocarbons or CFCs (“Causes of Global Warming”). These chemicals are capable to trap varying amounts of heat such as CFCs, which can trap heat levels thousand times greater than carbon dioxide. However, of all these gases, CO2 still produces the greatest effect due to its large concentrations in the atmosphere.

Evidence of Cause through Human Activity

The Industrial Revolution starting from the 1700s saw the greatest increase in CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions owing to an increase in human activities. For instance, the recent industrialization gave rise to many factories and electricity-producing companies, the main activity of which is the combustion of fossil fuels. Coal mining and oil extraction from Earth’s crust also produces this same effect. Furthermore, deforestation to support other industrial activities such as agriculture takes away available trees that can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and, thus, releases these carbons in the atmosphere once more (qtd. in Shah, 2012). Other sources of the gases include landfills and digestive systems of grazing animals from agriculture, which likely contain methane, fertilizers containing nitrous oxides, and industrial products previously containing CFCs. The continuing rising figures can be accounted to very recent and also continuing human activities in the world today. For instance, deforestation has been widely a great problem in the Brazilian Amazon ever since people can remember. While the extent of the activity has been reported to decrease during the past years, areas as large as states in the U.S. continue to be deforested every year. From the period of August 2010 – July 2011 about 6,200 km2 of forests were cut down (Castillo, 2011), a size similar to the size of the state of Delaware. The highest level amount of deforestation happened in 2004 when some 25,000 km2 were given away to loggers. This is, however, only data from government officials manning the area and does not consist yet of illegal loggers, which continue to grow due to the heightened regulations being imposed on illegal logging. In an interview with Davyth Stewart of Interpol, he claimed that “organized crime is looking seriously at the timber industry as a way of generating revenue, and also for laundering proceeds of crime” (Melik, 2012). Furthermore, the continued desire and plans of industrialization of a number of countries, from first-world to third-world countries has saw again an increase in the number of establishments such as factories burning fossil fuels. The 2011 report by the Bloomberg News claim that output of factories, mines and utilities has increased 0.2% overall amid the growing demand for automobiles and computers in the country during September of the same year (Kowalski, 2011). Third-world countries such as India are not one to be last. India’s recent industrialization marked the increase in diesel-powered cars and thus, particulate matters in the air like PM10s (Daigle, 2011). This increase, though may signify economic growth for the countries, also indicates increased carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases being emitted to the atmosphere.

“The Climategate”

There was one controversy, however, which circulated in November 2009, saying that the above claims by scientists regarding global warming and climate change had been exaggerated and records falsified. One of the leaked mails came from the head of CRU himself, Professor Phil Jones, saying “I’ve just completed ‘Mike’s Nature trick’ of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years to hide the decline” (Armstrong, 2009). The statement gave the impression that much of the date about global warming were allegedly manipulated to hide decline in temperatures taken from tree rings from the 1980s to the present. Despite the allegations, proponents of climate change say that it is unlikely to alter any regulation talks regarding climate change saying that one uncertainty cannot overshadow overwhelming evidence saying otherwise.

There is no doubt in the fact that various human activities greatly account for the rapod increase in greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions and consequently global warming. With the piling evidences of scientists and supports from governmental and non-governmental institutions, and individuals themselves, there should have been enough to make people realize that the world is on the verge of a drastic change. If the causes of such a change cannot be lessened in the coming years, people can already experience heightened natural disasters brought about by changing climate conditions, which can be devastating. The first step to take towards this goal of a lessened greenhouse gas emission is to acknowledge the main cause of climate change and the role that human activity has in this cause.

Armstrong, Paul. Q&A: ‘Climategate’ explained. CNN, 7 December 2009. Web. 2 December 2012. Castillo, Mariano. Amazon deforestation at record low, Brazil says. CNN, 6 December 2011. Web. 1 December 2012. Daigle, Katy. Industrialization And India’s Brown Air Problem. Manufacturing. Net, 16 December 2011. Web 1 December 2012. Kowalski, Alex. Industrial Production in U.S. Increases on Cars, Computers. Business Week, 17 October 2011. Web. 1 December 2012. Melik, James. Interpol clamps down on illegal logging. BBC News UK, 10 September 2012. Web. 1 December 2012. National Geographic. Causes of Global Warming. National Geographic, n.d. Web. 1 December 2012. Shah, Anup. Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction. Global Issues, 5 March 2012. Web. 1 December 2012. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Causes of Climate Change. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 1 December 2012.

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Our Future Is Now - A Climate Change Essay by Francesca Minicozzi, '21

Francesca Minicozzi (class of 2021) is a Writing/Biology major who plans to study medicine after graduation. She wrote this essay on climate change for WR 355/Travel Writing, which she took while studying abroad in Newcastle in spring 2020. Although the coronavirus pandemic curtailed Francesca’s time abroad, her months in Newcastle prompted her to learn more about climate change. Terre Ryan Associate Professor, Writing Department

Our Future Is Now

By Francesca Minicozzi, '21 Writing and Biology Major

“If you don’t mind me asking, how is the United States preparing for climate change?” my flat mate, Zac, asked me back in March, when we were both still in Newcastle. He and I were accustomed to asking each other about the differences between our home countries; he came from Cambridge, while I originated in Long Island, New York. This was one of our numerous conversations about issues that impact our generation, which we usually discussed while cooking dinner in our communal kitchen. In the moment of our conversation, I did not have as strong an answer for him as I would have liked. Instead, I informed him of the few changes I had witnessed within my home state of New York.

Zac’s response was consistent with his normal, diplomatic self. “I have been following the BBC news in terms of the climate crisis for the past few years. The U.K. has been working hard to transition to renewable energy sources. Similar to the United States, here in the United Kingdom we have converted over to solar panels too. My home does not have solar panels, but a lot of our neighbors have switched to solar energy in the past few years.”

“Our two countries are similar, yet so different,” I thought. Our conversation continued as we prepared our meals, with topics ranging from climate change to the upcoming presidential election to Britain’s exit from the European Union. However, I could not shake the fact that I knew so little about a topic so crucial to my generation.

After I abruptly returned home from the United Kingdom because of the global pandemic, my conversation with my flat mate lingered in my mind. Before the coronavirus surpassed climate change headlines, I had seen the number of internet postings regarding protests to protect the planet dramatically increase. Yet the idea of our planet becoming barren and unlivable in a not-so-distant future had previously upset me to the point where a part of me refused to deal with it. After I returned from studying abroad, I decided to educate myself on the climate crisis.

My quest for climate change knowledge required a thorough understanding of the difference between “climate change” and “global warming.” Climate change is defined as “a pattern of change affecting global or regional climate,” based on “average temperature and rainfall measurements” as well as the frequency of extreme weather events. 1 These varied temperature and weather events link back to both natural incidents and human activity. 2 Likewise, the term global warming was coined “to describe climate change caused by humans.” 3 Not only that, but global warming is most recently attributed to an increase in “global average temperature,” mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans. 4

I next questioned why the term “climate change” seemed to take over the term “global warming” in the United States. According to Frank Luntz, a leading Republican consultant, the term “global warming” functions as a rather intimidating phrase. During George W. Bush’s first presidential term, Luntz argued in favor of using the less daunting phrase “climate change” in an attempt to overcome the environmental battle amongst Democrats and Republicans. 5 Since President Bush’s term, Luntz remains just one political consultant out of many politicians who has recognized the need to address climate change. In an article from 2019, Luntz proclaimed that political parties aside, the climate crisis affects everyone. Luntz argued that politicians should steer clear of trying to communicate “the complicated science of climate change,” and instead engage voters by explaining how climate change personally impacts citizens with natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires. 6 He even suggested that a shift away from words like “sustainability” would gear Americans towards what they really want: a “cleaner, safer, healthier” environment. 7

The idea of a cleaner and heathier environment remains easier said than done. The Paris Climate Agreement, introduced in 2015, began the United Nations’ “effort to combat global climate change.” 8 This agreement marked a global initiative to “limit global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels,” while simultaneously “pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.” 9 Every country on earth has joined together in this agreement for the common purpose of saving our planet. 10 So, what could go wrong here? As much as this sounds like a compelling step in the right direction for climate change, President Donald Trump thought otherwise. In June 2017, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement with his proclamation of climate change as a “’hoax’ perpetrated by China.” 11 President Trump continued to question the scientific facts behind climate change, remaining an advocate for the expansion of domestic fossil fuel production. 12 He reversed environmental policies implemented by former President Barack Obama to reduce fossil fuel use. 13

Trump’s actions against the Paris Agreement, however, fail to represent the beliefs of Americans as a whole. The majority of American citizens feel passionate about the fight against climate change. To demonstrate their support, some have gone as far as creating initiatives including America’s Pledge and We Are Still In. 14 Although the United States officially exited the Paris Agreement on November 4, 2020, this withdrawal may not survive permanently. 15 According to experts, our new president “could rejoin in as short as a month’s time.” 16 This offers a glimmer of hope.

The Paris Agreement declares that the United States will reduce greenhouse gas emission levels by 26 to 28 percent by the year 2025. 17 As a leader in greenhouse gas emissions, the United States needs to accept the climate crisis for the serious challenge that it presents and work together with other nations. The concept of working coherently with all nations remains rather tricky; however, I remain optimistic. I think we can learn from how other countries have adapted to the increased heating of our planet. During my recent study abroad experience in the United Kingdom, I was struck by Great Britain’s commitment to combating climate change.

Since the United Kingdom joined the Paris Agreement, the country targets a “net-zero” greenhouse gas emission for 2050. 18 This substantial alteration would mark an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990, if “clear, stable, and well-designed policies are implemented without interruption.” 19 In order to stay on top of reducing emissions, the United Kingdom tracks electricity and car emissions, “size of onshore and offshore wind farms,” amount of homes and “walls insulated, and boilers upgraded,” as well as the development of government policies, including grants for electric vehicles. 20 A strong grip on this data allows the United Kingdom to target necessary modifications that keep the country on track for 2050. In my brief semester in Newcastle, I took note of these significant changes. The city of Newcastle is small enough that many students and faculty are able to walk or bike to campus and nearby essential shops. However, when driving is unavoidable, the majority of the vehicles used are electric, and many British citizens place a strong emphasis on carpooling to further reduce emissions. The United Kingdom’s determination to severely reduce greenhouse emissions is ambitious and particularly admirable, especially as the United States struggles to shy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

So how can we, as Americans, stand together to combat global climate change? Here are five adjustments Americans can make to their homes and daily routines that can dramatically make a difference:

Stay cautious of food waste. Studies demonstrate that “Americans throw away up to 40 percent of the food they buy.” 21 By being more mindful of the foods we purchase, opting for leftovers, composting wastes, and donating surplus food to those in need, we can make an individual difference that impacts the greater good. 22
Insulate your home. Insulation functions as a “cost-effective and accessible” method to combat climate change. 23 Homes with modern insulation reduce energy required to heat them, leading to a reduction of emissions and an overall savings; in comparison, older homes can “lose up to 35 percent of heat through their walls.” 24
Switch to LED Lighting. LED stands for “light-emitting diodes,” which use “90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and half as much as compact fluorescents.” 25 LED lights create light without producing heat, and therefore do not waste energy. Additionally, these lights have a longer duration than other bulbs, which means they offer a continuing savings. 26
Choose transportation wisely. Choose to walk or bike whenever the option presents itself. If walking or biking is not an option, use an electric or hybrid vehicle which emits less harmful gases. Furthermore, reduce the number of car trips taken, and carpool with others when applicable.
Finally, make your voice heard. The future of our planet remains in our hands, so we might as well use our voices to our advantage. Social media serves as a great platform for this. Moreover, using social media to share helpful hints to combat climate change within your community or to promote an upcoming protest proves beneficial in the long run. If we collectively put our voices to good use, together we can advocate for change.

As many of us are stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these suggestions are slightly easier to put into place. With numerous “stay-at-home” orders in effect, Americans have the opportunity to make significant achievements for climate change. Personally, I have taken more precautions towards the amount of food consumed within my household during this pandemic. I have been more aware of food waste, opting for leftovers when too much food remains. Additionally, I have realized how powerful my voice is as a young college student. Now is the opportunity for Americans to share how they feel about climate change. During this unprecedented time, our voice is needed now more than ever in order to make a difference.

However, on a much larger scale, the coronavirus outbreak has shed light on reducing global energy consumption. Reductions in travel, both on the roads and in the air, have triggered a drop in emission rates. In fact, the International Energy Agency predicts a 6 percent decrease in energy consumption around the globe for this year alone. 27 This drop is “equivalent to losing the entire energy demand of India.” 28 Complete lockdowns have lowered the global demand for electricity and slashed CO2 emissions. However, in New York City, the shutdown has only decreased carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent. 29 This proves that a shift in personal behavior is simply not enough to “fix the carbon emission problem.” 30 Climate policies aimed to reduce fossil fuel production and promote clean technology will be crucial steppingstones to ameliorating climate change effects. Our current reduction of greenhouse gas emissions serves as “the sort of reduction we need every year until net-zero emissions are reached around 2050.” 31 From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, politicians came together for the common good of protecting humanity; this demonstrates that when necessary, global leaders are capable of putting humankind above the economy. 32

After researching statistics comparing the coronavirus to climate change, I thought back to the moment the virus reached pandemic status. I knew that a greater reason underlay all of this global turmoil. Our globe is in dire need of help, and the coronavirus reminds the world of what it means to work together. This pandemic marks a turning point in global efforts to slow down climate change. The methods we enact towards not only stopping the spread of the virus, but slowing down climate change, will ultimately depict how humanity will arise once this pandemic is suppressed. The future of our home planet lies in how we treat it right now.

“Climate Change: What Do All the Terms Mean?,” BBC News (BBC, May 1, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48057733 )
Ibid.
Kate Yoder, “Frank Luntz, the GOP's Message Master, Calls for Climate Action,” Grist (Grist, July 26, 2019), https://grist.org/article/the-gops-most-famous-messaging-strategist-calls-for-climate-action
Melissa Denchak, “Paris Climate Agreement: Everything You Need to Know,” NRDC, April 29, 2020, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/paris-climate-agreement-everything-you-need-know)
“Donald J. Trump's Foreign Policy Positions,” Council on Foreign Relations (Council on Foreign Relations), accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/election2020/candidate-tracker/donald-j.-trump?gclid=CjwKCAjw4871BRAjEiwAbxXi21cneTRft_doA5if60euC6QCL7sr-Jwwv76IkgWaUTuyJNx9EzZzRBoCdjsQAvD_BwE#climate and energy )
David Doniger, “Paris Climate Agreement Explained: Does Congress Need to Sign Off?,” NRDC, December 15, 2016, https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/paris-climate-agreement-explained-does-congress-need-sign )
“How the UK Is Progressing,” Committee on Climate Change, March 9, 2020, https://www.theccc.org.uk/what-is-climate-change/reducing-carbon-emissions/how-the-uk-is-progressing/)
Ibid.
“Top 10 Ways You Can Fight Climate Change,” Green America, accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.greenamerica.org/your-green-life/10-ways-you-can-fight-climate-change )
Matt McGrath, “Climate Change and Coronavirus: Five Charts about the Biggest Carbon Crash,” BBC News (BBC, May 5, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-52485712 )
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Home / For Educators: Grades 6-12 / Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

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Climate Explained, a part of Yale Climate Connections, is an essay collection that addresses an array of climate change questions and topics, including why it’s cold outside if global warming is real, how we know that humans are responsible for global warming, and the relationship between climate change and national security.

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Essay on Climate Change

Climate Change Essay - The globe is growing increasingly sensitive to climate change. It is currently a serious worldwide concern. The term "Climate Change" describes changes to the earth's climate. It explains the atmospheric changes that have occurred across time, spanning from decades to millions of years. Here are some sample essays on climate change.

100 Words Essay on Climate Change

200 words essay on climate change, 500 words essay on climate change.

The climatic conditions on Earth are changing due to climate change. Several internal and external variables, such as solar radiation, variations in the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, etc., are to blame for this.

There are strategies for climate change reduction. If not implemented, the weather might get worse, there might be water scarcity, there could be lower agricultural output, and it might affect people's ability to make a living. In order to breathe clean air and drink pure water, you must concentrate on limiting human activity. These are the simple measures that may be taken to safeguard the environment and its resources.

The climate of the Earth has changed significantly over time. While some of these changes were brought on by natural events like volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, etc., many of the changes were brought on by human activity. The burning of fossil fuels, domesticating livestock, and other human activities produce a significant quantity of greenhouse gases. This results in an increase of greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes for climate change.

Reasons of Climate Change

Some of the reasons of climate change are:

Deforestation

Excessive use of fossil fuels

Water and soil pollution

Plastic and other non biodegradable waste

Wildlife and nature extinction

Consequences of Climate Change

All kinds of life on earth will be affected by climate change if it continues to change at the same pace. The earth's temperature will increase, the monsoon patterns will shift, the sea level will rise, and there will be more frequent storms, volcano eruptions, and other natural calamities. The earth's biological and ecological equilibrium will be disturbed. Humans won't be able to access clean water or air to breathe when the environment becomes contaminated. The end of life on this earth is imminent. To reduce the issue of climate change, we need to bring social awareness along with strict measures to protect and preserve the natural environment.

A shift in the world's climatic pattern is referred to as climate change. Over the centuries, the climate pattern of our planet has undergone modifications. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has significantly grown.

When Did Climate Change Begin

It is possible to see signs of climate change as early as the beginning of the industrial revolution. The pace at which the manufacturers produced things on a large scale required a significant amount of raw materials. Since the raw materials being transformed into finished products now have such huge potential for profit, these business models have spread quickly over the world. Hazardous substances and chemicals build up in the environment as a result of company emissions and waste disposal.

Although climate change is a natural occurrence, it is evident that human activity is turning into the primary cause of the current climate change situation. The major cause is the growing population. Natural resources are utilised more and more as a result of the population's fast growth placing a heavy burden on the available resources. Over time, as more and more products and services are created, pollution will eventually increase.

Causes of Climate Change

There are a number of factors that have contributed towards weather change in the past and continue to do so. Let us look at a few:

Solar Radiation |The climate of earth is determined by how quickly the sun's energy is absorbed and distributed throughout space. This energy is transmitted throughout the world by the winds, ocean currents etc which affects the climatic conditions of the world. Changes in solar intensity have an effect on the world's climate.

Deforestation | The atmosphere's carbon dioxide is stored by trees. As a result of their destruction, carbon dioxide builds up more quickly since there are no trees to absorb it. Additionally, trees release the carbon they stored when we burn them.

Agriculture | Many kinds of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere by growing crops and raising livestock. Animals, for instance, create methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The nitrous oxide used in fertilisers is roughly 300 times more strong than carbon dioxide.

How to Prevent Climate Change

We need to look out for drastic steps to stop climate change since it is affecting the resources and life on our planet. We can stop climate change if the right solutions are put in place. Here are some strategies for reducing climate change:

Raising public awareness of climate change

Prohibiting tree-cutting and deforestation.

Ensure the surroundings are clean.

Refrain from using chemical fertilisers.

Water and other natural resource waste should be reduced.

Protect the animals and plants.

Purchase energy-efficient goods and equipment.

Increase the number of trees in the neighbourhood and its surroundings.

Follow the law and safeguard the environment's resources.

Reduce the amount of energy you use.

During the last few decades especially, climate change has grown to be of concern. Global concern has been raised over changes in the Earth's climatic pattern. The causes of climate change are numerous, as well as the effects of it and it is our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet to look after its well being and leave it in a better condition for future generations.

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Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary.

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive.

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Geotechnical engineer

The role of geotechnical engineer starts with reviewing the projects needed to define the required material properties. The work responsibilities are followed by a site investigation of rock, soil, fault distribution and bedrock properties on and below an area of interest. The investigation is aimed to improve the ground engineering design and determine their engineering properties that include how they will interact with, on or in a proposed construction.

The role of geotechnical engineer in mining includes designing and determining the type of foundations, earthworks, and or pavement subgrades required for the intended man-made structures to be made. Geotechnical engineering jobs are involved in earthen and concrete dam construction projects, working under a range of normal and extreme loading conditions.

Cartographer

How fascinating it is to represent the whole world on just a piece of paper or a sphere. With the help of maps, we are able to represent the real world on a much smaller scale. Individuals who opt for a career as a cartographer are those who make maps. But, cartography is not just limited to maps, it is about a mixture of art , science , and technology. As a cartographer, not only you will create maps but use various geodetic surveys and remote sensing systems to measure, analyse, and create different maps for political, cultural or educational purposes.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Product Manager

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Operations manager.

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Bank Probationary Officer (PO)

Investment director.

An investment director is a person who helps corporations and individuals manage their finances. They can help them develop a strategy to achieve their goals, including paying off debts and investing in the future. In addition, he or she can help individuals make informed decisions.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues.

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

An expert in plumbing is aware of building regulations and safety standards and works to make sure these standards are upheld. Testing pipes for leakage using air pressure and other gauges, and also the ability to construct new pipe systems by cutting, fitting, measuring and threading pipes are some of the other more involved aspects of plumbing. Individuals in the plumber career path are self-employed or work for a small business employing less than ten people, though some might find working for larger entities or the government more desirable.

Construction Manager

Individuals who opt for a career as construction managers have a senior-level management role offered in construction firms. Responsibilities in the construction management career path are assigning tasks to workers, inspecting their work, and coordinating with other professionals including architects, subcontractors, and building services engineers.

Urban Planner

Urban Planning careers revolve around the idea of developing a plan to use the land optimally, without affecting the environment. Urban planning jobs are offered to those candidates who are skilled in making the right use of land to distribute the growing population, to create various communities.

Urban planning careers come with the opportunity to make changes to the existing cities and towns. They identify various community needs and make short and long-term plans accordingly.

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description: A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems.

Naval Architect

A Naval Architect is a professional who designs, produces and repairs safe and sea-worthy surfaces or underwater structures. A Naval Architect stays involved in creating and designing ships, ferries, submarines and yachts with implementation of various principles such as gravity, ideal hull form, buoyancy and stability.

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Veterinary Doctor

Pathologist.

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Speech Therapist

Gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

Hospital Administrator

The hospital Administrator is in charge of organising and supervising the daily operations of medical services and facilities. This organising includes managing of organisation’s staff and its members in service, budgets, service reports, departmental reporting and taking reminders of patient care and services.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs.

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Videographer

Multimedia specialist.

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion.

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Linguistic meaning is related to language or Linguistics which is the study of languages. A career as a linguistic meaning, a profession that is based on the scientific study of language, and it's a very broad field with many specialities. Famous linguists work in academia, researching and teaching different areas of language, such as phonetics (sounds), syntax (word order) and semantics (meaning).

Other researchers focus on specialities like computational linguistics, which seeks to better match human and computer language capacities, or applied linguistics, which is concerned with improving language education. Still, others work as language experts for the government, advertising companies, dictionary publishers and various other private enterprises. Some might work from home as freelance linguists. Philologist, phonologist, and dialectician are some of Linguist synonym. Linguists can study French , German , Italian .

Public Relation Executive

Travel journalist.

The career of a travel journalist is full of passion, excitement and responsibility. Journalism as a career could be challenging at times, but if you're someone who has been genuinely enthusiastic about all this, then it is the best decision for you. Travel journalism jobs are all about insightful, artfully written, informative narratives designed to cover the travel industry. Travel Journalist is someone who explores, gathers and presents information as a news article.

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product.

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

Merchandiser.

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans.

Metallurgical Engineer

A metallurgical engineer is a professional who studies and produces materials that bring power to our world. He or she extracts metals from ores and rocks and transforms them into alloys, high-purity metals and other materials used in developing infrastructure, transportation and healthcare equipment.

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party.

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

ITSM Manager

Information security manager.

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack

Business Intelligence Developer

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Opinion Today

We’ve failed our planet. this is an sos..

By Kathleen Kingsbury

Opinion Editor

This article also appears in the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

So many of the conversations about global warming focus on the direst consequences, projected far into the future: images of fires and floods on an increasingly uninhabitable planet if the governments of the world — and especially those of the United States, China and the other leading greenhouse gas emitters — fail to curb their use of fossil fuels. But the truth is that we are already living in a world that is being transformed by climate change. Every single country on Earth is feeling its effects — today.

That is the idea behind “Postcards From a World on Fire,” a major project from Times Opinion that published this morning . Last summer, as the COP26 meeting in Glasgow approached, we began work on what I envisioned as an expansive climate project that would draw on nearly every journalistic tool at our disposal. I wanted an assessment of where things stood from every country in the world and to make a bold argument for urgency. That call to action felt even more necessary as we watched the Glasgow summit come and go with high hopes and, ultimately, tepid actions.

A team of our journalists — led by Meeta Agrawal, Times Opinion’s special projects editor — has documented one way that climate change is having an impact in each of the 193 United Nations member states. It’s been a breathtaking effort to watch come together. Some of these stories may seem small, like an ancient drawing flaking off a cave wall in Indonesia; others are undeniably harrowing, like the stories of hungry people fleeing their homes in Guatemala; others may even seem hopeful, like the move toward building wooden skyscrapers in Norway.

But taken together, they tell a story about what we consider to be the most existential issue facing the planet today. As the video editorial that is at the core of this project says: “Open your eyes: We have failed. The climate crisis is now.”

We hope that you’ll spend time reading, watching and listening to this project. It showcases everything that Times Opinion journalism can do: There are audio dispatches from around the world, arresting photographs, personal videos, stunning graphic design and visual storytelling.

As this project makes clear , climate change is already underway. At this point, we can’t stop it. But we can all work to limit the damage. We must.

Kathleen Kingsbury is the Opinion editor of The New York Times, overseeing the editorial board and the Opinion section. Previously she was the deputy editorial page editor. She joined The Times in 2017 from The Boston Globe, where she served as managing editor for digital. She received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished editorial writing. @ katiekings

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Article Contents

Introduction, the analytical framework: linking climate change, vulnerability, and conflict, methodology: a systematic review, pathways between climate change and violent conflict in the mena region, evaluating the “pathways” framework in the mena region.

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Climate Change and Violent Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa

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Kyungmee Kim, Tània Ferré Garcia, Climate Change and Violent Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, International Studies Review , Volume 25, Issue 4, December 2023, viad053, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viad053

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Previous research has demonstrated that climate change can escalate the risks for violent conflict through various pathways. Existing evidence suggests that contextual factors, such as migration and livelihood options, governance arrangements, and existing conflict dynamics, can influence the pathways through which climate change leads to conflict. This important insight leads to an inquiry to identify sets of conditions and processes that make climate-related violent conflict more likely. In this analytic essay, we conduct a systematic review of scholarly literature published during the period 1989–2022 and explore the climate-conflict pathways in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Through the systematic review of forty-one peer-reviewed publications in English, we identify that society’s ability to cope with the changing climate and extreme weather events is influenced by a range of factors, including preceding government policies that led to the mismanagement of land and water and existing conflict dynamics in the MENA region. Empirical research to unpack the complex and diverse relationship between the climate shocks and violent conflict in the MENA region needs advancing. Several avenues for future research are highlighted such as more studies on North Africa and the Gulf region, with focus on the implications of floods and heatwaves, and exploring climate implications on non-agriculture sectors including the critical oil sector.

Investigaciones previas que han demostrado que el cambio climático puede llegar a aumentar la probabilidad del riesgo de conflictos violentos a través de diversos mecanismos. Las pruebas existentes sugieren que los factores contextuales, tales como la migración y las opciones de medios de subsistencia, los acuerdos de gobernanza y la dinámica de conflicto existente, pueden influir en las vías a través de las cuales el cambio climático conduce a los conflictos. Esta percepción motiva una investigación con el objetivo de identificar una serie de condiciones y procesos que hacen que incrementan la probabilidad de conflictos violentos relacionados con el clima. En este ensayo analítico, llevamos a cabo una revisión sistemática de la literatura académica publicada durante el período entre 1989 y 2022. El estudio explora las vías de conflicto climático en la región de Oriente Medio y el Norte de África (MENA, por sus siglas en inglés). A través de la revisión sistemática de 41 publicaciones en inglés revisadas por expertos, fenómenos meteorológicos extremos está influenciada por una serie de factores, que incluyen tanto las políticas gubernamentales precedentes que condujeron a la mala gestión de la tierra y el agua como la dinámica de conflicto existente en la región MENA. Es esencial avanzar en la investigación empírica para poder desentrañar la compleja y diversa relación existente entre las perturbaciones climáticas y los conflictos violentos en la región de Oriente Medio y el Norte de África. Destacamos varias vías de investigación futura, como la realización de un mayor número estudios sobre el norte de África y la región del Golfo, con un enfoque en las implicaciones de las inundaciones y las olas de calor, así como la exploración de las implicaciones climáticas en los sectores no agrícolas, incluido el sector petrolero, de crítica importancia.

Des travaux de recherche antérieurs ont montré que le changement climatique pouvait aggraver les risques de conflits violents de bien des façons. Les éléments probants existants indiquent que les facteurs contextuels, comme les possibilités d'immigration et de moyens de subsistance, les arrangements gouvernementaux et les dynamiques de conflit existantes, peuvent avoir une incidence sur les mécanismes par lesquels le changement climatique peut créer des conflits. Cette information importante nous pousse à chercher les ensembles de conditions et de processus qui augmentent la probabilité des conflits violents en lien avec le climat. Dans cet article analytique, nous conduisons un examen systématique de la littérature académique publiée entre 1989 et 2022 pour nous intéresser aux liens entre climat et conflits dans la région du Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord (MENA). En examinant de façon systématique 41 publications en anglais vérifiées par des pairs, nous remarquons que la capacité d'une société à gérer l’évolution du climat et les phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes est liée à un éventail de facteurs, y compris les politiques précédentes du gouvernement qui ont engendré une mauvaise gestion des terres et de l'eau et les dynamiques de conflit existantes dans la région MENA. La recherche empirique pour décortiquer la relation complexe et plurielle entre les crises climatiques et les conflits violents dans la région MENA doit avancer. Plusieurs pistes de recherches ultérieures sont présentées, comme davantage d’études dans la région de l'Afrique du Nord et du Golfe, en se concentrant plus particulièrement sur les implications des inondations et des vagues de chaleur, et l'analyse des conséquences climatiques sur les secteurs hors agriculture, notamment le secteur décisif du pétrole.

Climate change contributes to conflict risk and undermines livelihoods and human security. The impact of climate change overburdens countries in demanding security environments and exacerbates political instability, which may lead to violent conflict. Researchers have sought to explain the relationship between climate change and violent conflict and climate change as a growing factor for security risks ( Gleditsch 2012 ; Meierding 2013 ; Sakaguchi, Varughese, and Auld 2017 ; Ide 2018 ; Van Baalen and Mobjörk 2018 ). There is a greater consensus that climate change has an impact on human security and sustaining peace ( Abrahams 2020 ; Black et al. 2022 ; Morales-Muñoz et al. 2022 ). The evidence has been gathered on the physical changes in diverse livelihood systems and human migration and the negative effects on human adaptation capacities ( IPCC 2022 ). The debate may have to move on from whether climate change has been the primary cause of a war or not ( Verhoeven 2011 ; e.g., Selby et al. 2017 ). Our understanding of what context climate change matters for conflict and security and how relevant factors play out in local contexts should be based on comprehensive and systematic research that considers various scales, time periods, and localities.

Moreover, existing evidence suggests that climate-related security risks are context specific, and there are multiple pathways by which climate change influences the onsets and patterns of armed conflict ( Brzoska and Fröhlich 2016 ; Mobjörk, Krampe, and Tarif 2020 ). The “climate insecurity pathway” framework assumes that climate change may not be the only contributor to violent conflict but also other factors leading to insecurity such as internal and international migration, livelihood options, and governance arrangements ( Van Baalen and Mobjörk 2018 ). Existing conflict dynamics and security environments can exacerbate climate-related security risks. This analytic essay contributes to the debate on how climate change affects the risk of violent conflict by conducting a systematic review of the literature directly or indirectly linking climate change of violent conflict focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that has been severely impacted by both. 1 By conducting a systematic literature review, we are particularly interested in synthesizing existing evidence to better understand the climate-conflict links in the MENA region. We included forty-one peer-reviewed articles published between 1989 and 2022 in the analysis. Based on the review, we conclude that the relationship between climate change and violent conflict is predominantly indirect and diverse, highlighting the need to avoid oversimplified assumptions. Climate change’s contribution to conflict risk in the MENA region is further mediated by political economy, institutional weaknesses, elite competition, and existing socio-political relations. A careful examination of evidence is crucial for comprehensive climate security discussions in general and policy considerations for the MENA region. The following systematic review of literature showcases the linkages between climate exposure and various sources of vulnerability in the MENA region.

Climate Exposure and Social Vulnerability in the MENA Region

The MENA region is facing major security challenges from its vulnerability to climate change and violent conflict. The region is the world’s most water-stressed region, hosting thirteen of the world’s twenty most water-stressed countries, with currently over 82 percent of its terrain covered in desert ( Sieghart and Betre 2018 ). Indeed, water rationing and the limitation of water supplies are already a reality in parts of Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, and Jordan ( Sowers, Vengosh, and Weinthal 2011 ). Recent climate science predicts an average global warming of 1.5°C under the business-as-usual scenario, while in the MENA region, it is expected to increase up to 4°C ( Gaub and Lienard 2021 ). Furthermore, the level of mean precipitation is also expected to decrease in the region ( Zittis , et al. 2020 ). By the end of the century, about half of the MENA population could be annually exposed to super- and ultra-extreme heatwaves ( Zittis et al. 2021 ). In essence, the region is likely to become drier and experience extremely high temperatures, followed by extreme and chronic water shortages becoming more frequent.

Many countries in the MENA region are vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to their weak adaptive capacity ( Sowers et al. 2011 ; Namdar, Karami, and Keshavarz 2021 ). The adaptive capacity to climate change varies across the MENA region. While oil-exporting Gulf states have the financial resources for investments in water desalination and wastewater technologies, others suffer from a lack of financial resources and water conservation policies ( Sowers et al. 2011 ). The adverse effect of climate change on agricultural productivity is likely to affect the livelihood conditions of rural populations and may contribute to rural-to-urban migration in some cases ( Waha et al. 2017 ). Changes in precipitation and extreme weather events can reduce the region’s agriculture yields, as up to 70 percent of the crops are rain-fed ( Waha et al. 2017 ). Climate change impacts present a threat to food security in the MENA region and exacerbate the vulnerability to global food price volatility, including Egypt and Lebanon. Countries with a high level of imported grain dependency witness significant inflations in cereal prices that can be a source of political instability ( Tanchum 2021 ). Food price volatility has contributed to political stability in the past, especially during the Arab Spring, and the combined effect of reduced water discharge with the demographic trend of the youth bulge could present a challenge to the political stability of a region ( Borghesi and Ticci 2019 ).

Over the past decade, several of the world’s deadliest conflicts flared up in the MENA region, particularly in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Turkey ( Palik et al. 2020 ). The intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine has caused immense human suffering and disrupted regional stability. These conflicts are linked to long-running inequalities and grievances and economic and political instability, which make conflict resolution exceptionally challenging. Deterioration of the physical environment and land degradation further exacerbate risks of communal conflict and political instability in the future. Violent conflict, on the other hand, has been destructive to the adjoining environment. For instance, the effect of intense armed conflict has been significant in Syria’s already declining land and water resources ( Mohamed, Anders, and Schneider 2020 ). Environmental degradation leading to water and food insecurity has adversely affected the livelihoods of the population.

The linkages between conflict and the environment are an integral component that constitutes peace and security in the MENA region. The arid natural environment of the region and the changing climate are part of consideration when analyzing conflict in the region ( Smith and Krampe 2019 ). This article focuses on the MENA region and analyzes the role of climate-related environmental factors in violent conflict by drawing evidence from existing research. This systematic review provides an overview of conditions and processes in the climate-conflict nexus. The findings demonstrate that indirect pathways between climate change and violent conflict that are found in other regions such as East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, and West Africa are also applicable to the MENA region. In addition, downstream impacts of water development projects such as dams and irrigation projects in transboundary river basins, weaponization of water by armed groups, and the government’s mismanagement of water and land have particularly affected vulnerability to climate change in the MENA region. Climate change exacerbates water scarcity in the MENA region, which in turn can incentivize policies such as unilaterally building water storages and weaponization of water as an instrument for leverage during armed conflicts. These MENA region-specific dimensions of climate-conflict pathways appear to be influenced by the region’s internal politics, relations between neighboring countries, and conflict dynamics.

The article is organized in the following order. We present the analytical framework of a set of pathways that connects climate change and violent conflict and then an outline of the methodology for a systematic review, which includes the operationalization of the variables and the sampling strategy. This is followed by the description of the methodology for conducting a systematic review. The review of literature is organized into four categories that are specified in the analytical framework, and then a synthesized analysis is detailed. Finally, we conclude by summarizing policy and research relevant implications from the finding in the MENA regional contexts with a set of recommendations.

The climate-conflict nexus is complex. Climate change has implications for various forms of interstate and intrastate conflict, including communal violence, insurgencies, mass civil resistance campaigns, protests, and interpersonal disputes ( Hendrix et al. 2023 ). Specific contexts of environment, socio-political systems, and pre-existing conflict matter when examining the connection between climate-related environmental changes and conflict. The analytical framework is based on a premise that the relationship between climate change and conflict is mediated by social, political, and ecological vulnerability ( Daoudy 2021 ). When climate impacts contribute to social outcomes such as deteriorating livelihood conditions, migration, escalation of armed groups’ tactics, and elite capture, risks of violent conflict can increase. The following outlines four “pathways” between climate change and conflict ( Figure 1 ).

A framework of climate insecurity pathways

The deterioration of livelihood conditions is a centerpiece in linking environmental changes and violent conflict. Climate-exposed sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fishery, energy, and tourism are highly likely to suffer from economic damages from climate change ( IPCC 2022 , SPM-11). Consequently, people whose livelihoods are dependent on the natural environment are subjected to additional economic burdens due to the changing climate or climate shocks. Extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, sandstorms, flooding, and long-term changes in the environment can affect the income from the aforementioned sectors ( IPCC 2022 , SPM-11). Populations with low adaptive capacity including marginalized groups are disproportionately affected and vulnerable to short-term economic damages related to climate change ( IPCC 2022 , SPM-8). Demographic changes may accelerate the deterioration of livelihood conditions. Population growth in the MENA region has been rapid from 105 million in 1960 to 486 million in 2021 ( World Bank 2022 ), which means more land and water are required for livelihoods. Climate change can worsen coastal erosion and decline tin he productivity of coastal plains in Israel and Morocco, which are important for food production. Sea-level rise has negative impacts on deltas, coastal plains, and human settlements, and tourism and industrial activities are also expected to decline due to heatwaves and worsening water shortages ( Sowers et al. 2011 ).

Existing studies focus on various socio-economic outcomes of climate and environmental changes and their implications on conflict mobilization. Agriculture, fisheries, and livestock sectors are particularly susceptible to the loss of income due to climate shocks such as prolonged droughts ( von Uexkull 2014 ; Schmidt and Pearson 2016 ). Loss of income due to the deterioration of livelihood conditions can lead individuals to seek alternative sources of livelihood, and some may turn to illicit activities, including joining non-state armed groups ( Barnett and Adger 2007 , 644; Seter 2016 , 5).

Another category of social outcomes includes changes in migration and mobility patterns. Migration is one of the climate adaptation strategies, and subsequent socioeconomic and political impacts of migration can be linked to conflict. Declining livelihood conditions can trigger rural-to-urban migration in search for alternative livelihoods ( Rüttinger et al. 2015 , 27). Long-term climate change and weather shocks may accelerate environmental degradation and declining livelihood conditions. The increased migration flow accelerates urbanization and creates instability in hosting cities with inadequate infrastructure for public services ( Balsari, Dresser, and Leaning 2020 ).

Changing migratory patterns of pastoralist or agropastoral groups, influenced by the availability of grazing land and water, can be linked to clashes with other communities ( Abroulaye et al. 2015 ; Mohammed Ali 2019 ). Violent communal clashes and livestock raiding, which have become increasingly lethal, are linked to intensified competition over scarce resources for pastoralist populations ( Detges 2014 ). For instance, farmer-herder conflicts in the Sahel region have become increasingly lethal during recent decades, especially in areas with a higher population and livestock density.

Previous research also focuses on the role of elites who have leveraged social outcomes of climate change for their benefit. Here, elite actors include traditional elites, privileged groups with economic and political power, and even armed group leaders. More frequent and intense climate-related extreme weather events can provide additional opportunities for local elites to capture resources. When climate-induced disasters such as droughts and floods cause humanitarian crises, their basic needs and post-disaster reconstruction would bring in additional resources to the disaster-hit regions, which can be exploited by local elites. Humanitarian aid delivery often needs to cooperate with local elites, whose influence over the aid provision can further strengthen the client-patronage relationship, which is a source of tension ( Uson 2017 ). Elite capture of resources, particularly land, is likely to generate strains within and between communities ( Zaman 1991 ). Local grievances over land rights can be exploited in intercommunal conflict or national conflicts ( Chavunduka and Bromley 2011 ). National elites can exploit local grievances of a population segment that are closely related to climate change. Inadequate government responses to Cyclone Bhola in 1970 led to a devastating human toll in the Bay of Bengal and contributed to the rise of the independence movement, which subsequently led to the secession of Bangladesh ( Busby 2022 , 181).

Changing environmental conditions by climate change may influence armed group tactics and behaviors. Armed groups have utilized the local grievances for a recruitment drive for the youth ( Benjaminsen and Ba 2019 ). Climate change also affects the way of wars are to be fought. In warm climates, prolonged and unpredictable rainy seasons can alter the fighting season and patterns. Due to the reduced water availability in some areas, the strategic importance of water access points and infrastructure may have become more salient. Armed groups can escalate the conflict by weaponizing water by flooding farmland and cities or depriving the population of water ( King 2015 ). Amid droughts and unreliable rainfalls, armed groups may consider water weaponization as a more effective tactic in order to influence and control communities already experiencing water scarcity.

The analytical framework of climate-conflict pathways is applied to analyze findings from existing research relevant to the MENA region. The following details a method of a systematic review of the literature.

This paper leverages from existing evidence by conducting a systematic review of existing studies. Systematic review method has been extensively employed in examining the linkage between climate change and violent conflict ( Ide 2018 ; Nordqvist and Krampe 2018 ; Van Baalen and Mobjörk 2018 ; Tarif 2022 ). Systematic reviews differ from a traditional sense of literature review in a way that it is “focused” and “systematic”; it zooms on a specific research question; and is based on pre-established sets of principles for literature selection. Systematic and focused nature of the review is helpful to “locate previous research, select relevant literature, evaluate contributions and analyses, and synthesize data” ( Denyer and Tranfield 2009 , 671). This approach is particularly useful to yield new insights and provide clarification on frequently debated issues ( Dacombe 2018 , 155). In addition, the method is a highly relevant policy tool that promotes evidence-based policymaking.

We have used the following set of principles for locating, selecting, and evaluating the literature. A Boolean search string containing keywords was composed with keywords from climate change and violent conflict. 2 Search words for climate-related environmental conditions include terms related to the effects of extreme weather events or long-term environmental changes on nature-based livelihoods and water and food insecurity, involuntary displacement, which are adopted from previous research done in a similar scope ( Nordqvist and Krampe 2018 ; Van Baalen and Mobjörk 2018 ; Tarif 2022 ). Several social outcomes are theorized as consequences of climate change such as internal and cross-border migration and elite exploitation of changing environmental conditions. In the paper, violent conflict is defined as the situation when one or more actors engaged in violence against hostile groups due to incompatibilities. This broad definition allows include interstate wars, terrorism to communal clashes involving violence. The definition does not include protests and non-violent actions, which are a crucial class of social phenomena leading to political instability and violence. We paid attention to this element in the analysis but excluded studies exclusively focusing on non-violent conflict (e.g., Ide et al. 2021 ). We used specific keywords relevant to conflict actors and types of conflict in the MENA region.

The Boolean search string was used in searching the abstracts of existing studies in English published during 1989–2020 from Web of Science, a major database of scholarly literature. From the search results, we read the abstracts and selected items with relevance to the relationship between climate-related environmental changes and conflict. The initial screening found 141 articles, which then were reviewed manually for their relevance to the inquiry (see the Online Appendix). In the screening process, we excluded a number of studies that focused on the impact of armed conflict on the environment and studies that did not explicitly focus on violent conflict. Similarly, studies that do not explicitly focus on climate change as in long-term climate trends, climate hazards, and weather events were excluded. Another set of articles that were removed from the list were commentaries and reviews that were not based on either qualitative or quantitative empirical material. While all the selected articles either have at least one country in the MENA region or adapt a regional focus on the MENA, the specific definition of these regions varies. In our literature review, we adhere to a specific list of countries that we recognize as part of the region. 3 After the screening, we manually searched the bibliographies of the selected articles and included eleven relevant articles. In total, forty-one articles are reviewed with a focus on a set of categories stemmed from the analytical framework for explaining the relationship between climate-related environmental change and violent conflict ( Figure 2 ).

Peer-reviewed articles reviewed

The geographical focus of the reviewed studies demonstrates that much of the scholarship focuses on Syria and Iraq. In contrast, North African countries and Gulf countries have received relatively limited attention ( Figure 3 ). The high number of research works focusing on Syria can be explained by the high profile of the contested linkage between climate change and the Syrian civil war. While media narratives have regarded Syria as a prime example of an armed conflict fuelled by climate change and several prominent public figures have publicized it as an illustration of the nexus, it is worth noting that scholarly research has presented differing perspectives on the direct causative role of climate change in conflict escalation ( Miller 2015 ; “Climate Wars - Syria” with Thomas Friedman 2017 ; VICE 2017 ).

The distribution of geographical focus of the reviewed studies

Source: a map drawn by authors.

In this section, we discuss existing explanations from previous research that connect climate-related environmental changes and violent conflict in the MENA region. The linkages between the environmental changes related to climate change and violent conflict constitute a complex chain of events (e.g., Gleditsch 1998 ). Most empirical research contributes to examine parts of the chain under specific temporal and spatial scopes, and this is one reason why it is important to consider the broader implication of each piece of evidence, which then can contribute to the better understanding of the climate-conflict pathways as a larger phenomenon. For clarity and focus, we organized a set of findings from previous studies under four pre-determined analytical categories: worsening livelihood conditions, migration and mobility, armed groups, and elite exploitation. As explained earlier, these categories are not mutually exclusive; rather, explanations under different categories are interlinked and can mutually reinforce each other in different stages of mobilization and conflict.

Direct Link between Climate Change and Violent Conflict

Scholars have examined whether climate impacts such as warmer temperatures and precipitation anomalies are statistically correlated to violent conflict, and several studies have focused on specific countries within the MENA region ( Feizi, Janatabadi, and Torshizi 2019 ; Döring 2020 ; Helman and Zaitchik 2020 ; Helman, Zaitchik, and Funk 2020 ; Sofuoglu and Ay 2020 ; Linke and Ruether 2021 ). Findings from existing research on the direct impact of climate-related factors on violent conflict and political instability suggest that the relationship is not always linear and varied in specific country contexts ( Helman and Zaitchik 2020 ; Helman et al. 2020 ). Water scarcity, for instance, is not only associated with increased communal conflict but also cooperation ( Döring 2020 ). Warming did not unitarily increase or decrease conflict risk—warmer temperatures increased risks of violence in Africa but decreased in the Middle East, and warming did not have a linear effect but had a greater effect on conflict risk in warmer regions ( Helman et al. 2020 ). Increased temperatures and rainfall anomalies are positively associated with political instability in the MENA region ( Helman and Zaitchik 2020 ; Sofuoglu and Ay 2020 ). These findings caution against generalized or simplistic assumptions about the relationship between climate change and violent conflict.

Studies have found an insignificant relationship between water scarcity and violent conflict. Precipitation levels and droughts do not have a direct impact on communal violence in a model including the Middle East and Africa ( Döring 2020 ). The same study also found that communal conflict is more likely to occur in areas with lower rainfalls and limited groundwater availability. Groundwater is less affected by short-term droughts, but prolonged droughts and unsustainable extraction can lead to groundwater shortages, which is the case in northern Syria ( Kelley et al. 2015 ) and Yemen ( Weiss 2015 ). Rainfall variability does not seem to have significantly affected the intensity of civil war violence during the 2011–2019 Syrian civil war ( Linke and Ruether 2021 ). The discussion on climate change’s impact on armed group tactics and behavior is followed in the later part of the paper.

Droughts and water scarcity seem to be a source of social disputes and non-violent conflict ( Feizi et al. 2019 ; Bijani et al. 2020 ; Ide et al. 2021 ). Whether the tension over water scarcity escalates to non-violent conflict or not seems to be contingent on the pre-existing negative socio-political relationships between groups and the types of political systems ( Ide et al. 2021 ). In Iran, irregular rainfalls and water scarcity at the local level are linked to interpersonal conflict and communal tensions and can degrade state legitimacy and contribute to political instability ( Feizi et al. 2019 ; Bijani et al. 2020 ).

Evidence from existing studies on the direct climate-conflict link also alludes to the need to further explore the mechanisms between physical environmental changes and social outcomes. Both large- N and small- N studies can contribute to the understanding of the underlying mechanisms or indirect pathways connecting climate change and conflict. The following sections discuss livelihoods, migration, inadequate management, and armed group behaviors as the pathways between climate-related environmental changes and violent conflict.

Deteriorating Livelihood Conditions

Several studies evaluating the worsening livelihood mechanism in the MENA region focus on the relationship between droughts’ impacts on agriculture and conflict. Severe and frequent droughts due to climate change may affect the region’s food security and livelihoods. In the MENA countries, agriculture, fisheries, and livestock accounts for roughly 15 percent of the total population’s livelihood ( World Bank 2023 ). Agriculture dependency is one of the best predictors of violent conflict ( von Uexkull et al. 2016 ). Indeed, evidence from a study focusing on the MENA region and Africa shows a consistent result that conflict risk is higher in areas where the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods ( Helman and Zaitchik 2020 ).

Droughts’ impact on agriculture is an important area of research in the implications of the changing climate on the deterioration of livelihood conditions. During the last three decades, droughts in the MENA region have become more frequent and severe. Three out of four most severe multi-year droughts in the Fertile Crescent region referring to parts of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt occurred during 1990–2015 ( Kelley et al. 2015 , 3243). The sub-region has historically witnessed periodic droughts; therefore, their agricultural systems are to a degree adaptive to drought conditions and low rainfalls. More frequent and intensifying droughts and drying conditions may jeopardize the population’s adaptive capacity, leading to far-reaching and consequential disruptions in societies. In particular, the 2007–2008 drought severely affected the agricultural production in the Fertile Crescent region. Annual wheat production in Iraq during 2008–2009 declined by 35 percent ( Selby 2019 , 264). Jordan and the West Bank in Palestine also experienced a reduction in agricultural production after the 2007–2008 drought ( Feitelson and Tubi 2017 ). However, none of these countries experienced the same extent of “shock” as in Syria, whose effects some refer to as the “collapse” of the agricultural sector. The 2007–2008 drought is considered “the worst drought in the instrumental record, causing widespread crop failure” and decimation of livestock populations in northeast Syria ( Kelley et al. 2015 , 3241).

A dozen of the reviewed authors have probed the linkage between the 2007 and 2008 multi-year droughts and their impacts on agricultural and livestock production and the Syrian conflict using quantitative and qualitative methods ( De Châtel 2014 ; Gleick 2014 ; Kelley et al. 2015 ; Eklund and Thompson 2017 ; Selby et al. 2017 ; Ide 2018 ; Karnieli et al. 2019 ; Ash and Obradovich 2020 ; Daoudy 2020a , 2021 ; Eklund et al. 2022 ). These reviewed research works have disagreed on what extent the drought’s contribution to the sharp decline in agricultural production and rural livelihood in Syria. Kelley et al. (2015 ) is one of the major empirical studies that argues for the linkage between the multi-year drought and the political instability, which argument is similar to Gleick (2014 ). Other studies have refuted the causal linkage between the drought and the Syrian civil war, but their core reasons for arguing against it have varied.

Several authors point out that the impact of climate shocks on livelihoods is mediated by water governance decisions. This argument downplays the role of climate change as the main driver of livelihood deterioration rather than a contributing factor. Despite being affected by similar rainfall deficits during 2007–2008, farmers in northern Syria generally experienced far worse consequences in productivity compared to northwest Iraq and southeast Turkey ( Eklund and Thompson 2017 ). Turkey’s substantial investment in water infrastructure and placing policies for better management during the 1990s and 2000s seem to have reduced their vulnerability to droughts ( Kelley et al. 2015 ; Eklund and Thompson 2017 ). On the contrary, the Syrian regime’s agricultural expansion policy, unsustainable groundwater use, and economic policy have exacerbated the population’s drought vulnerability. Agricultural expansion schemes in Syria more than doubled the irrigated area from 650,000 ha in 1985 to 1.4 million ha in 2005, driven by “a vision of development through agrarian modernization” ( Selby 2019 , 268). The policy overlooked physical limitations of groundwater resources by over-extracting water from aquifers at a rate of 300 percent or more than the basin’s yield and depleting aquifers prior to the 2007–2008 drought ( Selby 2019 , 266). Groundwater depletion in the region has a major effect on drought vulnerability because groundwater is an important source of water during low rainfall years ( Kelley et al. 2015 ).

Weiss (2015 ) makes a similar observation in Yemen, indicating that governance issues are mainly responsible for groundwater depletion in the country rather than climate-related environmental changes. Factors related to agrarian political economy and governance capacities further affect the vulnerability. The government’s capacity to deal with environmental changes and their impact on local economies and livelihoods is pointed out to be a key mediating factor in the linkage between climate change and violent conflict. The issues related to mismanagement and elite exploitation of climate change are further discussed in the later section of the article.

A few studies found differing climate impacts based on gender and ethnicity. Vulnerability to climate change varies between communities and countries, and intersectional identities of the affected people such as gender, age, and ethnicity influence their capacity to adapt to climate change and resilience ( Thomas et al. 2019 ). Evidence from Iran shows how women are forced to carry the “double burden” of doing off-farm work activities such as weeding or thinning cotton for minimal wages, in addition to the regular household and on-farm tasks ( Keshavarz, Karami, and Vanclay 2013 ). In Syria, the mechanization of agriculture has led to a significant loss of rural employment and disproportionately affected women ( Selby 2019 , 267). The disproportionate effect on women is related to structural gender inequality restricting women’s economic opportunities and wealth accumulation ( Selby 2019 ). This finding aligns with previous literature linking gender and climate change indicating that women are often worse affected by climate impacts due to restrictive norms and rights ( Denton 2002 ). In Israel, pastoralists are often disadvantaged due to the Israeli state’s resource allocation policies prioritizing farmers. In the northern Negev region, the state’s land appropriation disproportionately affected agri-pastoralist Bedouin tribes during the early 1900s. This has led to higher vulnerability of the Bedouins during droughts ( Tubi and Feitelson 2016 ). A similar pattern of marginalization is found in Hasakah, a region in northern Syria, where the state turned open range lands into farmlands ( Selby 2019 ). The findings on differing vulnerability and impacts on livelihoods are based on a handful of studies, and intersectional approaches are generally absent in most studies reviewed in the analytic essay.

Changes in Migration and Mobility Patterns

Migration represents a critical adaptation strategy for populations affected by climate-induced environmental changes. Existing research examines various linkages between climate-induced environmental changes and migration in the MENA region. The main discussions are related to the contribution of climate shocks in internal and international migration and migration as a source of political instability and conflict. Existing evidence in the reviewed studies does not fully confirm that climate shocks and changing climate conditions are the primary drivers of internal or international migration. The link between displacement and violent conflict seems to be contested as well.

One of the predominant narratives links climate, migration, and insecurity theorizes worsening of livelihood conditions due to climate change has led to distressed migration of rural population to urban or peri-urban areas, which can contribute to greater political instability ( Gleick 2014 ; Kelley et al. 2015 ; Feitelson and Tubi 2017 ; Ash and Obradovich 2020 ). This argument gained prominence after out-migration from drought-affected regions in northern Syria in 2008 and the agricultural sector collapse in 2010 preceded the 2011 uprising.

Several studies focus on empirically examining the migration patterns after the 2007–2008 droughts in the Levant ( De Châtel 2014 ; Gleick 2014 ; Kelley et al. 2015 ; Ash and Obradovich 2020 ). There seems to be a wide-ranging estimation of the scale of internal migration in Syria during this time ( Ide 2018 ). While acknowledging the multiple factors contributing to migration, researchers have debated on the number of displaced people in northern Syria and Iraq amid the 2007–2008 drought. While Gleick (2014 , 334) and Kelley et al . ( 2015 , 3241–2) estimate ∼1.5 million people to be internally displaced, others suggest 40–60,000 households or ∼ 300,000 displaced people ( Selby et al. 2017 , 254). Several methods are employed in estimating drought-induced migration. For instance, Ash and Obradovich (2020 ) used nightlight intensity as a proxy measure for population change, which seemed to detect the changes in population in drought-affected regions. Satellite imagery can be analyzed for measuring agricultural land use, which can be a proxy indicator for out-migration ( Eklund et al. 2022 ). Others relied on official statistics and survey data, which are based on a combination of census, fieldwork, and expert assessment (e.g., OCHA 2009 ). Nightlight intensity and satellite imagery are effective measurements of population changes, but remote sensing data provide little context about who moved, to where, and why. Fieldwork-based studies such as De Châtel (2014 ) provide insights into the socio-economic circumstances of migrants and their political orientation. A UN rapid assessment report is based on various UN-led field reports and assessments during 2006–2008 and supplies valuable on-the-ground information including changing migration patterns, children’s school enrollment, and water availability ( OCHA 2009 ). The evidence indicates that migration after the drought was indeed significant, although we cannot exactly say the scale of it. The question is whether these migrants play a role in the subsequent uprising and civil war.

Critics of this narrative argue that the Syrian uprising emerged due to political discontent, economic recession, youth unemployment, discrimination, and injustice, not because of the mass climate migrants ( De Châtel 2014 ; Selby et al. 2017 ; Daoudy 2020a ). Eklund et al. (2022 ) suggest migration triggered by the 2007–2008 droughts did not play a significant role in the uprising because migrants were likely to have returned as early as 2010 based on the satellite images showing full recovery of agricultural activities in drought-affected areas ( Eklund et al. 2022 ). Rural-to-urban migration in the MENA region is rather influenced by pre-existing socio-economic conditions and political decisions. For example, in Syria, the introduction of neoliberal agrarian policies by the government generated a significant degree of insecurity in the rural populations and prompted rural-to-urban migration ( De Châtel 2014 ; Selby 2019 ). And region’s demographic trend has a much greater and long-lasting impact on the pressure in urban areas. For instance, the urban population in Syria is estimated to have grown from 8.9 million in 2002 to 13.8 million in 2010, and most migrants lived in informal settlements with poor infrastructure and no jobs ( Kelley et al. 2015 ).

The narratives on climate change and migration in the MENA region in existing literature reflect how countries perceive climate-induced migration as a source of conflict and insecurity. Jordan, for instance, fears the influx of migration from the MENA region, mostly Palestine, Iraq, and Syria, would worsen the country’s water scarcity and thus security ( Weinthal, Zawahri, and Sowers 2015 ). Fears of “climate refugees” from Africa have shaped Israel’s discriminatory discourses and practices against African refugees and Bedouin communities inside the country ( Weinthal et al. 2015 ). Media reports have suggested that climate shocks in the MENA regions, where asylum seekers and irregular migrants originated from, have affected their decision to migrate ( O'Hagan 2015 ). More than 2.2 million migrants without legal permits have amassed at EU external borders during 2009–2017, and most migrants during this period were from the MENA region ( Cottier and Salehyan 2021 , 2).

Findings from existing research refute the idea of climate shocks would trigger refugee flows from the MENA region. Climate shocks and precipitation deficits are not linked to the increase of out-migration from the MENA region to Europe ( Abel et al. 2019 ; Cottier and Salehyan 2021 ). Severe droughts and drier weather conditions in the MENA region are associated with the reduced migration flow to Europe, which is contradictory from the popular media narrative about “climate refugees” ( Cottier and Salehyan 2021 ). This finding alone suggests that migration can be an “investment,” because the extra income generated from additional rain reduces financial barriers to emigrating ( Cottier and Salehyan 2021 , 6). The correlation between rainfall variability and asylum-seeking flows has been found during 2010–2012 when the Arab Spring swept a dozen MENA countries but not during other periods between 2006 and 2015 ( Abel et al. 2019 ). This finding demonstrates that the impact of climate change on generating asylum-seeking flows seems to be conditional on the origin country’s political stability.

Armed Group’s Tactical Considerations

Existing research specifically focusing on how climate change affects armed groups’ tactics is sparse in the MENA region (exception of Linke and Ruether 2021 ), but several research works demonstrate that armed groups may escalate their tactics due to the increased environmental stress on water and agricultural land. Changing climate conditions and weather shocks adversely affect water availability for agriculture. This trend underscores the notion that the strategic importance of controlling water and water infrastructure could emerge as an effective instrument for exerting pressure to local populations in times of armed conflicts. Previous research supplies evidence on how water is weaponized by armed groups, which is a case of escalation of tactics ( Grech-Madin 2020 ). Water weaponization is defined as the “intentional or unintentional damage or destruction of (sensitive) components of the water infrastructure like dams, treatment plants, pumping stations, piping and canal systems, sewage plants, reservoirs, wells, etc” ( von Lossow 2016 , 84).

Water has been used as both a target and a weapon by state and non-state actors. Existing studies focus on how non-state armed groups and government militaries have strategically attacked or captured water and other environmental infrastructure ( King 2015 ; von Lossow 2016 ; Sowers, Weinthal, and Zawahri 2017 ; Gleick 2019 ; Daoudy 2020b ). Water scarcity in the region is an incentivizing factor for government troops and armed groups to use water to incur damage to the local population. Attacks on water pipes, sanitation and desalination plants, water treatment, pumping and distribution facilities, and dams have occurred in Syria, Libya, and Yemen during civil wars. Targeting of water infrastructure also occurs in protracted conflict situations such as the Israel and Palestine conflict when Israel was accused of attacking wells in Gaza City ( von Lossow 2016 , 84). Particular attention has been drawn to rebel groups’ ability to use water for strategic but as well psychological terrorism ( King 2015 ).

The weaponization of water is not limited to targeting water infrastructure during wartime. Increasing water scarcity and the importance of water access influence the strategic calculation by armed groups on when and where they would deploy violence ( King 2015 ). Non-state armed groups such as the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq are known to have fought over the control of water infrastructure in the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers as part of their expansion strategy ( von Lossow 2016 ). Armed groups fight more intensely during the growing season, which is linked to tax revenue from agricultural harvest and control of the population who rely on farming ( Linke and Ruether 2021 , 116).

Armed groups can also use water as a tool of governance. By providing water and electricity to the local population, the Islamic State achieved ideological credibility as well as legitimacy over the local population, which was a core component of the IS claim of statehood ( King 2015 ; von Lossow 2016 ). Supplying water is a crucial governance function, so armed groups can obstruct water infrastructure to damage the conflict party’s control and legitimacy.

Elite Exploitation

Previous research demonstrates how elite exploitation is linked to protests and violent conflict by focusing on corruption, elite capture of disaster relief, and elite bias in the MENA region. Political patronage and ethnic, tribal, and religious networks for political mobilization shape elite behavior in the region. Political patronage is not unique to the MENA region, but clientelism explains the viability of political networks of some political elites in the MENA region who maintained power through providing resources and preferential treatment in return for votes, loyalty, and compliance ( Herb 1999 ; Haddad 2012 ). Social fabrics of the MENA are woven with diverse ethnic, tribal, and religious groups, and these minorities have also been part of political cleavage structures ( Belge and Karakoç 2015 ). Political mobilization along ethnic, tribal, and religious lines has been effective in the contexts when these identities are contested ( Yiftachel 1996 ). In the following, three main findings from existing research are outlined.

Climate change may increase opportunities for elites to appropriate humanitarian aid for their benefit, and elite exploitation can worsen the conflict risk amid climate-induced disasters and environmental scarcities. The risk of politicization of humanitarian and development aid has been extensively studied ( Doocy and Lyles 2018 ; Alqatabry and Butcher 2020 ). In situations of climate-induced disasters, local and central elites can have a significant influence on the planning and distribution of humanitarian aid. Political elites can be biased in their relationship with local elites, and this elite bias can have implications for local-level politics ( Brosché and Elfversson 2012 ). After the 2007–2008 drought in Syria, the Assad government directed the UN-led relief efforts to almost entirely focus on the Arab district of Al-Shaddadi, although the Kurdish communities were equally or worse affected ( Selby 2019 , 270). Unequal aid distribution can increase intercommunal tensions during droughts. State intervention can reduce the risk of conflict amid climate-related natural disasters. Tubi and Feitelson (2016 ) demonstrate how proactive relief provisions during droughts have reduced communal violence between Bedouin herders and Jewish farmers in Israel. The findings from Tubi and Feitelson (2016 ) confirm that the state’s capacity to adapt and absorb shocks remains essential for the inhabitants’ perceived marginal benefits and the opportunity cost of conflict ( Post et al. 2016 ).

Powerful elites compete over acquiring land and water resources from weak and vulnerable groups. Mismanagement and corruption in the public sector are other factors that affect the population’s access to water and basic services, which are simultaneously hampered by climate change ( Kim and Swain 2017 ). In Yemen, most communal conflict occurs over water and land when tribal elites compete with one another ( Weiss 2015 ). In southern Iraq, a large volume of water is illegally diverted for commercial farms owned by elites, which worsens water scarcity ( Mason 2022 ). Donor-funded projects for repairing Basra’s aging water infrastructure after the 2003 invasion, worth 2 billion USD over nearly two decades, were succumbed to widespread corruption ( Mason 2022 ). Bureaucratic procedures endow opportunities for officials to extort bribes such as well-licensing in Syria and water development project licensing in Lebanon ( De Châtel 2014 ; Mason and Khawlie 2016 ). In Syria, the government’s requirement to annually renew well licences was an opportunity for security personnel and local officials to collect bribes ( De Châtel 2014 , 12). Protestors in Dara’a, Syria initially demanded to end corruption in the water sector ( De Châtel 2014 ). In Iraq, the epidemic of corruption in the water sector endowed youth and urban poor grievances against the state, which led to widespread protests ( Human Rights Watch 2019 ).

Although the MENA region is a climate change hotspot, governance failures, and mismanagement account for declining water access ( Mason and Khawlie 2016 ; Selby et al. 2017 ; Daoudy 2021 ). Elites in the MENA region have leveraged climate change to explain some of the governance failures in the water and agriculture sectors. The Syrian state and security apparatus have exploited the narratives around climate change by portraying Syria as a “naturally water-scarce” country, although the reality on the ground shows a man-made water crisis due to corruption and inefficient management by the government authorities ( De Châtel 2014 , 9). Similarly, the Lebanese government blamed climate change for the reduction of water flow in the Hasbani Basin, while civil society representatives accused the government of “systematically neglecting their concerns” about water access ( Mason and Khawlie 2016 , 1352–3).

Tensions over transboundary water sharing may continue to rise in the MENA region ( Bulloch and Darwish 1993 ; Amery 2002 ). The Euphrates River and Tigris River are important water sources for Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and Turkey controls the water flow through the investment in the Southeastern Anatolia Project consisting of twenty-two large reservoirs and nineteen hydroelectric power stations on the upper tributaries of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Karnieli et al. (2019 ) argue that Turkey’s transboundary investment and dam filling to be the primary driver of 2007–2008 droughts in Syria instead of climate change. This might be inconsequential because Turkey released additional water to Syria during the drought (see Kibaroglu and Scheumann 2011 , 297). As long as the downstream countries, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, see their domestic water problems to be attributed to the upstream dams in Turkey (e.g., Al-Muqdadi et al. 2016 ), transboundary rivers can be a source of interstate tension—although it is unlikely to develop into a full-scale armed conflict ( Bencala and Dabelko 2008 ). The impact of climate change in transboundary water governance is still an under-researched area that deserves more attention. Another area that can be a subject for further research is a growing sub-national competition over water such as brewing tension within Iraq due to the Kurdish Regional Government’s dam building plans ( Tinti 2023 ).

Existing evidence demonstrates that climate impacts, particularly droughts and drying trends, contribute to armed conflict in various ways. This section weighs in on the findings from the analysis to evaluate the overall framework of pathways to climate insecurity in the MENA region. The synthesis of findings highlights consensus and disagreement in existing studies and identifies the areas for further research.

Water scarcity in the MENA region is apparent at multiple scales, from domestic to transboundary, and has various implications for social vulnerability and political stability. The region’s water insecurity is as much driven by governance challenges as climatic and environmental trends. Severe droughts in the Levant during 2007–2009 appear to have led to the decline in agricultural production in the affected areas, but the drought vulnerability is mediated by groundwater availability, the viability of irrigation systems, and the capacity of water infrastructure ( Kelley et al. 2015 ). Decades of mismanagement of water resources and institutional failings undermine adaptive capacities in the region, demonstrated in examples from Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq ( Weiss 2015 ; Mason and Khawlie 2016 ; Selby 2019 ; Mason 2022 ).

The depletion of groundwater in parts of the MENA region is largely attributed to the government’s unsustainable agricultural and water policies. Groundwater offers an important source of reserve during droughts, and the unsustainable use of groundwater adversely affects farmers’ drought vulnerability. Government subsidies on fuels encouraged farmers to install diesel pumps to use groundwater for irrigation, without consideration for sustainability in Yemen and Syria ( Weiss 2015 ; Selby 2019 ). These governments’ agricultural and economic policies resulted in farmers growing more water-intensive crops such as cotton and citrus fruits, which accelerated groundwater depletion. Political elites used fuel subsidies to ensure support from farmers at the expense of the environment. These unsustainable water and agricultural policies are not technical “mismanagement” but embedded in a much larger political context and ideology ( Daoudy 2021 , 13). Considering political factors in climate vulnerability is an important aspect to understand the climate-conflict nexus in the MENA region.

This analytic essay also looks into the important debate about the contribution of droughts in the Syrian uprising and subsequent civil war. Fourteen out of thirty-nine existing studies focus on the Syrian conflict and examine various linkages between the conflict and climate-related environmental factors. The popular narrative portrays the Syrian civil war as a climate conflict that is triggered by climate-induced agricultural collapse resulting in mass displacement ( Gleick 2014 ; Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015 ). Research refutes this narrative by contesting the empirical foundations. Drought-displaced people in urban or peri-urban areas did not participate in street protests ( De Châtel 2014 ), and a significant proportion of the displaced returned to northern Syria before the revolution began ( Eklund and Thompson 2017 ; Eklund et al. 2022 ). Reviewing the literature demonstrates that attributing the onset of the Syrian civil war solely to climate change lacks empirical substantiation. Nevertheless, climate-related environmental changes, such as falling groundwater levels, have significant impact on natural resources and livelihoods, which can consequently undermine human and environment security.

Internal migration is more prominent than international migration in the research focusing on climate-induced mobility in the MENA region. This is similar to other studies with different regional focus (e.g., Burrows and Kinney 2016 ). The disruption of the rural livelihoods appears to be a strong push factor in Syria, which can be worsened by droughts ( Fröhlich 2016 ). Data on migration seem to be a challenge in unpacking this complex phenomenon. It is challenging to disentangle environmental changes from economic drivers in migration decision-making. Satellite-based data provide reasonable proxy measures for in- and out-migration in locations (e.g., Ash and Obradovich 2020 ), but they do not offer insights on who moved from where to where and why. More studies incorporating qualitative data are needed to further the understanding of climate-induced internal migration.

There is clear evidence that armed groups have escalated their tactics by weaponizing water in the MENA region. Several studies demonstrate how armed groups escalate their tactics by weaponizing water. Such a wartime trend indicates a heightened risk for civilians and long-term consequences by destructing key water infrastructures. This finding is highly policy relevant for strengthening and enforcing international laws for civilian protection during armed conflict (see Grech-Madin 2021 ). In relation to the armed group’s tactics, more research is needed to unpack the role of climate-related environmental factors in the armed group’s recruitment and tactical decisions.

The findings on differing vulnerability and gendered impacts on livelihoods are based on a handful of studies, and intersectional approaches are generally absent in most studies reviewed in the analytic essay. How climate shocks have varying impacts on people based on their gender, age, livelihoods, ethnicity, and combinations of these identities is missing. If marginalization and grievances are key processes of climate-induced conflict, how climate change affects different segments of the population differently needs better understanding.

The relationship between climate change and violent conflict is primarily indirect and varied, cautioning against generalized assumptions. How climate change influences the risk of violent conflict in the MENA region is mediated by political economy, institutional shortcomings, and elite competition. The risk of violent conflict is contingent on pre-existing negative socio-political relationships, types of political systems, and different climate vulnerabilities of various social groups. Gendered climate vulnerabilities need better understanding for establishing the linkage between climate vulnerability and insecurity. Carefully examining existing evidence is important for both over general climate security discussions as well as for the policy discussions on the MENA region, which has remained a focal point of scholarly and policy debates concerning climate security ( Daoudy, Sowers, and Weinthal 2022 , 7).

Disentangling specific climate impacts is also crucial for enhancing government’s climate adaptation and disaster mitigation policies in the MENA region. Civil society representatives from the MENA region have been concerned that states and political elites blame climate change to legitimize inequalities and to devoid accountability ( Selby et al. 2017 ; Kausch 2022 ). As existing research demonstrated, water and food insecurity in the region is driven by a lack of state capacity to properly manage natural resources and the integrity of public institutions in the MENA region.

Future research should pay attention to other types of climate hazards, including floods, heatwaves, and dust storms. Existing research primarily focuses on droughts and precipitation deficits, failing to account for heatwaves and flooding, which also are common in the MENA region. Floods are understudied despite their severe humanitarian impact. For instance, heavy flooding forced more than 84,000 people to displacement in Yemen, 13,000 people in Iran, and 5,000 people in northern Iraq in 2021 ( IDMC 2023 ). How flooding affects livelihood conditions and social vulnerability would be considerably different from droughts. Studies from other regions suggest floods are not associated with communal violence ( Petrova 2022 ). Ultra-heatwaves are likely to worsen without substantial government interventions ( Zittis et al. 2021 ), and their impact on oil exploitation, tourism, and urban areas demands more research. Oil and tourism industries are economic backbones of several MENA countries, and adverse impact on these sectors is likely lead to ripple effects on the society. A decrease in oil production due to extreme heatwaves and dust storms will affect public service provisions by the governments, which can be a source of instability as previous research points out (e.g., Mason 2022 ).

Future research should look at non-violent conflicts, especially protests linked to climate change in the MENA region. There is already a substantial debate on the role of food security in political stability, such as in the Arab Spring ( Werrell and Femia 2013 ; Schilling et al. 2020 ). And few studies focus on under what conditions droughts and floods can lead to non-violent conflicts such as political unrest and protests ( Ide, Kristensen, and Bartusevičius 2021 ; Ide et al. 2021 ). Youth climate activists in the region have demanded their respective governments to take proactive climate actions ( Altaeb 2022 ). Climate change is becoming a politically salient topic, and the MENA region’s civil society has voiced its concerns about the inaction and growing uncertainty about the future. How the region’s climate activism interacts with politics appears to be an important area for future research.

The narrative about climate change and conflict in the MENA region is shaped by both scientific projections but also a “long history of colonial and postcolonial scholarship invoking environmental determinism as an explanation for underdevelopment” ( Daoudy et al. 2022 , 7). This calls for more “open” and critical approaches in researching the climate-conflict nexus in the region. The evidence from existing studies shows that current water and food insecurity in the MENA region are outcomes of domestic politics and institutional shortcomings rather than past climate change. This highlights the importance of governance reforms for enhancing adaptative capacity in the region ( Sowers et al. 2011 ). Improved understanding of how vulnerability to climate change interacts with political systems, institutions, and social relations can inform policy development. This enhanced understanding can equip relevant stakeholders to more effectively anticipate, prevent, and respond to the intricate web of risks entwining climate change and violent conflict, while concurrently enhancing resilience-building efforts.

We adopt SIPRI’s definition of the MENA region, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), North Yemen (–1990), South Yemen (–1990) and Yemen; (NA) Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. See “Regional coverage,” See SIPRI databases at https://www.sipri.org/databases/regional-coverage .

The search string was the following: AB=((climat* OR "climat* change" OR "climat* variability" OR rainfall OR precipitation OR drought OR "water scarcity" OR "land degradation" OR weather OR disaster OR temperature OR warming OR "sea level rise" OR desertification OR famine OR “soil erosion” OR flood*) AND (conflict OR jihad* OR armed OR insurgen* OR rebel* OR terror* OR violen* OR war) AND ("middle east*" OR “north africa*” OR MENA OR algeria OR bahrain OR egypt OR iran OR Iraq OR israel OR jordan OR kuwait OR lebanon OR libya OR morocco OR oman OR palestin* OR qatar OR “saudi arabia” OR syria OR tunisia OR “united arab emirates” OR yemen OR “western sahara”)).

Here, we use SIPRI’s definition of the MENA region, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), North Yemen (–1990), South Yemen (–1990) and Yemen; (NA) Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Author’s note : This work is supported by funding from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs as part of SIPRI’s Climate Change and Security Project and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for SIPRI’s Climate-Related Security and Development Risks Project. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback for improving the manuscript. We are indebted to Florian Krampe, Farah Hegazi, and Kheira Tarif for their helpful comments throughout the writing process.

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News from the Columbia Climate School

Climate and the Personal Essay — A Reading List

Hayley Martinez

The Earth Institute recently announced Mary Annaïse Heglar as its first writer-in-residence, a newly launched joint initiative of the Earth Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Heglar, a noted climate justice essayist, will spend the next six months at Columbia exploring the intersection of climate science, art and literature.

Starting this Friday , Heglar will be leading a reading group for Columbia students that explores climate change topics through personal essays. Each week, students will read a few chosen pieces around a specific theme, with a particular emphasis on emotional depth and marginalized communities.

The climate crisis may be scientific and political, but it is also deeply emotional and personal, and Heglar seeks to create a safe space for students to explore that emotionality. Students will meet weekly to discuss the chosen essays, and will be encouraged to journal and invited to share their own writing. According to Heglar, “I’m hoping that participants, including myself, will be able to see ourselves in these stories and use that reflection to hone our own voices.”

While this seminar is only open to Columbia students, others can follow along. The nine-week reading list is below.

Week 1: Climate Grief

Under the Weather, by Ash Sanders
Endlings , by Harriet Riley

Week 2: The Problem with Hope

We Need Courage, Not Hope, to Face Climate Change, Kate Marvel
Is it Wrong to be Hopeful about Climate Change? Diego Arguedas Ortiz

Week 3: If Not Hope, What?

The Case for Climate Rage , Amy Westervelt
But the Greatest of These is Love , Mary Annaïse Heglar
Time to Panic , David Wallace Wells

Week 4: We’re Not Recreating the Wheel

Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
Climate Change Ain’t the First Existential Threat , Mary Annaïse Heglar

Week 5: Who’s Missing?

What Listening Means in the Time of the Climate Crisis , Tara Houska
Perhaps the World Ends Here , Julian Brave NoiseCat
Climate Darwinism Makes Disabled People Expendable , Imani Barbarin

Week 6: There Are No Heroes

When the Hero is the Problem , Rebecca Solnit

Week 7: Out with the Guilt

Who is the We in We Are Causing Climate Change , Genevieve Geunther
In Defense of Eco-hypocrisy , Sami Grover
On Being a Climate Person , Eric Holthaus

Week 8: The Great Impotence

The End Times Are Here and I’m at Target , Hayes Brown
What if We Stopped Pretending the Climate Apocalypse Can Be Stropped , Jonathan Franzen

Week 9: What Now?

Home is Always Worth It , Mary Annaïse Heglar
In 2030, We Solved the Climate Emergency. Here’s How , Eric Holthaus
Loving a Vanishing World , Emily Johnston

Students interested in attending the reading group can reach out to Cynthia Thomson at [email protected] .

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Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.

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As climate change and pollution imperil coral reefs, scientists are deep-freezing corals to repopulate future oceans

Research Scientist, Smithsonian Institution

Disclosure statement

Mary Hagedorn receives funding from Revive & Restore; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Volgenau Foundation; CORDAP Foundation; Zegar Family Foundation; Oceankind; Mastriani Family; De Witt Family; Anela Kolohe Foundation; Cedar Hill Foundation; Sidney E. Frank Foundation; Scintilla Foundation; and the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. She is affiliated with Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

Smithsonian Institution provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Coral reefs are some of the oldest, most diverse ecosystems on Earth, and among the most valuable. They nurture 25% of all ocean life , protect coasts from storms and add billions of dollars yearly to the global economy through their influences on fisheries, new pharmaceuticals, tourism and recreation.

Today, the world’s coral reefs are degrading at unprecedented rates due to pollution, overfishing and destructive forestry and mining practices on land. Climate change driven by human activities is warming and acidifying the ocean , producing a reef crisis that could cause most corals to go extinct within a few generations .

I am a marine biologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute . For 17 years, I have worked with colleagues to create a global science program called the Reef Recovery Initiative that aims to help save coral reefs by using the science of cryopreservation .

This novel approach involves storing and cooling coral sperm and larvae, or germ cells , at very low temperatures and holding them in government biorepositories .

These repositories are an important hedge against extinction for corals. Managed effectively, they can help offset threats to the Earth’s reefs on a global scale. These frozen assets can be used today, 10 years or even 100 years from now to help reseed the oceans and restore living reefs.

Safely frozen alive

Cryopreservation is a process for freezing biological material while maintaining its viability. It involves introducing sugarlike substances, called cryoprotectants, into cells to help prevent lethal ice formation during the freezing phase. If done properly, the cells remain frozen and alive in liquid nitrogen, unchanged, for many years.

Many organisms survive through cold winters in nature by becoming naturally cryopreserved as temperatures in their habitats drop below freezing, Two examples that are common across North America are tardigrades – microscopic animals that live in mosses and lichens – and wood frogs .

Today, coral cryopreservation techniques rely largely on freezing sperm and larvae . Since 2007, I have trained many colleagues in coral cryopreservation and worked with them to successfully preserve coral sperm. Today we have sperm from over 50 species of corals preserved in biorepositories worldwide .

We have used this cryopreserved sperm to produce new coral across the Caribbean via a selective breeding process called assisted gene flow . The goal was to use cryopreserved sperm and interbreed corals that would not necessarily have encountered each other – a type of long-distance matchmaking.

Genetic diversity is maintained by combining as many different parents as possible to produce new sexually produced offspring. Since corals are cemented to the seabed, when population numbers in their area decline, new individuals can be introduced via cryopreservation. The hope is that these new genetic combinations might have an adaptation that will help coral survive changes in future warming oceans.

Two coral heads, one bleached white, the other still its natural brown color.

These assisted gene flow studies produced 600 new genetic-assorted individuals of the threatened elkhorn coral Acropora palmata . As of early 2024, there are only about 150 elkhorn individuals left in the wild in the Florida population. If given the chance, these selectively bred corals held in captivity could significantly increase the wild elkhorn gene pool.

Preserving sperm cells and larvae is an important hedge against the loss of biodiversity and species extinctions. But we can only collect this material during fleeting spawning events when corals release egg and sperm into the water.

These episodes occur over just a few days a year – a small time window that poses logistical challenges for researchers and conservationists, and limits the speed at which we can successfully cryo-bank coral species.

To complicate matters further, warming oceans and increasingly frequent marine heat waves can biologically stress corals. This can make their reproductive material too weak to withstand the rigors of being cryopreserved and thawed.

Scaling up the rescue

To collect coral material faster, we are developing a cryopreservation process for whole coral fragments, using a method called isochoric vitrification . This technique is still developing. However, if fully successful, it will preserve whole coral fragments without causing ice to form in their tissues, thus producing viable fragments after they’ve thawed that thrive and can be placed back out on the reef.

To do this, we dehydrate the fragment by exposing it to a viscous cryoprotectant cocktail. Then we place it into a small aluminum cylinder and immerse the cylinder in liquid nitrogen, which has a temperature of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 196 Celsius) .

This process freezes the cylinder’s contents so fast that the cryoprotectant forms a clear glass instead of allowing ice crystals to develop. When we want to thaw the fragments, we place them into a warm water bath for a few minutes, then rehydrate them in seawater.

Using this method, we can collect and cryopreserve coral fragments year-round, since we don’t have to wait and watch for fleeting spawning events. This approach greatly accelerates our conservation efforts.

Protecting as many species as possible will require expanding and sharing our science to create robust cryopreserved-and-thawed coral material through multiple methods. My colleagues and I want the technology to be easy, fast and cheap so any professional can replicate our process and help us preserve corals across the globe.

We have created a video-based coral cryo-training program that includes directions for building simple, 3D-printed cryo-freezers , and have collaborated with engineers to develop new methods that now allow coral larvae to be frozen by the hundreds on simple, inexpensive metal meshes . These new tools will make it possible for labs around the world to significantly accelerate coral collection around the globe within the next five years.

Safeguarding the future

Recent climate models estimate that if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, 95% or more of the world’s corals could die by the mid-2030s . This leaves precious little time to conserve the biodiversity and genetic diversity of reefs.

One approach, which is already under way, is bringing all coral species into human care. The Smithsonian is part of the Coral Biobank Alliance , an international collaboration to conserve corals by collecting live colonies, skeletons and genetic samples and using the best scientific practices to help rebuild reefs.

To date, over 200 coral species, out of some 1,000 known hard coral species, and thousands of colonies are under human care in institutions around the world, including organizations connected with the U.S. and European arms of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums . Although these are clones of colonies from the wild, these individuals could be put into coral breeding systems that could be used for later cryopreservation of their genetically-assorted larvae. Alternatively, their larvae could be used for reef restoration projects.

Until climate change is slowed and reversed, reefs will continue to degrade. Ensuring a better future for coral reefs will require building up coral biorepositories, establishing on-land nurseries to hold coral colonies and develop new larval settlers, and training new cryo-professionals.

For decades, zoos have used captive breeding and reintroduction to protect animals species that have fallen to critically low levels. Similarly, I believe our novel solutions can create hope and help save coral reefs to reseed our oceans today and long into the future.

Climate change
Coral reefs
Marine biology
Ocean acidification
Captive breeding
Ocean warming
Genetic material
Ocean conservation

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Argument: What NATO Needs for Its 75th Birthday

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What NATO Needs for Its 75th Birthday

The foreign ministers of britain and sweden call on allies to commit to their collective benefit..

On this day in 1949, 12 European and North American ministers gathered in Washington, D.C., to commit their nations to one another’s defense. With the scars of the Second World War still raw and new threats looming, they pledged to safeguard the freedom of their peoples.

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization turns 75, and as the foreign ministers of a founding nation and the newest member, we believe that NATO is as relevant to North Americans and Europeans as it was in 1949—and that it is stronger than ever.

This year, two-thirds of NATO allies are expected to spend at least 2 percent of their GDPs on defense. Our unity in backing Ukraine has surprised Russian President Vladimir Putin—and sent a clear message about our determination to stand up for our values to those watching elsewhere.

This week, NATO holds its first ministerial meeting since Sweden became the alliance’s 32nd member. The expansion is good news for the whole alliance. Sweden is a highly capable ally, with defense spending surpassing 2 percent of its GDP. It has years of experience of training and operating with NATO allies.

We should not underestimate how significant a decision this was for Sweden. For two centuries, Sweden opted for military nonalignment . Fundamentally, there were two reasons behind Sweden’s decision to join NATO now.

First, because the world has changed. Putin’s demands for a sphere of interest and his illegal invasion of Ukraine challenged the whole Euro-Atlantic’s security. The world has become more dangerous, with consequences for us all.

Second, because of how effective NATO has proved. It is the world’s most successful alliance, deterring the threat from the Soviet Union during the Cold War and remaining united during the decades that followed. NATO protects its citizens from Seattle to Stockholm, guaranteeing our collective security and thereby enabling our collective prosperity.

For 75 years, this strength and unity has deterred any state from risking the alliance’s collective might in war. When al Qaeda terrorists launched the horrific attacks of 9/11, NATO members immediately stood in solidarity with our U.S. allies. Our efforts against terrorism must continue.

As the world changed, it made sense for Sweden to turn to the alliance. Sweden will be safer in NATO, and NATO will be stronger with Sweden.

Still, the threat from Putin is not going away. We have to equip NATO for a long-term confrontation with Russia. We must make Sweden’s accession, hot on the heels of Finland’s, a spur for further action in order to remain strong and unified.

With this in mind, we see five pressing issues for NATO leaders ahead of the alliance’s summit of heads of state and government, which will be held in Washington in July.

First, all allies must invest more.

Britain hosted the 2014 summit where all allies committed to 2 percent defense spending. (Only three allies met the 2 percent figure that year before the commitment.) Both Britain and Sweden are proud to fulfill it. It is vital that the whole alliance plays its part in ensuring our collective security—we have to be able to deter and defend against aggression.

We should also recognize the transformational potential of such investment: pounds, krona, euros, and dollars spent on producing equipment and munitions in industrial heartlands across NATO nations. Over the past two years, for instance, allies have bought $120 billion worth of weapons from U.S. defense companies.

Second, all allies must adapt more.

The world is changing, and so is conflict. We can see this on the battlefield in Ukraine: Twenty-first century technology is vital to Ukraine resisting Putin’s nineteenth-century imperial ambitions. We must invest in cyber and artificial intelligence.

Third, we need to assist Ukraine.

Ukrainians are fighting not only for their own freedom and democracy, but also for the security of all countries in NATO. While NATO will not be drawn into a conflict with Russia, it is crucial to provide Ukrainians with the strong and predictable support that they need to win the war.

Fourth, NATO must engage more with the world.

We need to sustain our focus on our partnerships with the most vulnerable partners—notably Ukraine, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Georgia. But while NATO is geographically bound in the Euro-Atlantic, the threats that it faces are not. We must respond to threats, wherever they come from in the world.

That means being active in both the High North and the Mediterranean, as well as the Baltic and Black Seas. We also need to engage more with partners in the Indo-Pacific.

Finally, all allies must commit. Commit to making these changes for our collective benefit. While we pay tribute to U.S. leadership of the NATO alliance over the past 75 years, it is the combination of North American and European strength that has proved to be the force multiplier. There must be a stronger Europe within NATO.

With Sweden joining the alliance, that force-multiplier effect has grown even further. By staying strong and united, NATO can grow further still.

David Cameron is the foreign minister of Britain.

Tobias Billstrom is the foreign minister of Sweden.

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