Gaia's Revenge

"Gaia's Revenge is a sobering rendition of the climate-change discourse. It sharply articulates the link between environment and human security, contributing immensely to a fast-evolving field of study." -- Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Associate Professor and Chair Department of Private Law, School of Law, University of Nairobi "Nuanced, subtle, and meticulously researched, here is the first book welding imminent climate change and multi-faceted national security upheavals into scenarios central in public-policy making." -- John Stilgoe, Harvard University "Liotta and Shearer push us to take seriously the science-practice interface, a needed two-way dialogue between climate scientists and the wider policymaking community. In a time when the newspaper headlines push us to narrow our security frame, the authors set climate change within a broader security context that helps move the issue from disconnected scientific inquiry to pressing policy imperative." -- Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Director, Environmental Change and Security Program

Highlighting the connections between climate change and human security, this book offers an examination of the meaning of climate change and global warming while maintaining a perspective on the implications of environmental effects on all forms of security - national, international, and human.Highlighting the connections between climate change and human security, this book elucidates what might happen when a mere 10-degree drop in average temperature results in a sudden inability to produce enough food, when rapidly advancing desertification produces water scarcities where none existed before, and when newly frozen landscapes lead to more power plants for energy, resulting in increased air pollution. The destabilizing effects of these possibilities create many potential challenges for U.S. national security in a globalized world in which we may have to intervene militarily to safeguard our interests around the globe. In February 2004, a Pentagon report on climate change and its implication for national security received extraordinary attention and publicity. Public attention, however, focused almost exclusively on portents of inevitable doom and disaster—most particularly on a scenario outlining a possible future similar to a climate event of 8,200 years ago and its impact on the availability of food, energy, and water. This book offers a broad examination of the meaning of climate change and global warming while maintaining a strategic perspective on the implications of environmental effects on all forms of security—national, international, and human (transcending borders and having more to do with basic resources). Given the uncertainty surrounding climate change as a specific event, the authors argue for recognizing the profound social, political, and human impact that could take place in the coming years. While recognizing the inherent dangers of prediction, Liotta and Shearer effectively present the case that the time to not only recognize—but deal with—potentially profound outcomes is now.