Civil-Military Collaboration to Address Adaptation to Climate Change in South America
Abstract
The economic vitality of the South American region is threatened by the effects of climate change. Successful adaptation measures may require multilateral cooperation to preempt these destabilizing effects before they impact on government legitimacy and threaten regional security. While civilian agencies will normally be the lead for proactively addressing climate change adaptation, they may be insufficient, or absent in distant frontier and border areas where only the military is present. Creating climate change resilience will require interagency cooperation. Thus, climate change adaptation roles and missions reinforce the concept of military support to civilian authority and promote multilateral cooperation. What can regional militaries do to help their countries deal with climate change effects that threaten their security? Climate change often exacerbates existing environmental crises such as drought, water scarcity and soil degradation, intensify land use conflicts (especially in the Andean and Amazon Regions) and trigger environmentally induced migration. Glaciers are retreating and natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes are becoming more frequent and severe in South America, exacting a heavy toll on the population and the economic infrastructure of the region. Development processes need to include risk mitigation. Increased population growth, the acceleration of urbanization, environmental degradation, and poverty increase economic and political vulnerability. Food, water and energy security are all part of this human security panorama. The inability to manage the access to and quality of water, vulnerability of the territories, climatic variability, and food scarcity are common problems for many of the countries of the region, which are in dire need to improve their capacity to adapt to these changes. In efforts to address these regional concerns, the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) co-hosted two climate change-related events in South America.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA540627
Entities
People
- Kent Butts
- Marcela Ramirez
Organizations
- United States Army War College