Exploring Climate Security: Why Bad Outcomes Occur in Some Places and Not Others

Jul 5, 2022 | Josh Busby
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Global disaster risk reduction world provides a hopeful sign. Optimists tout that despite large and increasing numbers of people living in harm’s way to climate-related hazards, fewer people die. They argue that better building codes, early warning, pre-positioning of aid, and other measures prevent large scale loss of life.

But scientists warn that such optimism may be misplaced in a world where climate change deviates increasingly from known human experience. What if the new normal in places like the southwestern United States is perennial droughts, high temperatures, reduced snowpack, and year-round wildfires. What if more places around the world face temperature extremes that radically diminish prospects for farming and fresh water—and render them virtually uninhabitable?