Environmental and Human Security: Then and Now 1 2 ALAN D. HECHT AND P. H. LIOTTA * 1 U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development 2 Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy Salve Regina University 1. Nontraditional Threats to Security The events of September 11, 2001 have sharpened the debate over the meaning of being secure. Before 9/11 there were warnings in all parts of the world that social and environmental changes were occurring. While there was prosperity in North America and Western Europe, there was also increasing recognition that local and global effects of ecosystem degradation posed a serious threat. Trekking from Cairo to Cape Town thirty years after living in Africa as a young teacher, for example, travel writer Paul Theroux concluded that development in sub-Saharan Africa had failed to improve the quality of life for 300 million people: "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it-hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can't tell the politicians from the witch-doctors" (2002). While scholars and historians will debate the causes of 9/11 for some time, one message is clear: An often dizzying array of nontraditional threats and complex vulnerabilities define security today. We must understand them, and deal with them, or suffer the consequences. Environmental security has always required att- tion to nontraditional threats linked closely with social and economic well-being.

"This book focuses on the linkage between human and environmental security and takes both a conceptual and a pragmatic approach to complex environmental issues (such as soil erosion, desertification, water degradation, demographic shifts, food security and agricultural prospects, urbanization trends, hazard-induced migrations) that affect human security. The book is the direct outcome of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), sponsored by the Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS), Salve Regina University, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The book summarizes the collective work of both natural and social science disciplines in regard to how best address, mitigate, adapt, or achieve resilience in the face of changing environmental conditions. The book is written in an accessible style to discuss the concept of security from both subjective and objective perspectives. Specifically it uses separate approaches beginning with conceptual methods to understanding the intersections of risk, uncertainty, and environmental challenges-as well as the challenges to measuring human security and is followed by region-specific challenges for environmental and human security in North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Additionally, case studies are included which relate to human security, and which range from examinations of urban challenges, security and sustainability, lost opportunities for human security, and environmental justice and health disparities. Lastly, the book concludes with means and methods to recognize and act on security hazard impacts, offering case examples and innovative approaches from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia and then finishes by offering pathways to the future-including recommendations for both future research and policy action."

Approaches to Environmental and Human Security.- Zombie Concepts and Boomerang Effects.- Measuring Human Security.- Environmental Challenges: Examples From North Africa, The Balkans, and The Middle East.- Drylands in Crisis.- Desertification in Jordan.- Global Environmental Change and the International Efforts Concerning Environmental Conservation.- Management of Environmental Challenges and Sustainability of Bulgarian Agriculture.- Regional Assessment of Landscape and Land Use Change in the Mediterranean Region.- Human Challenges: Case Studies.- Human Security for an Urban Century.- Urbanization and Environmental Security.- Approaching Environmental Security.- The Human Security Dilemma.- Securing Humans And/Or Environment In The Post-Conflict Balkans.- Environmental Justice and Health Disparities in Appalachia, Ohio.- Acting on Hazard Impacts: Examples from Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.- Poverty-Environment Linkages and their Implications for Security.- Human and Environmental Security in the Sahel.- Environment and Security in Eastern Europe.- Environmental Issues Of The Kyrgyz Republic And Central Asia.- Environmental Change in the Aral Sea Region.- Environmental Change Of The Semipalatinsk Test Site By Nuclear Fallout Contamination.- Environmental Change And Human Impact Linkages.- Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations for Policy and Research.