Pirages, throughout his research, argues that in order to deal efficiently with more catastrophic future challenges, such as global warming, water shortages and need for new energy sources, major transformation of outdated security paradigms is essential because he believes that “social lag” is a main hindrance to manage ecological security threats. Personally, I agree with this statement because I believe that this social lag obstruct people from better understanding the ever-changing environmental threats, rethinking of security research and developing better policies aimed at preventing environmental challenges. Additionally, criticizing the case of the Middle East where hundreds of dollars are being used on military activities while only a small part of this amount is being spent in dealing with future ecological security threats, he emphasizes a change in security spending priorities. Like what other writers of this book mention, he also highlights the necessity of more different and logical way of developing a thought of security and a comprehensive research.
Among the three readings, Detraz’s approach to environmental security was the most engaging. She affirms that environmental security in terms of human security increases the incorporation of gender into security-environment debates. Her gender/feminist approach to environmental security studies allowed me to understand the connections between security and the environment in different perspectives and think of the gender as a central component in discussion of security and environment linkages. Until I read the part where she stresses that women and men experience differently in the face of environmental damages and that women’s experiences are more severe than men, I have not thought of the presence of of gender in the field of environmental security. Throughout reading, I could observe the current crucial place of gender in security and environment connections, such as environmental policymaking, and felt the importance of gender study to expand environmental security studies.
Parenti’s reading helped me to visualize the destructive effects of climate change in real life through the vivid illustrations and descriptions of the conditions in Africa and Asia. He mainly believes that climate change and regional political history, such as colonialism, create and increase violences and conflicts which are demonstrated in cattle and water wars. Particularly, when Parenti mentions the actual survey conducted to measure the social impacts of small-arms proliferation in sudan-kenya border, which resulted that sixty percent of respondents had witnessed a cattle raid, and more than 60 percent said that disarmament would decrease security, my preconceived understanding of climate change’s impact on increased violence and further its key role in socioeconomic activity again reinforced.