Both authors agree on one significant fact: environmental security is a matter of human security. Human security is “relevant for national security, as without the security of individuals and the environment they live in, the state itself is insecure,” (207). Human caused climate change alters the livelihoods of many people, and poorer, developing countries usually suffer the most. Drought and flooding can cause people to migrate to urban, overcrowded cities. Government can fail in its attempt to manage resources such as water. One can argue that both Sciubba et al. and Upreti would concur that population, development, and environmental security go hand in hand. Without proper national governance and development, a country cannot hope to maintain human security, and Sciubba et al. explains that youthful and growing populations, rapid urbanization, or large migration flows often “tax the ability of the state to provide for its inhabitants,” (209).
Demographic challenges occur in states that already have weak governance. This brings to mind Christian Parenti’s example of Somalia as a failed state. Somalia’s government has not functioned for decades and has suffered significantly from internal conflict, underdevelopment, economic decline, poverty, and environmental degradation. Sciubba et al. explains demography is important to intra-state conflict. Underdeveloped countries with high fertility rate and large populations of young people are factors contributing most to the violent conflict due to lack of education and jobs. This is especially true in Somalia, where these opportunities are extremely limited and serves as a major source of tension for Somalia’s youths. Additionally, millions of Somalis have been forced to flee their homes and abandon work as agriculture farmers due to environmental factors such as drought, floods and food shortages, forcing them to migrate towards overcrowded cities or take refuge in different countries entirely.
Somalia unfortunately serves as the perfect illustration of what Sciubba and Upreti try to convey in their chapters. Yet Upreti offers something the previous author did not. He offers eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), supported by 189 nations during the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, for nations to adopt to develop appropriately. These include, among others, the eradication of poverty and hunger, achieving universal education and promoting gender equality. Additionally, he also proposes the idea of “social learning” as a means of challenging climate change in developing countries, which refers to “an action-oriented form of learning for dealing with complex problems related to the environment and development,” (226). With these ideas, he hopes countries can develop appropriately to provide human security to their inhabitants.
The ideas of Upreti and Sciubba are interesting and put many factors of environmental security into perspective, especially when looking at real life examples such as Somalia. If I had to write a paper on the topic this week, I think I would want to explore other countries whose environmental security issues are caused by (or at least correlated with) demographic factors, specifically focusing on how youth populations drive violent conflict significantly more so than aged, developed countries.