The Insidious Ways of Plastic Pollution

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Dr. Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust

There is something about plastic pollution that seems almost insidious. No matter where we go, land or sea, that plastic bottle is with us, often discarded carelessly.

By now, everyone is probably aware of the dangers of plastics to ocean wildlife. Swallowed inadvertently, pieces can lodge in the stomachs of whales giving them a fake feeling of being full that reduces their food intake until they die of malnutrition. And they are far from the only ones as scientists have recently uncovered a new threat.

During stormy weather, sea spray releases microplastic particles into the air. Norwegian and German scientists have learned that they may originate from land but they are carried over to the ocean atmosphere to be then dispersed by wind currents.

Their experimental procedure employed two devices mounted at a 12 meter height at the prow of their research vessel to pump in the air to be analyzed. The findings published recently in Nature Communications (Vol. 14, Article #3707) note their most northern destination as Bear Island in the Svalbard archipelago.

Plastics from textile fibers were omnipresent. Tire wear particles abraded during braking and even driving were also common. These find their way into the sea through rivers and rain. Ships are another source as epoxy resins used in paints and coatings plus polyurethane gradually erode polluting the sea. In fact, the study authors claim ships are the main problem.

Most tap water all over the world contains microplastics which we inevitably ingest. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have given us hope against this pervasive problem. They recently discovered that adding tannins (found in fruits) to wood dust can produce an effective filter of microplastics. Testing demonstrated a remarkable ability of the filter to capture up to 99.9% of microplastic particles in water. It also proved effective against a broad spectrum of plastic types, and successfully reduced microplastic accumulation in mouse organs. Findings were published in the journal Advanced Materials (June 6, 2023). Researchers also believe this technology can be scaled up affordably.

That microplastics have been found in a majority of humans tested should come as no surprise. A recent study has found microplastics in five heart regions and in the blood. They have previously been found to be embedded deep in lung tissue.

Common sources are of course the ever present plastic water bottle, plastic food containers most often prevalent in fast food outlets including the usual one for hot coffee. All of which contributes to the US being the world’s largest producer of plastic waste in total and per capita (Engineering and Technology, Dec. 4, 2022, p. 6). It generated 4.2 million metric tonnes (a tonne equals 1000 kgs) in 2016 according to figures available, which amounted to 130.1 kg per person. To contrast, the figures for China were 21.6 million tonnes or 15.7 kg per person.

The usage is deeply entrenched in daily life and will be difficult to change but change we must. Legislation comes to mind but that too is unlikely to be easy. The manufacturers’ trade associations will not stand idly by with that much at stake. Remember, instead of popping out plastic bottles, they will have to remove all those moulding machines and produce glass bottles, plus the franchisees who fill the bottles will have to install cleaning and sterilization equipment.

Perhaps the pressure has to come from the bottom. Consumers, if properly informed, will learn to avoid plastic containers in their own interest. It is only then, that single use bottles and plastic take-out containers and their ilk will become history.

Wildfires And Floods on a Raging Planet

Dr. Arshad M. Khan is a former Professor based in the US. Educated at King's College London, OSU and The University of Chicago, he has a multidisciplinary background that has frequently informed his research. Thus he headed the analysis of an innovation survey of Norway, and his work on SMEs published in major journals has been widely cited. He has for several decades also written for the press: These articles and occasional comments have appeared in print media such as The Dallas Morning News, Dawn (Pakistan), The Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Monitor, The Wall Street Journal and others. On the internet, he has written for Antiwar.com, Asia Times, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Countercurrents, Dissident Voice, Eurasia Review and Modern Diplomacy among many. His work has been quoted in the U.S. Congress and published in its Congressional Record.

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The Perils of Plastic

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Dr. Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust

Fanned by the strong winds of distant Hurricane Dora, the several spontaneous wildfires of Mauri spread at a speed that trapped people, particularly those who were in its major west coast city Lahaina. Their only recourse … to jump in the ocean and await rescue. They were the lucky ones.

So far 93 deaths have been confirmed, but as can be expected, this figure is likely to rise as hundreds are still missing. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) evidence indicates over 2000 structures damaged or destroyed compared to earlier estimates of only 270. Maps and images reveal the devastation, and the projected cost to rebuild will run to $6 billion. Tourists caught in this mayhem continue to be evacuated after a vacation in paradise they are unlikely to forget.

The weather had been uncommonly dry and the National Weather Service had given the region a red flag. Almost anything then could have set a fire off, from lightning strikes to volcanic activity. Worse still, as climate scientists have notably observed, extremes of weather are more likely in the future given the impact of global warming.

Across the Pacific in China, Super Typhoon Doksuri churned slowly across its northwest, inundating Beijing and Hebei, the province that surrounds the capital city, which experienced the heaviest rain in 140 years. The mountain village of Tangzhuang consisted mostly of about 2000 elderly people as the young sought better opportunities in cities. Hit first by a landslide and then by rains of increasing intensity, it has simply disappeared in the sea of water. As reported by the BBC, 39 deaths in Beijing and 33 in Hebei province have been confirmed. The eventual toll will probably be much higher.

Meanwhile in Canada, there have been a spate of wildfires this year commencing in March but with increased intensity since June. Nearly a 52,000 square mile area lies scorched and 168,000 people have had to evacuate their homes at some point over this period. These record-setting fires have now engulfed to a varying extent all 13 of Canada’s provinces and territories. And four firefighters have lost their lives. The government is responding with federal aid, and voluntary international firefighting assistance has been welcomed. The seriousness and unpredictability of the fires marked by the spontaneous flaring up of blazes across the country is unprecedented and due to a drought that continues. It will therefore increase the hazard of fires through late summer.

Several thousand miles away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Europe, the little country of Slovenia had 200mm (almost 8 inches) of rain in 12 hours during the night of August 3-4, an amount that in normal times would exceed the total for the whole month. Landslides, floods (when several rivers broke their banks), homes, businesses, roads and bridges damaged or completely destroyed, and hundreds of people have had to be evacuated.

About 1400 miles away lies Georgia on the other side of the Black Sea. Here the warm weather-caused intense melting of the Buba and Tbilisi glaciers coupled with heavy rainfall caused a massive mudflow in the mountain resort town of Shovi. Search and rescue teams have recovered 12 bodies and evacuated over 200 people. A further 25 remain missing, most probably still buried in the mud.

Numerous other countries have suffered floods, and others like Australia have become notorious for wildfires which have been worsening. But then there is tea, a drink savored by billions of people. A very special kind grown in the foothills of the Himalayas, the uniquely aromatic Darjeeling tea is synonymous with high quality. Sadly, global warming has had a decidedly adverse impact. Prices have quadrupled because the warmer and drier weather affects both quantity and quality — heat causes the tender leaf shoots to dry and less rain reduces the crop.

Thus, it goes on. Pick a country, there’s a disaster story — Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, countries in Africa, etc. Is it not up to us humans to act now individually and collectively before it’s too late?

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On July 28th, 2023, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres issued a clear warning on the prevailing climate concern. Guterres said, “The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable”.

As countries throughout the world are facing severe climate changes, forcing Guterres to make these disturbing comments. The 21st century is now also being called the era of global boiling, because of the disturbing and extraordinary environmental crises faced by every country in the world. A gradual increase in Earth’s average temperature is called global warming, but now this global warming has entered a state of emergency for our planet. Human-induced climate change, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, has pushed our planet to the brink of catastrophe. Changes in weather patterns, rise in sea level and melting of glaciers are some of the consequences the global boiling world is facing these days.

The transition from Global Warming to Global Boiling

The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century is the time when the transition from global warming to global boiling speeded. Greenhouse gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Fluorinated Gases), reached their record levels after the spread of industrialization across the globe. The primary drivers of global boiling are the burning of fossil fuels for the production of energy for different purposes, for example, transportation, etc. Other than this, deforestation also plays a very significant contribution to this phenomenon. Human activities have destroyed natural carbon sinks such as forests and wetlands; those ecosystems play a vital role in absorbing CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere.

Due to global boiling, several alarming consequences have become evident. Heatwaves, hurricanes, floods, and droughts, are becoming more frequent and intense, impacting vulnerable communities worldwide. Raise in sea levels threatens coastal regions, displacing millions and endangering critical ecosystems around the world.

The hottest day in the world

The hottest day is, “going to be when global warming, El Niño, and the annual cycle all line up together. Which is the next couple months,” said Myles Allen, a professor of geosystem science at Oxford University, told The Washington Post.

On four consecutive days, from July 3rd–6th, 2023, the daily global mean surface air temperature record was broken. Since then, every day has been warmer than the previous record of 16.80°C, which was established on August 13th, 2016. The temperatures reported on July 5th and 7th, 2023 were within 0.01°C of this on the hottest day, July 6th, 2023, when the worldwide average temperature reached 17.08°C. This indicates that the first three weeks of the month were the warmest three-week span on record. Temperatures briefly breached the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit above pre-industrial levels during the first and third weeks.

The Disastrous Impact on Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystem faced destructive impacts because of global boiling. Due to habitat loss, altered migration patterns, and changes in environmental patterns, several species of both plants and animals became extinct. Human societies that rely on these ecosystems for supplies and services are impacted by the loss of biodiversity, which also threatens the delicate balance of the natural environment.

International Cooperation and Policy Initiatives

Exceptional levels of international cooperation are needed to address the worldwide boiling issue. A significant step in this regard was taken in 2015 with the adoption of the Paris Agreement. With attempts to keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the Paris Agreement intends to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Countries must establish and meet challenging emission reduction goals to do this. In addition, states must finance efforts at climate adaptation and mitigation as well as assist underdeveloped nations in their transition to sustainable development. To counteract global warming, cooperation between governmental bodies, nonprofits, and the corporate sector is crucial.

The Urgent Need for Action

The current state of global heating gives a clear reminder of how urgently we need to address the climate problem. Inaction will have terrible repercussions, and there isn’t much time left to lessen the worst effects of global boiling. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, shift to renewable energy sources, and protect and restore natural carbon sinks like forests and wetlands. The world community must come together to take bold and ambitious action. A more sustainable future can be attained by encouraging energy efficiency, investing in sustainable technologies, and supporting environmentally friendly regulations. Individual actions are essential because collectively, every attempt to reduce carbon footprints strengthens the international response required to combat the period of global warming. To prevent global warming, cooperation between governmental bodies, nonprofits, and the corporate sector is crucial.

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Environmental security comprises the interactive outlook of the various human and ecological connections that shape the contemporary world. The Constructivist school of thought has made substantial contributions to the evolution of environmental security. Non-conventional and conventional notions of security are impacting the entire fabric of the environment in contemporary times ranging from military interventions, state-centric approaches, and urban warfare to human adventurism with nature. Environmental security has a multidimensional web of the network between present environmental changes across the world as well as ecological-led risks and collaboration. In modern times, post-realist scholars have given due consideration to the environment as a security concern, unlike the classical realist understanding. Considerable developments have been observed in the field of environmental security, and implicitly recognized both in the defense strategy as well as the environmental community to deal with comprehensive security concepts. The ontological shift which the Anthropocene formulation implies, a matter of carefully inhabiting a small secured planet rather than carelessly expropriating materials from a big one, requires nothing less than a fundamental reformulation of global themes if a stabilized earth system is to be ensured (Tucker, & Grim, 2016). The essay critically assesses the broader aspects of modern society’s relationship with the environment, the threats emerging from the complex interaction of man and nature, the opportunities available to reshape the planet through activism, interaction, awareness, and optimism, and leads to the tailpiece.

Analysts have emphasized reviving a planetary system that at least traces the footprints of the geological conditions of the last ten thousand years to ensure sustainable life on earth (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). Much discussion about catastrophic disasters from climate change, militarization, extractivism, and other disruptions, connects to speculations about civilizational demise; indicating the eventual collapse of the modern world, one way or the other. While such threats have largely been identified, there is still a need to utilize modern resources as opportunities to address the bottlenecks. Following are some threats that warrant more attention than others due to the drastic shift in non-traditional concepts of security, and are adversely impacting environmental security.

Years of technological innovation, industrial expansion, and the urge to dominate the global stage have brought an adverse shift in the planetary system; thus, it is threatening environmental security with its fancy shades. Climate change is instigated by modern-day capitalism as it allows businesses to overuse natural resources, and fail to account for environmental protection against pollution, extraction, and exploitation. Corporate establishment which is directly benefitting from capitalism has long ignored the risks involved with climate change, and are protecting their political and economic interests. Conflicts goods such as diamond, cotton, or tropical timber often become the objects of contestation in states such as Angola, Sierra Leone, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Likewise, the disastrous merger of Big Greens groups (ecological organizations) and Big Firms is actively involved in polluting the world and misleading humanity. Therefore, instead of shutting down fossil fuel companies, these organizations spend their resources to protect their established practices. The state-centric phenomenon of the Great Games is threatening environmental security at large, and it has been sidelined by world leaders, ignoring the emerging threats and hammering their interests on the global sheet.

Furthermore, the widespread impact of colonialism and colonial imagination in the contemporary era is significant in the environmental security nexus. In this regard, extractivism, is a concept borrowed from colonialism and industrialization where capitalist economies extract natural resources and leave the sites poisoned, drained, or destroyed. An example of this is Blockadia, an area in Greece, exploited by mining companies in their quest for high price commodities. Likewise, in the Caspian region, states continue the process of drilling to pursue their market-based agendas, threatening environmental security. The expansion of free market fundamentalism has emphasized consumption and trade and transformed the world into a huge corporate empire that the Giants cannot afford to lose. Moreover, the environment holds a strategic significance today as World’s Giants generate power from natural resources, furthering unforeseen consequences due to unchecked gold mining, illegal logging, micro-plastic pollution, and drilling. The militarization of the Arctic region reflects the power show of states with no chance of slowing down and delving deep into a zone of conflict. The weaponization in the region is termed as a pre-requisite for controlling the resources and securing the interests. The major threat to the region is climate change as states are encouraging companies to increase exploration of gas and oil by uncovering the Arctic ice as well as mining which threaten the Arctic climate, people, wildlife, and peace, intensifying the competition in the region. Russia especially has been expanding its nuclear defenses, based on modern designs and equipment, in the Arctic for years to enhance its influence on the global stage, and secure its economic future. Similarly, states are increasing traffic to access the resources which are heightening the potential competition. The indirect neglect and direct environmental abuse signify the happening damages by Giant and Dwarf powers; thus, it displays that modern-day capitalistic agendas are furthering environmental insecurities (Petersen & Pincus, 2021).

Today, the widening scope of international security is substantially more endangered by climate change than international terrorism (King, 2004). Climate change intensifies the existing threats such as resource depletion and poses a direct threat to national security, global interests, humanity, and the planet at large. For instance, carbon dioxide emissions are threatening life on the planet. Due to the fast-growing rate of carbon emissions based on human activities, the earth will observe 10 C (1.80 F) warming by 2030, rendering major portions of the planet uninhabitable, and displacing millions of people. The consequences of an extremely high temperature will be adverse such as widespread species extinction, coastal flooding, and sea level rise, harming millions of people in coastal regions. Bangkok, Manila, Bangladesh, Venice, Maldives, and Dubai are most vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding. Furthermore, natural disasters lead to the refugee crisis which produces slums, and the living conditions of the slum dwellers are exploited by inequality and ignorance that lead to malnourishment, cultural and identity problems, poverty, and suppression of fundamental rights. Bangalore still lacks sanitized piped water and is heavily populated with malnourished street children who suffer from a high infant mortality rate. With such a high rate of the population having no access to basic needs, environmental security is heading toward dark shades of threats.

Environmental security is being threatened due to biodiversity loss. In this regard, oceans are crucial in biodiversity conversion, maintaining the food supply chain for millions, and regulating weather patterns. Ocean acidification has grave ramifications for marine, and coastal ecosystems which are caused by overfishing, unchecked pollution, and coastal erosion (Toropova, et. al., 2010) The Amazon, having the most diverse biodiversity on the planet, is being endangered by mercury pollution which is affecting its wildlife, threatening iconic predators as well as fish vital to communities’ food security. Moreover, the livelihood of millions of people is affected due to ocean acidification, and it is predicted that the fish population will crash due to the bleach of coral reefs by 2050. Scientific observations are continuously warning about the increasing adventures of humans due to which the planet has crossed a series of tipping points that are posing severe security threats such as heat waves in Antarctica and Siberia, hurricanes, droughts in Africa, the environmental risks in the Pacific island, and an accelerating sixth mass extinction, to name a few. The fast-increasing process of deforestation, in the Amazon rainforest, if continues, will transform into a dry savanna due to lack of enough moisture by 2030; hence, it is altering the water cycle. Today, deforestation in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia pose a real-time threat to environmental security. Continuous resource exploitation leads to uncontrolled migration, population growth, uneven distribution, stressed bilateral relations, civil war, and even insurgency (Hassan, 1991).

The catastrophic episodes of climate change have impacted the food sector at large. Up to one-third of greenhouse gases are emitted by the global food system, with livestock and fisheries accounting for 30% of carbon output. As the global population is predicted to exceed 9 billion by mid-century, and global food demand may reach 70% by 2050, a global food security emergency may erupt, affecting millions of people in various regions (Koester & Galaktionova, 2021). In the terms of water security, almost 2.7 billion suffer water scarcity for at least one month of the year (Dantas, Delzeit, & Klepper, 2021). Water scarcity is growing due to the melting glaciers at a very rapid rate, the fast-growing population, water consumption in the agriculture industry, and by the food products such as meat and high-calorie diets, and increasing stresses throughout the globe. The Middle East is on the verge of becoming a water-stressed region in the near future. Hydra terrorism is another chapter of serious concern especially in the Middle East, a term first introduced by ISIS. By 2040, almost four million people would no longer have access to running water and will be forced to rely on water rations, leading to a refugee crisis, regional and global instability, and even hydra conflicts. It is predicted that Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, London, Beijing, Bangalore, Barcelona, and Mexico City will observe day zero in a few years. Environmentalists have warned to rethink the existing dietary patterns to reduce the carbon footprints, and water consumption in the agriculture industry.

Another threat to environmental security emerges from the extensive use of firepower in its various forms. The products of combustion are the greenhouse gases causing the earth to heat, and disrupting the climate system. While climatic change continues to disrupt geographical settings, the politics of self-imposed risks is beginning to challenge the dominant concept of security over the last few decades. The contemporary modes of Great Games and many other kinds of power are altering new ecological environments that hinder stability, and perpetuate harmful modes of fossil fuel fuelled by modernity (Stoddard, et. al., 2021). The nuclear weapons and the extreme capabilities of firepower in military and civilian modes, mass consumption cultures based on fossil fuels, and investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, are calling a functional earth system into question. The activists driving the divestment campaign in the West in recent years have established that the fossil fuel business poses an existential threat (Mangat, et. al., 2018). However, despite the obvious future consequences, firepower in the form of fossil fuel combustion is still clearly being overused to remake the ecosphere, satisfying the market economies and governments; the environmental security dilemma is being exacerbated rather than alleviated by continued investments in fossil fuels.

Human activities are altering the global order far more rapidly than the assumptions allow them to engage (Albert, 2020). Environmental terrorism is a security concern that destroys natural resources to prevent usage by others and relies on a weapon of mass destruction (Berkowicz, 2011). Concerns are growing due to the excessive use of the environment, as a weapon against adversaries, with such ease. In this regard, bushfires and forests have remained a preferred weapon due to the quantity of massive destruction versus the low risk of detection. Environmental security is endangered by all forms of chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons. Harmful aliens are introduced to weaken natural habitats (polluting reserves and land), destroy living organisms (damaging nuclear power plants or water resources), or release chemical/biological arsenals into the atmosphere (polluting air). Industrial tragedies across the globe have impacted effective proxies similar to planned sabotage campaigns. Urban areas are appealing targets for environmental terrorism due to the increased urbanization process. Rural areas, on the other hand, are not immune due to their interaction with forests, agricultural industry, hydra-resources, and animals. The lag period between initiating an attack and identifying the threat causes severe environmental damage, triggering refugee plight and cross-border overflow. The Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have exploited properties to further their ideological goals on environmental security (Mothersill, et. al., 2022). Using fire, sabotage, and vandalism, they have targeted laboratories, enterprises, timber industry, and their targets might extend to the nuclear sector. Nuclear power plants, dams, water reserves, oil pipelines and delivery systems, forests, and fuel and petroleum plants are all potential environmental terrorist hard targets; thus, they pose an adverse threat to environmental security.

Rethinking, revising, and renovating contemporary patterns of exploitation are necessitated to ensure a sustainable and secure planet for generations. Certain immediate initiatives must be taken to slow down above mentioned threats to protect the long-term viability of a global civilization. International pressure despite the capitalistic inclination along with a moderate blend of national awareness is taking new turns to protect the environment. Addressing environmental security nexus no longer involves national actors as it has become a transnational phenomenon, considering the prevailing global threats such as the case of Covid-19, and demands further cooperation of divergent actors. From a 21st-century perspective, the collaboration framework has recommended deciphering the codes of potential threats, and advancing mutual exchanges. Following are certain opportunities in modern times to alter the threats facing environmental security.

The global states are fortunate enough to choose and re-design the future by shifting their priorities from non-renewable resources to renewable sources of energy. Although loud debates have been heard in the global halls, practical execution still seems to be a long journey. There is a chance that the world must see fossil fuels as pollutants that have been used as primary investing material for the survival of mankind. By developing resilience to global warming, slowing down carbon emissions, reducing dependence on coal, and providing financial assistance to developing countries, the world has the chance to renovate the developed cracks, and ensure environmental security. Morocco, for instance, depends almost exclusively on imported oil and gas, yet it fulfills 40% of its domestic needs from renewable sources, bolstering the largest solar plant in the world. Morocco might be an energy exporter by 2050 with such a fast expansion in renewable resources of energy. The globalized world can make maximum benefit of the available sources of energy, and develop an environmentally secured mechanism in collaboration with states.

Furthermore, fossil fuels have been explicitly identified as a contributor to climate change, providing states an opportunity to phase down coal usage, while additional laws for international carbon markets are under discussion. Asian economies are rising relative to the rest of the globe, and China in particular has increased production of renewable energy sources while limiting its usage of coal-fired electricity generation, the geopolitics of energy is taking new turns. Likewise, developing promised eco-cities appears to be critical, both for making them resilient to extreme weather and for reducing the use of fossil fuels to power them. Evolving themes of mutual limitation, a negarchy linked to fossil fuels, and similar extractivist operations for significant ecological services will undoubtedly require production coordination far beyond current trading and environmental accords (Burke & Fishel, 2020). Survival is a matter of restricting firepower, limiting the probable use of nuclear weapons, and restricting the launch of missiles. A clear focus on eliminating the consumption of fossil fuels is critical, much of the discussion about net zero emissions by 2050 is about net rather than zero, allowing for substantial wiggle room regarding offsets, carbon removal technology, and other related issues (Polman & Winston, 2021). Moreover, imposing a national carbon tax on Giant as well as Dwarf states would help the planet to maintain its ancient glory. The environmental insecurities are the product of market failure and for years, economists and environmentalists have urged policymakers to increase the taxes on greenhouse gas emissions. To cut emissions efficiently, expansion of green innovation financing and funds are essential to replace carbon energy sources and regulate policies to address market failure. Introducing carbon taxes will help the world to become less polluted, and it will further low-carbon technologies. Across the globe, almost 27 countries have availed the opportunity to deal with environmental security by introducing a national carbon fund, which includes the EU Canada, Singapore, Japan, Ukraine, and Argentina. The Swedish economy has expanded by 75% in the past three decades due to the efficient control of emissions and the implementation of carbon taxes which decreased by 25%.

Furthermore, rewilding biodiversity on the planet is an opportunity for the revival of environmental security. Diverse ecosystems are better suited to deliver key services such as carbon sequestration. The case of Palau serves as the best example for other states to deal with environmental insecurities. As oceans are the main source of food and tourism, the government imposed fishing regulations and, in some cases, prohibited fishing entirely to prevent the rapid depletion of fishing stocks. Resultantly, fish populations overflowed into fishing areas, accelerated catches for fishermen, and rehabilitated coral reefs. The UN is attempting to create the largest no-fish zone in international waters, as it will ensure an adequate supply of fish, maintaining life in coastal regions. Furthermore, a controlled rate of the global population will help the world to tackle non-traditional security threats such as poverty, food insecurity, terrorism, and crimes. By 2100, the world population will reach 11 billion, and states have an opportunity to ensure environmental security by empowering women for reproduction, educating both genders about contraception, building health infrastructure to reduce infant mortality, imposing child taxes, introducing a one-child policy, ending child financing policies to parents, and offering age-appropriate sexuality education to students.

To achieve a carbon-free environment, the world has the opportunity to reverse deforestation as forests are a valuable ally in absorbing carbon emissions. The world must invest in deforested crops such as oil palm and soya. Forests in Costa Rica cover more than half of the country due to government grants to landowners to replace native trees. The situation is grave, yet we already have the knowledge and skills to put a stop to it and reverse it. States have had to collaborate on critical matters of common interest in modern contexts, and in terms of climate change, such a post-realist approach today necessitates cooperative system preservation and low-carbon innovation activities. Moreover, reducing the space of farmland will support the return of wilderness. This can be made possible by changing diet patterns. The Netherlands has forced Dutch farmers to make optimal use of land, resultantly the nation observed a tenfold increase in yield while utilizing limited resources, and emitted less carbon due to the implementation of innovative technologies in agriculture, becoming the second largest food exporter in the world. By adopting such strategies, the world can avoid food insecurity, resource depletion, and other environmental security issues. The planet is waiting for constructive utilization of available opportunities to shift the order of human activities, which certainly impedes long-term civilizational continuity.

Furthermore, advanced intelligence, genetic engineering, and modern technologies are crucial in ensuring environmental security, and more resources must be invested in upgrading the existing energy-conservative systems. For example, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can substantially contribute to assessing vast information to guide policymakers in predicting the existing threats and manipulating different databases such as landscape attributes, geology, etc. Mathematical models, in alignment with GIS, can help to detect disasters such as the dispersion of chemical releases from different sources, degeneration of the discharged substance into the environment, dispersion onto surfaces, and risk calculation. Similarly, air source heat pump installation can be an excellent replacement for oil and LPG fossil fuel-based heating system as it will help to develop a green and clean environment. The significance of solar plants is worth highlighting as an opportunity to deal with the existing traditional methods. Additionally, as the construction industry accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, the world has an opportunity to shift towards green building generation and technology, especially LEED-certified buildings, which encourage retention and reduce the climate impacts of buildings. Likewise, privatization reversal must take place to utilize public sector investment to install hydro-power plants and windmills just like in Scandinavian countries.

Adaption strategy serves as a response to policy measures against the current environmental security crisis (Davoudi, et al., 2009). Bangladesh is providing a perfect example of adaption to the rest of the world. One encouraging development from the Glasgow COP21 was an announcement that China and the United States would cooperate on international climate change issues regardless of their other disagreements (Parsons, 2010). This provides an opportunity for a more nuanced foreign policy, assuming a zero-sum game on the unilateral theme, and to advance cooperative mechanisms in the modern contesting world. Similarly, modern military institutions can help to tackle disasters, and these institutions have much to offer in non-traditional insecure zones other than their involvement in traditional warfare. Nevertheless, climate change is a part of several countries’ defense strategies, including the U.S., Germany, France, China, Finland, and Australia. While environmental security has taken a central stage in the policy sectors, states have the opportunity to eliminate the major constraints and implement environment-friendly policies to minimize increasing environmental exhaustion and upgrade security levels at large.

Rethinking environmental security requires rethinking both the stationarity and territorial assumptions in contemporary governance thinking and practice. This shift in concentration towards inhabiting a small endangered planet necessitates overcoming the worst features of today’s autistic geopolitics, such as protectionism, extractivism, the tyranny of resources, notions of autonomy, and firepower as the grounds of security provision. This is a tall order, but present circumstances require nothing less if the future survival of human civilization is to be assured. Today, less trade, less consumption, and less private and capitalistic investment are needed to avoid excessive production and protect the environment from insecurity. These decisions about energy futures are being shaped by fears of geopolitical confrontation with Great Powers, and the need for energy security in the face of possible sanctions or possible coercive trade restrictions (Boyd, et. al., 2021). National leaders must address foreign policy and environmental insecurities if security in any meaningful sense is to be provided in the Anthropocene era. Technology alone will not guard against current threats, and the identities in which security discourse engages must be rearticulated to consider citizenship in new ecological ways. The prognosis is clear; if no serious action is taken, both human beings and nature will undergo the most extreme sufferings that humanity has ever known. We need a world based on regeneration and renewal rather than domination, suppression, and depletion. To pass on the legacy of a secure environment to our generation we need to save it, treasure it, and haul it.

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