Global Enviro. Change & Human Security

An Introduction

by Jon Barnett, Richard A. Matthew and Karen L. O'Brien


I read the intro to this book as a pleasure read after some questions arose from my work assignment on summarizing gender and climate change. The words used in dialogues of climate change and action were ambiguous and I wanted to shed some light on social justice in this area.

Oddly enough, I've already returned this book to the Toronto Public Library but a good portion of this chapter is available on google books.

Firstly, the authors define what is meant by "global."

These environmental changes are "global" because they are ubiquitous and because some pollutants such as greenhouse gases and radioactive wastes have global consequences. They are also "global" inasmuch as their origins lie in the consumption of resources in markets that are often very distant from the sites of resource extraction [...] "Global" in this sense does not mean that responsibility for environmental change is shared equally among all people, or that the impacts of these changes are uniformly distributed among all places. Instead, global refers to the linkages between environmental changes and social consequences across distant places, groups and time horizons.

Security, though it seems to hint at the more traditional view of military security, in this book is defined much more broadly to represent energy security, economic security, environmental security, food security and so on. Unfortunately, it is along the military and strict immigration policy fronts that governments have been securitizing their boarders in the face of global environmental change. Though perhaps, what books like this one are trying to point out is that global environmental change knows no boarders, and those who are already marginalized suffer more from shifting funds into military/securitizing actions and away from sustainable development, including development to promote social justice.

From their website (see it here), they define human security as such:

a state that is achieved when and where individuals and communities have the options necessary to end, mitigate or adapt to threats to their human, environmental and social rights; have the capacity and freedom to exercise these options; and actively participate in pursuing these options. As with most definitions of human security, the focus is on security for individuals and communities, rather than on states.

It is about needs and rights. It is about how current violations of needs and rights can only get worse for many communities and individuals. Perhaps it is important to consider, for a moment, that feelings of security, certainly at a personal level are merely perceptions. I perceive that I live in a safe neighbourhood with good access to food, etc. , but compared to what? Without digging myself too deeply into relativism, I am trying to say that perceptions are important, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of communities and individuals to environmental change is important in shaping their needs and wants. If led to feel too secure, some feel that their input is not needed and what will be will be, without further regard for the needs and wants of their neighbours and neighbouring communities. It is in shaping human security as global that we must take responsibility and culpability for the lack of human security and the threats we pose on others' human security in the world we share.