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null Environmental and Urban Security Risks, New Chapter on Climate Change Impact by NSA Professor James Russell

July 25, 2018

NSA Professor James Russell has just contributed a chapter titled “Environmental and Urban Security Risks: The Looming Symbiotic Crises of the Mediterranean Rim Cities” to Eckart Woertz’s new monograph, “Wise Cities” in the Mediterranean? Challenges of Urban Sustainability, which Barcelona Centre for International Affairs released recently. Overall, the work looks at common urban challenges, such as “environmental degradation, gentrification and growing inequality, climate change, provision of services, mass urbanisation, migration, and the fourth industrial revolution” that Mediterranean cities face. Professor Russell’s chapter focuses specifically on the impacts of the pressures of systemic environmental changes and persistent political instability, which create challenges in urban environments bordering the Mediterranean. He argues, “combined pressures could manifest themselves as unrest against city and state governance around the rim of the Mediterranean as these cities cope with the strains of population movements that will only gather momentum as the environmental pressures of higher temperatures, sea level rise and fresh water scarcity collide with inadequate urban infrastructures.” He also cautions that these impacts are likely to fall mainly on the city governments, with little support or relief from their states. 

Click here to read the chapter. 

 


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