Articles by Geoff Dabelko

Water needed in Lebanon

Following up an earlier post on the oil spill off the coast of Lebanon, here is a VOA piece on a new UNICEF field assessment that highlights water availability as a particularly pressing need.

An environmental toll to war

Today's New York Times details a $64 million U.N. pledge to help clean up "the worst environmenal disaster in Lebanese history," a huge 87-mile Mediterranean oil slick off the Lebanese and Syrian coast.

UNEP has a useful environmental impact page including photos and maps delineating the slick and damaged coastline. In recent years UNEP has gone in after conflicts to do environmental assessments. Reports on Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia, Palestinian Territories, etc. are online and detail the additional costs of war.

Foreign assistance should include environmental and climate change issues

One of these days, we may diversify our "whack a mole" approach to security. A critical step on the road to a more dynamic strategy is recognizing underlying causes of instability in the developing world.

This week's Economist has a special report on the Horn of Africa that highlights the severe demographic, environmental, and agricultural challenges that undercut stability and exacerbate all manner of tribal, religious, economic, and political divisions. While the language is at times overheated, the dire situation perhaps warrants "the shock them out of their stupor" approach to reporting.

In depth on damn dams

If you liked yesterday's Daily Grist story on the Sardar Sarovar dam in India, check out two books from astute observers of global dam protests and the power of emerging non-state networks of activists. Both Sanjeev Khagram (University of Washington) and Ken Conca (University of Maryland) are academics, but they write in clear, comprehensible prose for those who are willing to work a little.