CLIMATE CHANGE AND THREATS TO HUMAN SECURITY

This article analyzes the profound and multifaceted threats that climate change poses to human security. It moves beyond a purely environmental analysis to frame climate change as one of the most significant security challenges of the 21st century. The study explores the various pathways through which climate change impacts human security. These include direct threats to personal safety from more frequent and intense extreme weather events; threats to livelihoods and economic security, particularly for populations dependent on agriculture and fisheries; threats to health from the spread of vector-borne diseases; and the potential for climate-induced migration and resource conflicts to undermine community and state stability. The research argues that the impacts of climate change will be disproportionately felt by the poorest and most vulnerable populations, who have the least capacity to adapt. The paper concludes that a human security approach provides a powerful framework for understanding and responding to the climate crisis.

The concept of "human security," with its focus on the security of individuals, provides a powerful lens through which to understand the full implications of climate change. This paper offers such an analysis, detailing the diverse and interconnected threats that climate change poses to people's lives and livelihoods. The study is structured around the key dimensions of human security. The first is economic security. The paper analyzes how climate change, through its impacts on agriculture, water resources, and fisheries, threatens to undermine the economic foundations of many of the world's poorest communities. The second is food security. It explores the links between rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and the threat to global and local food production systems. The third is health security. The paper discusses how climate change is expected to increase the incidence of malnutrition, heat stress, and infectious diseases like malaria and dengue fever. The fourth is personal security. This section focuses on the direct threat to life and safety from more extreme weather events, such as super-cyclones, floods, and droughts. Finally, the paper explores the threat to community and political security, arguing that climate-induced resource scarcity and mass migration have the potential to exacerbate social tensions and even trigger violent conflict. The findings reveal that climate change is not a distant, future environmental problem, but an immediate and multi-dimensional threat to the security of people everywhere, particularly the poor and vulnerable.