Mongabay | In Colombia, a national park’s expansion announced as deforestation progresses
President Santos is expanding national parks but they remain under threat from agriculture.
New Security Beat | Climate Change Will Further Complicate the Politics of U.S. Military Bases
The military has been quicker than some to grasp the problems that climate change might cause, but until recently, this hadn’t looked closer to home, and at their many installations around the world.
VOA | IS Smuggling Wood to Finance Militancy in Afghanistan
Islamic State is chopping down fruit trees and smuggling the timber into Pakistan, claim Afghan officials and local residents of the Deh Bala district of eastern Nangarhar province where the terrorist group operates.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights | Effects of Aerial Spraying on Farmlands in the Gaza Strip
Report on the use of aerial herbicides by the Israeli Defence Forces on agricultural areas along the border of the Gaza Strip and its implications for human health and the environment.
Libya Herald | Only 40 hospital beds to treat 400,000 in Zuwara
Communities living in proximity to the Abu Kammesh and Melittah Oil and Gas complex are concerned over rates of health problems linked to pollution from the sites.
Mongabay | Scorched earth: Colombia’s ‘refugee farmers’ returning to land
After five decades of civil war, Colombia is holding more than seven million displaced people, second only to Syria worldwide, now they are returning home.
Georgetown Public Policy Review | Motivations unearthed: re-contextualizing the war in Afghanistan
While much has been written about the United States’ security and geopolitical motivations for the War in Afghanistan, relatively little literature exists on the conflict’s mineral factor, this analysis identified how the past three administrations shaped their policy directives around Afghanistan’s mineral deposits.
Washington Post | The Islamic State’s toxic farewell: Environmental sabotage and chronic disease
The Islamic State footprint on Iraq’s environment may be unprecedented and permanent, with a toxic legacy that includes wide-scale cattle deaths, fields that no longer yield edible crops and chronic breathing complications in children and the elderly, doctors and experts said.