Articles by Geoff Dabelko

To Russia with love, again

Seems another Chinese chemical spill is on its way to the Russian Far East (RFE). ITAR-TASS out of Moscow reported today that "a five kilometre-long benzol slick resulting from another dumping of chemicals into the Sungari river from a plant in the Chinese province of Jilin is expected to reach Russia's city of Khabarovsk on September 7-8." The story goes on to say that the benzol may evaporate before it reaches the Amur River, the same one that was poisoned last winter by a chemical spill from a factory in the same Chinese province.

Not everyone has a China environment guru to consult on such stories, but luckily I do. She is my colleague, Dr. Jennifer Turner, who directs the China Environment Forum here at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Here is an email where she puts the spill in context:

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.