Environmental Risk and Sustainability

Abstract

In 1999 the State of the Future Project of the United Nations University started a study on Environmental Security. The results of the study are documented in Glenn and Gorden [1-4]. The first issue that arrose involved definition. What is environmental security? It became clear that people (and governments) understood the term to mean three very different things. To ues US the work "security" indicated a military involvement. Environmental security to them thus meant any environmental issue with which the military may have to deal. This ranged from the environmental aspects of military bases, to the threat of warfare because of environmental issues such as water scarcity. To China, the term environmental security was synonymos with the protection of the environment. The third meaning of the term involved the security of people as a result of non-military assaults, such as global warming, on the environment. A similar confusion exists in relation to environmental risk. The two concepts (environmental risk and environmental security) are closely related. The word security implies a diminution of risk. Insecurity implies an increase in risk.