Fall 2013 Symposium
Rising Temps and Emerging Threats: The Intersection of Climate Change and National Security in the 21st Century
Friday, October 25, 2013
Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT
As the premier environmental law journal for the nation’s leading environmental law school, the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law is pleased to announce that our 2013-2014 Symposium will address the rapidly emerging issue of climate change and national security.
Since 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense has identified climate change as one of the top threats to U.S. national security. More recently, President Barack Obama announced that the United States needs to prepare for a future of weather aggravated by rising temperatures. “The 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come in the last 15 years,” Obama stated in his June 2013 address, describing the impact on our livelihoods, homes, businesses, emergency services, disaster relief, and food prices.
Across the globe, warming temperatures and changing weather conditions have worsened water scarcity, desertification, and agricultural output forcing global migration. What is more, sea-level rise, and increasing resource conflicts and humanitarian disasters, threaten the military’s ability to respond.
This day-long Symposium will bring together a variety of experts to address a number of these pressing security issues facing the U.S. and international community today. Panelists will discuss, debate, and address the real and immediate threats that climate change presents to:
- National security;
- The military’s adaptations and response to climate change;
- The growing threat of climate based forced migration; and
- Food security as national security.
We hope you will join the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law for this timely 2013-2014 Symposium.
For more information, please contact Symposium Editor, Molly Gray at vjel@vermontlaw.edu.
Videos from this Symposium can be found on our YouTube Page
Schedule:
8:45am – Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Marc Mihaly, President and Dean, VLS
- Stephen Dycus, Professor of National Security Law, VLS
- Melissa Scanlan, Associate Professor, Associate Dean & Director, Environmental Law Program, VLS
9:00am – Keynote Address
- Keynote Speaker: John Steinbruner, Director of the Center for International Security Studies, University of Maryland; Author, Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis
9:45am – Climate Change and National Security: Characterizing the Nature of the Security Threat
- Moderator: Melissa Scanlan, Associate Professor, Associate Dean & Director, Environmental Law Program, VLS
- Speakers: D. James Baker, Geoff Dabelko, John Steinbruner
11:15am – Adapting to Climate Change: The U.S. Military’s Response
- Moderator: William M. Arkin, Journalist
- Speakers: Siddhartha Velandy, Stephen Dycus, Sarah Light, Jody Prescott
12:30 – Lunch Break in Yates Common Room
2:00pm – Climate Based Forced Migration: Adapting to the Displacement and Resettlement of Persons Due to Climate Change
- Moderator: Patrick Parenteau, Senior Counsel, Environmental & Natural Resources Clinic and Professor of Law, VLS
- Speakers: Alice Thomas, Agnes Hurwitz, Madeline Stano, Kate Jastram
3:15pm – Coffee Break
3:30pm – Food Security as National Security: The Future of Food in the Face of Climate Change
- Moderator: Laurie Ristinio, Director, VLGS Center for Agriculture and Food Systems
- Speakers: William Hohenstein, Amy Larkin, Thomas Vogelmann, Jeff Taft-Dick
4:45pm – Closing Remarks
5:00pm – Reception
- Post-symposium reception in Yates Common Room