Global Warring in New Zealand

Cleo Paskal was just in New Zealand, where she she gave a talk at the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (Auckland). Coincidentally, one of the main New Zealand climate change blogs, Hot Topic, ran a comprehensive review of her book at about the same time writing in part:


 "Paskal’s book is spirited and interesting. Her background in journalism probably contributes to the light touch with which she conveys some potentially heavy geopolitical material." (for more, click here.)


Hot Topic also covered her New Zealand Herald feature on the disappearance of islands and the potential EEZ implications (you can see the Hot Topic post here). As these things go in the blogosphere, all this coverage seemed to raise the ire of some at tbr.cc who thought this was all about what they consider to be the fallacy of anthropogenic climate change. A discussion ensued.

Review of Global Warring in the Palestine Chronicle

Jim Miles has reviewed Global Warring for the Palestine Chronicle. An excerpt:



A new text by Cleo Paskal highlights the intersection of these environmental, economic and political crises and how they will redraw the world map. Her writing is not of the apocalyptic nature, not describing the horrors of a post-nuclear holocaust period nor the horrors of the survivalists imagination when the economy and the environment tank together and suddenly we need to become self reliant in a much more primitive sense.
Instead, it is a strong academic analysis of the current geopolitical/environmental interactions that could possibly - in spite of the denials above - spell ‘doom’. Her information is concise and wisely presented, without exaggeration or resorting to hyperbolic disasters.


For more, click here.

Video of Cleo Paskal at the Commonwealth Club of California talking Arctic security

The Arctic security portion of the discussion Cleo had at the Commonwealth Club of California with Amy Standen from KQED FM. 

Article and video on Cleo Paskal's talk at the New America Foundation, Washington, DC

In March, Cleo gave a 90 minute presentation on her book and research to a packed room at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. The NAF's Kalie Pierce wrote that: 

Paskal began her talk by stating a simple but powerful argument: environmental change will have dramatic political, economic and security consequences for us all. She discussed how environmental changes would pose a challenge to physical, services, and legal infrastructure in the future. [...] Paskal concluded her talk by warning of the many geopolitical conflicts that could arise over something as seemingly apolitical as changing environmental circumstances.

To see and read more, click here.

Review of Global Warring on the Natural Security blog of the Center for a New American Security

Daniel Saraceno, at the Center for a New American Security's blog, has reviewed Global Warring, saying, in part:

What makes this book unique and such a solid reading of natural security-related issues is the security and political scope Paskal uses to explore the consequences of a changing climate. For example, a melting Arctic could open the Northwest Passage, which could also open up new Asian markets to the European Union, in addition to exposing a sparsely populated Great White North to real security concerns for North America. Such concerns have already been voiced by Canada, and tensions have increased somewhat with America’s claim that the passage is an international waterway, creating a small political schism between us and our North American neighbor.



To read more, click here. 

National Geographic interviews Cleo Paskal on vulnerability of energy infrastructure

Christine Dell'Amore's interesting feature for National Geographic News on the vulnerability of energy infrastructure to environmental change uses research from Cleo's Briefing Paper on the topic, as well as interviewing Cleo herself. A sample excerpt:

[A lack] of foresight in planning energy infrastructure is common, especially in the U.S., where billions of stimulus dollars are being poured into new energy projects that haven't factored in future catastrophes, Paskal added. "We are underestimating our own vulnerabilities," she said, "quite dramatically."

You can read more here. 

Nice blog coverage of Global Warring

Several important blogs have been covering Global Warring recently. Some excerpts:

• Keith Kloor's Collide-a-Scape wrote: after reading Global Warring, Cleo Paskal’s excellent new book on geopolitics in the era of climate change, I’m convinced that someone should amend the Wikipedia entry so that in addition to Eurasia, Africa and the Arctic are included as geopolitical battlegrounds for control over the world’s energy resources.

• Resilience Science used the Nature review of Global Warring to expand the discussion on the Arctic. You can read the post here.

• Jason at Carrots and Sticks reviewed Cleo's talk at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. An excerpt: In order to truly understand the geopolitical and geoeconomic paradigm of the world, we have to understand the geophysical. That was the main point Cleo Paskal made at yesterday morning’s New America Foundation event. [...]Her speech touched upon a few topics, the main ones being how environmental change presents challenges for physical infrastructure, service infrastructure, and legal structure. Before we take a quick look at these, let me clarify on what Cleo Paskal means when she says environmental change. Environmental change is a broader term which includes changes that would exist in the absence of climate change. So Cleo Paskal cites hurricane Katrina as an obvious example. The levees broke, there was a lack of town planning and there was large scale subsidence. The damage to physical infrastructure was immense. The main point being that all of those things could still happen in the absence of climate change.

Review of Global Warring in Nature

Keith Kloor reviewed Global Warring for Nature and seemed to like it.  :)


 A sample quote:

Paskal "presents a fascinating geopolitical chessboard, on which the United States and the European Union face off against China and Russia as climate change takes hold. If Western policymakers want to see how this game is playing out, they ought to read this book."

To read more, click here. 

Review of Global Warring by legendary journalist M V Kamath

M V Kamath, former Washington Bureau chief of the Times of India, and current Director of MIC, one of the best J-schools in India, reviews Global Warring and examines some of the implications for India. A sample quote:


Remarkable book, one of the best and most engrossing available on the subject. Over again, throughout the highly revelatory pages of this well-researched work we realise what damage environmental changes can wreak on the economics of various nations and the political crises that follow. We ignore the warnings issued in this book at our peril. 


To read more, click here. 

Article by Andrew Krystal in the Nova Scotia Business Journal on Cleo Paskal's concept of Nationalistic Capitalism

Andrew Krystal, in his in-depth column in the Nova Scotia Business Journal, explores the implications of nationalistic capitalism. An excerpt:


According to Cleo Paskal, the author of “Global Warring”, nationalistic capitalism, as practiced by China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), allows the Chinese state to use corporations in its sphere of influence to attain long-term strategic goals, like resource acquisition. These corporations appear, on the surface, to be like any other big multi-national. But they’re not. Says Cleo Paskal: “In China, the CCP calls the shots when it comes to who does business and how. The businesses should ideally make money, but always within the context of strengthening what the CCP deems in the best interest of China, and of itself.” 


She continues: “Conversely, in the West, one of the post-Cold war challenges we face is the marked divergence of companies from national agendas. Increasingly, it seems as though businesses are caught up in short-term thinking. The privatization of critical national industries [Britain is kicking itself over the sell-off of North Sea oil, Paskal points out] contrasts markedly with the CCP approach in which China obtains assets and then uses them for national leverage.”


To read more, click here. 

Gulnura Toralieva interview Cleo Paskal on environmental change in Central Asia

Multitasking journalist Gulnura Toralieva interviewed Cleo on some of the implications and politics of environmental change in Central Asia.  


You can hear an excerpt here. 

Interview with Cleo Paskal -- in Russian!

No, Cleo doesn't speak Russian. She is still working on English (according to some editors). Someone was kind enough to translate. You can see it by clicking here.

Report in the Concordia Journal about talk by Cleo Paskal

Anna Sarkissian of the Concordia Journal wrote a feature on Cleo Paskal's talk at the John Molson School of Business, delving in to the topic of environmental change and geopolitics. It begins:


Building a solar-powered building on a flood plain? Not so smart. Developing natural gas installations at sea level? Could be tricky. Constructing oil rigs directly in the path of hurricanes? Sounds like a recipe for disaster

To read more, click here.