Environmental security comprises the interactive outlook of the various human and ecological connections that shape the contemporary world. The Constructivist school of thought has made substantial contributions to the evolution of environmental security. Non-conventional and conventional notions of security are impacting the entire fabric of the environment in contemporary times ranging from military interventions, state-centric approaches, and urban warfare to human adventurism with nature. Environmental security has a multidimensional web of the network between present environmental changes across the world as well as ecological-led risks and collaboration. In modern times, post-realist scholars have given due consideration to the environment as a security concern, unlike the classical realist understanding. Considerable developments have been observed in the field of environmental security, and implicitly recognized both in the defense strategy as well as the environmental community to deal with comprehensive security concepts. The ontological shift which the Anthropocene formulation implies, a matter of carefully inhabiting a small secured planet rather than carelessly expropriating materials from a big one, requires nothing less than a fundamental reformulation of global themes if a stabilized earth system is to be ensured (Tucker, & Grim, 2016).  The essay critically assesses the broader aspects of modern society’s relationship with the environment, the threats emerging from the complex interaction of man and nature, the opportunities available to reshape the planet through activism, interaction, awareness, and optimism, and leads to the tailpiece. 

           Analysts have emphasized reviving a planetary system that at least traces the footprints of the geological conditions of the last ten thousand years to ensure sustainable life on earth (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). Much discussion about catastrophic disasters from climate change, militarization, extractivism, and other disruptions, connects to speculations about civilizational demise;  indicating the eventual collapse of the modern world, one way or the other. While such threats have largely been identified, there is still a need to utilize modern resources as opportunities to address the bottlenecks. Following are some threats that warrant more attention than others due to the drastic shift in non-traditional concepts of security, and are adversely impacting environmental security.

           Years of technological innovation, industrial expansion, and the urge to dominate the global stage have brought an adverse shift in the planetary system; thus, it is threatening environmental security with its fancy shades. Climate change is instigated by modern-day capitalism as it allows businesses to overuse natural resources, and fail to account for environmental protection against pollution, extraction, and exploitation. Corporate establishment which is directly benefitting from capitalism has long ignored the risks involved with climate change, and are protecting their political and economic interests. Conflicts goods such as diamond, cotton, or tropical timber often become the objects of contestation in states such as Angola, Sierra Leone, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Likewise, the disastrous merger of Big Greens groups (ecological organizations) and Big Firms is actively involved in polluting the world and misleading humanity. Therefore, instead of shutting down fossil fuel companies, these organizations spend their resources to protect their established practices. The state-centric phenomenon of the Great Games is threatening environmental security at large, and it has been sidelined by world leaders, ignoring the emerging threats and hammering their interests on the global sheet.

           Furthermore, the widespread impact of colonialism and colonial imagination in the contemporary era is significant in the environmental security nexus. In this regard, extractivism, is a concept borrowed from colonialism and industrialization where capitalist economies extract natural resources and leave the sites poisoned, drained, or destroyed. An example of this is Blockadia, an area in Greece, exploited by mining companies in their quest for high price commodities. Likewise, in the Caspian region, states continue the process of drilling to pursue their market-based agendas, threatening environmental security. The expansion of free market fundamentalism has emphasized consumption and trade and transformed the world into a huge corporate empire that the Giants cannot afford to lose. Moreover, the environment holds a strategic significance today as World’s Giants generate power from natural resources, furthering unforeseen consequences due to unchecked gold mining, illegal logging, micro-plastic pollution, and drilling. The militarization of the Arctic region reflects the power show of states with no chance of slowing down and delving deep into a zone of conflict. The weaponization in the region is termed as a pre-requisite for controlling the resources and securing the interests.  The major threat to the region is climate change as states are encouraging companies to increase exploration of gas and oil by uncovering the Arctic ice as well as mining which threaten the Arctic climate, people, wildlife, and peace, intensifying the competition in the region. Russia especially has been expanding its nuclear defenses, based on modern designs and equipment, in the Arctic for years to enhance its influence on the global stage, and secure its economic future. Similarly, states are increasing traffic to access the resources which are heightening the potential competition. The indirect neglect and direct environmental abuse signify the happening damages by Giant and Dwarf powers; thus, it displays that modern-day capitalistic agendas are furthering environmental insecurities (Petersen & Pincus, 2021). 

           Today, the widening scope of international security is substantially more endangered by climate change than international terrorism (King, 2004). Climate change intensifies the existing threats such as resource depletion and poses a direct threat to national security, global interests, humanity, and the planet at large. For instance, carbon dioxide emissions are threatening life on the planet. Due to the fast-growing rate of carbon emissions based on human activities, the earth will observe 10 C (1.80 F) warming by 2030, rendering major portions of the planet uninhabitable, and displacing millions of people. The consequences of an extremely high temperature will be adverse such as widespread species extinction, coastal flooding, and sea level rise, harming millions of people in coastal regions. Bangkok, Manila, Bangladesh, Venice, Maldives, and Dubai are most vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding. Furthermore, natural disasters lead to the refugee crisis which produces slums, and the living conditions of the slum dwellers are exploited by inequality and ignorance that lead to malnourishment, cultural and identity problems, poverty, and suppression of fundamental rights. Bangalore still lacks sanitized piped water and is heavily populated with malnourished street children who suffer from a high infant mortality rate. With such a high rate of the population having no access to basic needs, environmental security is heading toward dark shades of threats.

           Environmental security is being threatened due to biodiversity loss. In this regard, oceans are crucial in biodiversity conversion, maintaining the food supply chain for millions, and regulating weather patterns. Ocean acidification has grave ramifications for marine, and coastal ecosystems which are caused by overfishing, unchecked pollution, and coastal erosion (Toropova, et. al., 2010) The Amazon, having the most diverse biodiversity on the planet, is being endangered by mercury pollution which is affecting its wildlife, threatening iconic predators as well as fish vital to communities’ food security. Moreover, the livelihood of millions of people is affected due to ocean acidification, and it is predicted that the fish population will crash due to the bleach of coral reefs by 2050. Scientific observations are continuously warning about the increasing adventures of humans due to which the planet has crossed a series of tipping points that are posing severe security threats such as heat waves in Antarctica and Siberia, hurricanes, droughts in Africa, the environmental risks in the Pacific island, and an accelerating sixth mass extinction, to name a few. The fast-increasing process of deforestation, in the Amazon rainforest, if continues, will transform into a dry savanna due to lack of enough moisture by 2030; hence, it is altering the water cycle. Today, deforestation in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia pose a real-time threat to environmental security. Continuous resource exploitation leads to uncontrolled migration, population growth, uneven distribution, stressed bilateral relations, civil war, and even insurgency (Hassan, 1991).

           The catastrophic episodes of climate change have impacted the food sector at large. Up to one-third of greenhouse gases are emitted by the global food system, with livestock and fisheries accounting for 30% of carbon output. As the global population is predicted to exceed 9 billion by mid-century, and global food demand may reach 70% by 2050, a global food security emergency may erupt, affecting millions of people in various regions (Koester & Galaktionova, 2021). In the terms of water security, almost 2.7 billion suffer water scarcity for at least one month of the year (Dantas, Delzeit, & Klepper, 2021). Water scarcity is growing due to the melting glaciers at a very rapid rate, the fast-growing population, water consumption in the agriculture industry, and by the food products such as meat and high-calorie diets, and increasing stresses throughout the globe. The Middle East is on the verge of becoming a water-stressed region in the near future. Hydra terrorism is another chapter of serious concern especially in the Middle East, a term first introduced by ISIS. By 2040, almost four million people would no longer have access to running water and will be forced to rely on water rations, leading to a refugee crisis, regional and global instability, and even hydra conflicts. It is predicted that Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, London, Beijing, Bangalore, Barcelona, and Mexico City will observe day zero in a few years. Environmentalists have warned to rethink the existing dietary patterns to reduce the carbon footprints, and water consumption in the agriculture industry.

           Another threat to environmental security emerges from the extensive use of firepower in its various forms. The products of combustion are the greenhouse gases causing the earth to heat, and disrupting the climate system. While climatic change continues to disrupt geographical settings, the politics of self-imposed risks is beginning to challenge the dominant concept of security over the last few decades. The contemporary modes of Great Games and many other kinds of power are altering new ecological environments that hinder stability, and perpetuate harmful modes of fossil fuel fuelled by modernity (Stoddard, et. al., 2021). The nuclear weapons and the extreme capabilities of firepower in military and civilian modes, mass consumption cultures based on fossil fuels, and investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, are calling a functional earth system into question. The activists driving the divestment campaign in the West in recent years have established that the fossil fuel business poses an existential threat (Mangat, et. al., 2018). However, despite the obvious future consequences, firepower in the form of fossil fuel combustion is still clearly being overused to remake the ecosphere, satisfying the market economies and governments; the environmental security dilemma is being exacerbated rather than alleviated by continued investments in fossil fuels.

           Human activities are altering the global order far more rapidly than the assumptions allow them to engage (Albert, 2020). Environmental terrorism is a security concern that destroys natural resources to prevent usage by others and relies on a weapon of mass destruction (Berkowicz, 2011). Concerns are growing due to the excessive use of the environment, as a weapon against adversaries, with such ease. In this regard, bushfires and forests have remained a preferred weapon due to the quantity of massive destruction versus the low risk of detection. Environmental security is endangered by all forms of chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons. Harmful aliens are introduced to weaken natural habitats (polluting reserves and land), destroy living organisms (damaging nuclear power plants or water resources), or release chemical/biological arsenals into the atmosphere (polluting air). Industrial tragedies across the globe have impacted effective proxies similar to planned sabotage campaigns. Urban areas are appealing targets for environmental terrorism due to the increased urbanization process. Rural areas, on the other hand, are not immune due to their interaction with forests, agricultural industry, hydra-resources, and animals. The lag period between initiating an attack and identifying the threat causes severe environmental damage, triggering refugee plight and cross-border overflow. The Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have exploited properties to further their ideological goals on environmental security (Mothersill, et. al., 2022). Using fire, sabotage, and vandalism, they have targeted laboratories, enterprises, timber industry, and their targets might extend to the nuclear sector.  Nuclear power plants, dams, water reserves, oil pipelines and delivery systems, forests, and fuel and petroleum plants are all potential environmental terrorist hard targets; thus, they pose an adverse threat to environmental security.

           Rethinking, revising, and renovating contemporary patterns of exploitation are necessitated to ensure a sustainable and secure planet for generations. Certain immediate initiatives must be taken to slow down above mentioned threats to protect the long-term viability of a global civilization. International pressure despite the capitalistic inclination along with a moderate blend of national awareness is taking new turns to protect the environment. Addressing environmental security nexus no longer involves national actors as it has become a transnational phenomenon, considering the prevailing global threats such as the case of Covid-19, and demands further cooperation of divergent actors. From a 21st-century perspective, the collaboration framework has recommended deciphering the codes of potential threats, and advancing mutual exchanges. Following are certain opportunities in modern times to alter the threats facing environmental security.

           The global states are fortunate enough to choose and re-design the future by shifting their priorities from non-renewable resources to renewable sources of energy. Although loud debates have been heard in the global halls, practical execution still seems to be a long journey. There is a chance that the world must see fossil fuels as pollutants that have been used as primary investing material for the survival of mankind. By developing resilience to global warming, slowing down carbon emissions, reducing dependence on coal, and providing financial assistance to developing countries, the world has the chance to renovate the developed cracks, and ensure environmental security. Morocco, for instance, depends almost exclusively on imported oil and gas, yet it fulfills 40% of its domestic needs from renewable sources, bolstering the largest solar plant in the world. Morocco might be an energy exporter by 2050 with such a fast expansion in renewable resources of energy. The globalized world can make maximum benefit of the available sources of energy, and develop an environmentally secured mechanism in collaboration with states.

           Furthermore, fossil fuels have been explicitly identified as a contributor to climate change, providing states an opportunity to phase down coal usage, while additional laws for international carbon markets are under discussion. Asian economies are rising relative to the rest of the globe, and China in particular has increased production of renewable energy sources while limiting its usage of coal-fired electricity generation, the geopolitics of energy is taking new turns. Likewise, developing promised eco-cities appears to be critical, both for making them resilient to extreme weather and for reducing the use of fossil fuels to power them. Evolving themes of mutual limitation, a negarchy linked to fossil fuels, and similar extractivist operations for significant ecological services will undoubtedly require production coordination far beyond current trading and environmental accords (Burke & Fishel, 2020). Survival is a matter of restricting firepower, limiting the probable use of nuclear weapons, and restricting the launch of missiles. A clear focus on eliminating the consumption of fossil fuels is critical, much of the discussion about net zero emissions by 2050 is about net rather than zero, allowing for substantial wiggle room regarding offsets, carbon removal technology, and other related issues (Polman & Winston, 2021). Moreover, imposing a national carbon tax on Giant as well as Dwarf states would help the planet to maintain its ancient glory. The environmental insecurities are the product of market failure and for years, economists and environmentalists have urged policymakers to increase the taxes on greenhouse gas emissions. To cut emissions efficiently, expansion of green innovation financing and funds are essential to replace carbon energy sources and regulate policies to address market failure. Introducing carbon taxes will help the world to become less polluted, and it will further low-carbon technologies. Across the globe, almost 27 countries have availed the opportunity to deal with environmental security by introducing a national carbon fund, which includes the EU Canada, Singapore, Japan, Ukraine, and Argentina. The Swedish economy has expanded by 75% in the past three decades due to the efficient control of emissions and the implementation of carbon taxes which decreased by 25%.

           Furthermore, rewilding biodiversity on the planet is an opportunity for the revival of environmental security. Diverse ecosystems are better suited to deliver key services such as carbon sequestration. The case of Palau serves as the best example for other states to deal with environmental insecurities. As oceans are the main source of food and tourism, the government imposed fishing regulations and, in some cases, prohibited fishing entirely to prevent the rapid depletion of fishing stocks. Resultantly, fish populations overflowed into fishing areas, accelerated catches for fishermen, and rehabilitated coral reefs. The UN is attempting to create the largest no-fish zone in international waters, as it will ensure an adequate supply of fish, maintaining life in coastal regions. Furthermore, a controlled rate of the global population will help the world to tackle non-traditional security threats such as poverty, food insecurity, terrorism, and crimes. By 2100, the world population will reach 11 billion, and states have an opportunity to ensure environmental security by empowering women for reproduction, educating both genders about contraception, building health infrastructure to reduce infant mortality, imposing child taxes, introducing a one-child policy, ending child financing policies to parents, and offering age-appropriate sexuality education to students.

           To achieve a carbon-free environment, the world has the opportunity to reverse deforestation as forests are a valuable ally in absorbing carbon emissions. The world must invest in deforested crops such as oil palm and soya. Forests in Costa Rica cover more than half of the country due to government grants to landowners to replace native trees. The situation is grave, yet we already have the knowledge and skills to put a stop to it and reverse it. States have had to collaborate on critical matters of common interest in modern contexts, and in terms of climate change, such a post-realist approach today necessitates cooperative system preservation and low-carbon innovation activities. Moreover, reducing the space of farmland will support the return of wilderness. This can be made possible by changing diet patterns. The Netherlands has forced Dutch farmers to make optimal use of land, resultantly the nation observed a tenfold increase in yield while utilizing limited resources, and emitted less carbon due to the implementation of innovative technologies in agriculture, becoming the second largest food exporter in the world. By adopting such strategies, the world can avoid food insecurity, resource depletion, and other environmental security issues. The planet is waiting for constructive utilization of available opportunities to shift the order of human activities, which certainly impedes long-term civilizational continuity.

           Furthermore, advanced intelligence, genetic engineering, and modern technologies are crucial in ensuring environmental security, and more resources must be invested in upgrading the existing energy-conservative systems. For example, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can substantially contribute to assessing vast information to guide policymakers in predicting the existing threats and manipulating different databases such as landscape attributes, geology, etc. Mathematical models, in alignment with GIS, can help to detect disasters such as the dispersion of chemical releases from different sources, degeneration of the discharged substance into the environment, dispersion onto surfaces, and risk calculation. Similarly, air source heat pump installation can be an excellent replacement for oil and LPG fossil fuel-based heating system as it will help to develop a green and clean environment. The significance of solar plants is worth highlighting as an opportunity to deal with the existing traditional methods. Additionally, as the construction industry accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, the world has an opportunity to shift towards green building generation and technology, especially LEED-certified buildings, which encourage retention and reduce the climate impacts of buildings. Likewise, privatization reversal must take place to utilize public sector investment to install hydro-power plants and windmills just like in Scandinavian countries.

           Adaption strategy serves as a response to policy measures against the current environmental security crisis (Davoudi, et al., 2009). Bangladesh is providing a perfect example of adaption to the rest of the world. One encouraging development from the Glasgow COP21 was an announcement that China and the United States would cooperate on international climate change issues regardless of their other disagreements (Parsons, 2010). This provides an opportunity for a more nuanced foreign policy, assuming a zero-sum game on the unilateral theme, and to advance cooperative mechanisms in the modern contesting world. Similarly, modern military institutions can help to tackle disasters, and these institutions have much to offer in non-traditional insecure zones other than their involvement in traditional warfare. Nevertheless, climate change is a part of several countries’ defense strategies, including the U.S., Germany, France, China, Finland, and Australia. While environmental security has taken a central stage in the policy sectors, states have the opportunity to eliminate the major constraints and implement environment-friendly policies to minimize increasing environmental exhaustion and upgrade security levels at large.

           Rethinking environmental security requires rethinking both the stationarity and territorial assumptions in contemporary governance thinking and practice. This shift in concentration towards inhabiting a small endangered planet necessitates overcoming the worst features of today’s autistic geopolitics, such as protectionism, extractivism, the tyranny of resources, notions of autonomy, and firepower as the grounds of security provision. This is a tall order, but present circumstances require nothing less if the future survival of human civilization is to be assured. Today, less trade, less consumption, and less private and capitalistic investment are needed to avoid excessive production and protect the environment from insecurity. These decisions about energy futures are being shaped by fears of geopolitical confrontation with Great Powers, and the need for energy security in the face of possible sanctions or possible coercive trade restrictions (Boyd, et. al., 2021). National leaders must address foreign policy and environmental insecurities if security in any meaningful sense is to be provided in the Anthropocene era. Technology alone will not guard against current threats, and the identities in which security discourse engages must be rearticulated to consider citizenship in new ecological ways.  The prognosis is clear; if no serious action is taken, both human beings and nature will undergo the most extreme sufferings that humanity has ever known. We need a world based on regeneration and renewal rather than domination, suppression, and depletion. To pass on the legacy of a secure environment to our generation we need to save it, treasure it, and haul it.