Environmental Security

This is the environmental controversy. To this point you have read and researched several important issues pertaining to the environment. The last environmental controversy you will learn about is environmental economics and politics. Using the information you read in your textbook, and any additional outside research, write a 1-2 paragraph response to the questions posed below. Remember to cite your sources using APA.

Your textbook discusses the importance of a healthy environment to a nation's overall security. Environmentalists argue that military, economic, and environmental security are interrelated. If a nation's environment is degraded to the point that soils become widely infertile or numerous workers get sick from pollution, the economy will deteriorate. If economies fail, unemployment and poverty will increase and national security may be threatened by internal unrest. Hostile nations or foreign criminal groups may also take advantage of a nation's weakened environment, chaotic social structure, and poor economy. Others argue that while the environment is important to a nation's security, terrorism, unemployment, hunger, and inflation are more urgent and short-term threats.

Do you believe that environmental security is just as important as economic and military security?