Monica Medina, Assistant Secretary at the US’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Science Affairs, warned world leaders at COP27 last week that biodiversity loss -- from forests to mangroves and vegetation -- could soon upend global security.

“...environmental threats create deadly feedback loops,” Medina cautioned and added, “...they threaten to destabilize institutions essential for maintaining global security.”

Medina delivered her keynote remarks at an International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and Center for American Progress (CAP) hosted side event focused on the intersections between conservation and national security.

Why This Matters

Around the world, conservation failure endangers local economies. In the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of north Africa, this summer’s water temperature was, on average, two to five degrees hotter than it had been during the years between 1985 and 2005. Unable to survive in such hot conditions, mollusks, fish, and sea sponges died en masse, leaving local fisherman in a lurch.

The problem extends beyond the Mediterranean. Earlier this year, at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Secretary-General António Guterres declared an “ocean emergency,” calling on the 20 countries in attendance to take immediate action to protect ocean health. If global temperatures continue to rise, marine ecosystems will likely experience a mass extinction event “on par with past great extinctions.”

But, the threat is yet to be taken seriously enough, Medina warned. “There are still too many leaders choosing to ignore the severe security impacts at the heart of the climate and nature loss crises. But ignoring these impacts will not defend against the harms they cause worldwide. And no country can afford to be blind to the threats that are increasingly defining the future of security.”

Fortunately, the US is taking steps to preserve 30% of land and ocean by 2030, in an effort dubbed 30x30. Secretary Medina and leaders from Palau, Costa Rica, France and the UK, affirmed their commitment to this target last week.

A Tidal Wave of Danger

With the sea level rising rapidly, many cities and coastal communities, from Amsterdam to San Diego, are at risk of ending up underwater. Alexandria is in particularly imminent danger -- the city sinks by over three millimeters a year. The UN predicted a third of the city will be rendered uninhabitable by 2050, and could displace 1.5 million of its six million people, worsening a looming climate refugee crisis. This would also affect the economy, as Alexandria has Egypt’s biggest port.

In response, the Biden Administration is taking additional steps to advance global conservation goals. These include:

• The White House Action Plan on Global Water Security aims to address water scarcity as a national security issue -- for the first time ever.
• The National Security Memorandum on tackling Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing regulates the fishing industry to prevent forced labor, overfishing and other crimes or abuses.
• The Nature Crime Alliance, an international alliance intended to put a stop to “criminal forms of logging, mining, wildlife trade, land conversion, and associated criminal activities, as well as crimes associated with fishing.“

“Whether we like it or not, this will be the ocean century,” declared Monica Medina in an op-ed for World War Zero's Front Lines.