The Environmental Security Paradox: the conflict between achieving economic growth and securing the environment

Abstract

Abstract: Many international and state policy agreements claim sustainable development efforts can be adopted as part of economic growth strategies. Currently there is a rise in the awareness of environmental security risks caused by climate change, however, notions and pursuits of unlimited economic growth have been institutionalized in politics and society. Human activity during the second half of the century came to known Great Acceleration, its impacts have affected many of the Earth's ecosystems and geology. Efforts to protect the environment were developed by the state during the Clinton administration. However, the efforts were maintained through realist strategies that did not directly account for the sources causing environmental security risks, such as the deregulation of the markets and the increase in fossil fuel production. This discourse analysis case study follows a constructivist approach to analyze the relationship between the fossil fuel industry and environmental security. The case study examines perspectives adopted by the U.S government, Barack Obama, and the Paris Agreement that refrain from explicitly challenging the fossil fuel industry. It argues that despite the growing global environmental security risks the efforts to adopt sustainable development approaches have been neglected over pursuits of economic growth and realist national security agendas.