Environmental Security as a Wide Concept in Sociology ^†

In the context of globalization, climate change and environmental security have become key challenges for modern societies. This paper explores the connection between environmental security and the new climate change adaptation strategies, analysing how these two concepts shape environmental policies and practices. Environmental sociology explores how societies perceive, assess, and respond to environmental risks such as climate change. The actions taken to reduce the negative impacts of climate change can be categorized into several types, including infrastructural, institutional, behavioral, and nature-based solutions. On the other hand, environmental security, a relatively new and still somewhat contentious concept, may be defined as the intersection of environmental and national security. Another important finding of this work is the fact that environmental security can be understood in many different theories in sociology. The Ecological Modernization theory emphasizes ecological modernization as an approach to addressing environmental problems, and suggests how ecological crisis can be resolved politically, economically, and technologically. The Risk Society theory (Ulrich Beck’s risk society theory) and Ecological Modernization theory may be used to develop future studies on the sociological implications of climate change. As climate change accelerates, its impacts affect existing social and environmental challenges in many contexts. This can contribute to insecurity at local levels and internationally.

The aim of the work is to define the conditions under which climate risks spread in different segments of society and to assess the impact of climate change on various security and social aspects.

Prioritizing climate change mitigation strategies without considering other issues such as food insecurity, visible security concerns related to climate change, environmental degradation, and increased competition for natural resources could lead to policy failure at the international level. Therefore, the paper aims to analyze environmental security through five categories: ecological, military, political, economic and social.