Public Lecture: Ecological Security - Climate Change and the Construction of Security (A/Prof Matt McDonald, Uni. of Queensland)

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a security issue. Yet this recognition belies contestation over what security means and whose security is viewed as threatened, with different accounts ranging from those focused on national sovereignty to those emphasizing the vulnerability of human populations. This presentation outlines the core contentions of a new book which discusses the ethical assumptions and implications of these 'climate security' discourses and makes a case for moving beyond the protection of human institutions and collectives.