Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Climate Change and Peace-Keeping (9:36 am)

There’s a great article in Slate on how societal conflict is directly related to climate preservation. The article, of course, analyzes why Al Gore is now a Nobel laureate, but it’s great to see a smart dissection of conflict as it pertains to changing climates (and a scarcity of resources).

[I]n June, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went on record to suggest global warming as a cause for the fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan. He pointed out that warming in the tropical and southern oceans, fueled in some part by climate change, led to a decades-long drought and clashes between herders and farmers over the degrading land. When a rebellion broke out against the central government, Sudan’s leaders fought back by arming and supporting the herders against the farmers—and the entire region fell into war. If global warming did cause the Sudanese drought, then it’s also responsible for the 200,000 to 450,000 lives that have been lost over the last four and a half years. We may very well be watching the first major conflict caused by emissions from our factories, power plants, and cars.
(via)

Think that climate change-related conflict is just for developing countries? Well, what if oil is the diminishing resource? Hmm … sounds a little like our current situation in the Middle East …



posted by Erin Polgreen

Reader Comments

Wow. Take the most evil deed people can do and simply blame it on the weather. Wow.

I suppose the rapes are due to the hot weather too? Wow.

posted by Jody on 10-17-07 at 10:18 AM

This isn’t passing the blame but common sense: when resources are scarce, people fight over them. Scant resources may not justify murder and rape and other atrocities of warfare but they certainly are a contributing factor.

posted by MK on 10-17-07 at 1:05 PM

Discussion Closed

Commenting is closed on articles six months or older. This helps us prevent spam and maintain continuous discussions. We also close discussions from time to time that we are unable to moderate. Thanks for your understanding.