Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Global Warring

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Global Warring

    Climate change and the fight for resources 'will set world aflame'
    By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
    Published: 21 June 2007

    Climate change has become a major security issue that could lead to "a world going up in flames", the United Nations' top environment official has warned. From rising sea levels in the Indian Ocean to the increasing spread of desert in Africa's Sahel region, global warming will cause new wars across the world, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

    "People are being pushed into other people's terrain by the changing climate and it is leading to conflict," he said. "Societies are not prepared for the scale and the speed with which they will have to decide what they will do with people."

    The world was already experiencing its first war partly caused by climate change, he said. Dramatic changes to the environment in the Darfur region of Sudan helped lay the ground for today's conflict which has displaced more than 2.5 million people and killed at least 200,000.

    A report to be published by UNEP tomorrow will make a direct link between climate change and the Darfur conflict. "It will be one of the most significant documents in terms of linking environment change and conflict," Mr Steiner said. "It will say that climate change is now a key dimension that must be considered in conflict issues."

    The roots of the four-year conflict can be found in the devastating drought that swept Sudan and the Horn of Africa in the 1980s, the report will say. Since then, rainfall in Sudan has fallen by 40 per cent, a result, claim scientists, of global warming. Farmers began to fence off land to which nomads once had access. Clashes over shrinking resources between nomads, who tend to be Arab, and the mainly African farmers became widespread.

    The current crisis was sparked by a rebellion launched by three Darfuri tribes, and a ferocious counter-insurgency unleashed by Khartoum, but the dramatic changes to Darfur's ecology appear to have been a contributing factor. "What we see in Darfur is an environmental change phenomenon unfolding that puts pressure on local communities," Mr Steiner said. "Combine that with potential tensions and you very quickly get a potent mix within which increased pressure can result in conflict. The situation that emerged in Darfur will emerge in other parts of the world." He warned of a "world going up in flames" if countries did not "wake up", adding: "It is a major security issue that affects the whole geopolitical dynamics that we have today."

    Earlier this year Britain used its presidency of the UN Security Council to lead its first debate on climate change and conflict. "What makes wars start?" asked the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett. "Fights over water. Changing patterns of rainfall. Fights over food production, land use. There are few greater potential threats... to peace and security itself."

    The two major areas of potential conflict, Mr Steiner said, are the Sahel region and east Asia. "In the next 35 years most of the glaciers in the Himalayas will... disappear. You are talking of 500 million people being affected directly and another 250 million people affected downstream." Rising sea levels off the coast of Bangladesh are another potential area for conflict, he said: "India has already started building a wall to stop Bangladeshis coming across. The predicted half-a-metre sea level rise means 34 million people not being able to stay where they are now. Where will they go? They will break through the boundaries."

    But Africa is likely to suffer most. Rising sea levels could destroy up to 30 per cent of the continent's coastline, while between 25 and 40 per cent of Africa's natural habitats could be lost by 2085. Conflicts caused by a scarcity of resources are already brewing across Africa. In Ghana clashes between farmers and Fulani herders have become more widespread as resources have become increasingly scarce. In the Mount Elgon region of Kenya more than 40,000 people have been displaced as different tribes fought over access to land.

    Climate change will also cause problems post-conflict. According to the UNEP report on Darfur, the majority of those displaced by the conflict will never be able to return to their homes. "We have have moved beyond a point of return," Mr Steiner said.
    Hardly the first of these types of conflicts. After all, one of the objectives of Israel's pre-emptive strikes in 1967 was securing the head waters of the River Jordan. Indeed it had provoked Syria and Jordan by bombing their water diversion works - an act of aggression that ultimately led to the events triggering their attacks on these countries two years later.

    Even now Israel is using by far the majority of the West Bank's water resources for itself and is busily sucking the River Jordan dry to such an extent in many parts it often doesn't run, and that the Dead is literally disappearing (dying?) at a rapid rate...

    Does anyone here really believe Israel will ever relinquish it's stranglehold over the region's water supplies?

    * Lord of the Settlers in 3... 2... 1...
    Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

  • #2
    it seems nobody gives a damn.

    oh yeah, tldr
    NOpieceâ„¢
    Order of the Fly

    Comment


    • #3
      Maybe you should have picked an article that has more to do with your shameless troll.
      I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
      - Justice Brett Kavanaugh

      Comment


      • #4
        Humanity has been at war constantly for millions of years. If it wasn't climate change, it would be some other reason.
        Voluntary Human Extinction Movement http://www.vhemt.org/

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Bkeela
          Humanity has been at war constantly for millions of years. If it wasn't climate change, it would be some other reason.
          The other reason is tribalism.
          I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
          - Justice Brett Kavanaugh

          Comment


          • #6
            When have we not been fighting over resources? Hell, we have fought world wars over nutmeg!
            "The DPRK is still in a state of war with the U.S. It's called a black out." - Che explaining why orbital nightime pictures of NK show few lights. Seriously.

            Comment


            • #7
              Hell, we have fought world wars over nutmeg!
              My Chili just isn't the same without nutmeg.
              Monkey!!!

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Bauzer
                oh yeah, tldr
                NOpiece�
                With your tenuous grasp of the English language, it is little surprise that you would also find the simple act of reading difficult...
                Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

                Comment


                • #9
                  You mean... wars get fought over scarce resources?!

                  OH MY GOD! WHAT BRILLIANT INSIGHT!!

                  -Arrian
                  grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                  The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I know, but it doesn't surprise me that you've never thought of it before...

                    Though this new generation of wars is likely to strike at the heart of people's ability just to feed themselves or have a place to live - rather than whether they can merely add flavour to their food...
                    Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      How does that really differ from most of human history?

                      -Arrian
                      grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                      The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        It already has started. Someone has just stolen a complete lake!

                        Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country.

                        When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say.

                        But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water
                        from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6225676.stm
                        Blah

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Arrian
                          How does that really differ from most of human history?

                          -Arrian
                          Let's go backwards in chronological order shall we...?
                          Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by BeBro
                            It already has started. Someone has just stolen a complete lake!

                            from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6225676.stm
                            Sounds like they might want to do some seismic testing...

                            -Arrian
                            grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                            The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Global Warming alarmism is boring. I wish we could go back to Y2K alarmism, that was funny.
                              1011 1100
                              Pyrebound--a free online serial fantasy novel

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X