Recently I read few pieces of news about the correlation between war and climate change. This reminded me a report I read few years ago. It was a Pentagon study on the potential catastrophic consequences of national security related to climate change.
Rather than predicting how climate change will happen, the Pentagon report dramatized the impact of climate change could have on society if the nations are unprepared for it. It said that the destabilization of the geo-political environment may lead to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints such as disrupted access to energy supplies, food and fresh water shortages. They also predicted that military confrontation may be triggered by a desperate need for natural resources rather than by conflicts over ideology, religion, or national honor. The increasing number of environmental refugees will become an un-neglectable issue too.
I was stunned at the first time when I read the report. Not because of its scary prediction, but how come this report can be released by the Pentagon when their head boss the Bush Government was expressing an opposing view and rejected to ratify of the Kyoto Protocol at that time.
Anyway, the US politic is always non-understandable. What I am happy to see is the discussion of both climate change and the concept of environmental security already moved into the mainstream. Not only has public awareness of climate change seemingly reached a tipping point, but the likely security repercussions of the unsettling changes to our planet’s climate are now increasingly acknowledged and analyzed. I am also happy to see that there is a sign that Australia will leave US itself alone and ratify the Kyoto Protocol soon. It is surely a very positive move that the international community is working together in combating the climate challenge.
Yet, there is still more to be discussed and to be worked on to protect our mother earth.
