Brian Stablyk
DCL
History books are filled with wars being fought over resources. It's not a new phenomenon, but it's a growing one. As supplies shrink of the resources we depend on most, conflicts will continue to intensify, and spread, around the world. Climate change is expected to exacerbate conflicts in already hard-hit places, like Africa. This is bad news, considering some of the world's most intense conflicts, including Darfur, are already linked with competition for water and other resources.
Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu has spoken about the connection between conflict and climate change, and the hundreds of millions of people who will be displaced because of diminishing resources, water, and arable land. Unless resources are consumed more efficiently. This means making smarter choices not only about how and where to distribute water and energy, but also what ends these resources are devoted as a means to providing. Foods produced using resource-intensive methods--beef, for example--cannot be sustained for large numbers of people for the long-term. Production consumes too much water, and processing facilities pollute too much of the land and water surrounding them to be viable as a long-term option. Plants and grains go much farther to feed more people than do meat products, but until such limitations on the world's food supply are recognized, we are all in trouble.
It's simple math: more people relying on quickly diminishing resources is a recipe for disaster. No one knows what that will look like exactly, except that it will not be peaceful. And it's not just a concern for overseas. Security experts predict that resource wars will start to be fought in more industrialized and relatively stable countries as communities struggle for access to resources they need to survive. Until patterns of consumption are changed, prospects for the future health of the planet and human population remain bleak. Access to crucial resources like food and water are not yet human rights, and the more people turn to fighting for them, the farther from it they will become.
Watch Focus Earth: Population Overload
