Various reports tell us that war is one of the effects of global warming. Wars over energy and water are more likely as those two resources dwindle.
Global warming is connected to profligate use of fossil fuel energy and both will increase into the near future in their co-dependency – their unhealthy relationship. Global warming and worsening quantity and quality of water resources are also interrelated.
War in the Middle East also has a connection to global warming. The war in Iraq is in essence an energy war – the prize being access to oil. Although, this issue has of course become increasingly conflated with that of the so-called War on Terror.
It seems possible that ongoing violence exchanged between Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas, the “Western Coalition” and insurgents will escalate into much wider conflicts, perhaps even involving use of nuclear weapons.
We should be worried, as an escalating Middle-East war, even where not (yet) fought over energy or water, may give us an even shorter time than we have already to marshal resources to deal with the great threat of global warming. Author Jared Diamond for example, has shown that war and environmental destruction were potent ingredients in the sudden collapse of many civilisations over thousands of years.
This time a global civilisation is at stake with nowhere else to go.
The consequences of present scenarios are of course unthinkable. Not just in terms of cost of human life, but also of cost to the environment and the even greater oil shortages than today’s that would inevitably follow. If you think the price of oil is sky-rocketing now, it would go galactic then. Economies may collapse.
Resources available now to invest in renewable energy may then quickly evaporate.
