Climate Change, Resource Scarcity and Conflict

Natural resource scarcity and global climate change may alter the risk of violent conflict in the future. Resource scarcity to meet basic needs such as food and land and water can be worsened by governmental ineffectiveness, and vulnerability of populations, ecosystems, economies, and institutions can outweigh the magnitude of climate or scarcity impacts themselves. Resource availability must be seen not as a stand alone issue, but rather in the context of the overall political economy landscape. Policymakers can benefit from the use of surveillance, early warning systems, and risk anticipation to plan for coming natural disasters and associated scarcity. Development of resilience can offer valuable adaptation and risk reduction methodologies while international action needs to focus on improving cooperation and resilience of international markets through multilateral trade rules or stockpiling of key commodities. Too often, the natural environment is directly attacked or damaged by warfare. Attacks can lead to water, soil and land contamination, or release pollutants into the air. Explosive remnants of war can contaminate soil and water sources, and harm wildlife. Such environmental degradation reduces peoples resilience and ability to adapt to climate change. The indirect effects of conflict can also result in further environmental degradation, for example authorities are less able to manage and protect the environment large scale displacement places strain on resources natural resources can be exploited to sustain war economies. In Fao, south of Basra, Iraq, people blame their water and farming problems on the felling of date palms for military purposes during the Iran Iraq war. Conflict can also contribute to climate change. For example, the destruction of large areas of forest, or damage to infrastructure such as oil installations or big industrial facilities, can have detrimental climate consequences, including the release of large volumes of greenhouse gases into the air. Dr. Kanchan Mishra "Climate Change, Resource Scarcity and Conflict" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-3 , April 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd49779.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/enviormental-science/49779/climate-change-resource-scarcity-and-conflict/dr-kanchan-mishra