Climate Change is limiting our chances of a Peaceful World - Jasmine, Peace and Justice Ambassador

Many people still don’t believe that climate change is a major issue in the world today, but what if you knew that climate change is reducing our chance of a peaceful world? In 2007, the UN Security General Ban Ki-moon, described the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region as the world’s first climate change conflict. Since 2007, many more wars have resulted from climate change, including Syria’s current civil war. If we cannot reduce our Earth’s rapidly rising temperature, climate change wars will become a reality.

Did you know that immediately before Syria’s civil war in 2011, Syria suffered the worst drought on record? This is not a coincidence. Syria’s drought resulted in more than 1.5 million people moving from Syrian farms into the city. This caused a stronger political unrest and allowed more people to rebel, ultimately producing a civil war. Although Syria’s record- breaking drought cannot be the sole blame, climate change cannot be overlooked as a cause f Syria’s current war.

The earliest water war was recorded 4500 years ago, when two nations fought to secure disappearing water. As soon as water disappears, a result of climate change, tensions will rise to secure the most precious resource on this Earth. This is already happening around the Nile River in Africa, the Indus River in South Asia and the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. New competition will appear, trying to secure the vanishing water, which will likely 

lead to conflict. If the Earth’s rising temperature cannot be controlled, countries will go to war to secure our disappearing water.

If we cannot stop climate change, which causes wild weather and eradicates resources, the little peace that we possess now may soon be lost. Countries will go to war to secure resources and citizens will tire of governments who cannot make situations better. If we are unable to control our increasing temperature, then we may have no hope of maintaining a peaceful and just world.

“The bottom line is that the impacts of climate change can exacerbate resource competition, threaten livelihoods, and increase the risk of instability and conflict, especially in places already undergoing economic, political, and social stress.” - John Kerry

Sources:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/11/249393.htm

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/kerry-political- crises-linked- climate-change- 151110190932931.html

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/does-climate- change-cause- conflict