Toward a new world war because of climate change? Part II

This is not exactly hot news as I already wrote more than a year ago about how the United Nations believe this to be true, but a new study brings further credence to this theory.

Climate change and its many consequences such as decreasing snow amounts, rising sea levels and millions of refugees could become a major challenge to national security for many countries.

Today’s article provides us with more data on this threat and the least I can say is that the various findings are truly frightening.

As TreeHugger noted:

1.Crowding and Territorial Tensions- The number one cause of such tensions will be the migration of different cultures to other territories in search of new resources to replace the increasingly depleting ones. Not only will many cultures find their resources disappearing, but the rising sea level will cover over parts of much of the land, minimizing usable farm area, fresh water, and cattle herds. In some cases, entire islands may become submerged.

Instead of allowing their sovereignty to disappear along with their dry ground, many of these endangered cultures will choose to battle with nearby countries in order to set-up their governments and house their citizens upon alternative soil. Inevitably larger powers will become a part of such squabbles and before you know it, we’ve got a world war on our hands.

2.Competition of Newly Habitable Lands- The opposite scenario of crowding may also occur as the open space around the Arctic regions becomes available due to the increased air temperatures. As these uninhabitable areas become habitable for the first time in history, competition from the various coastal countries and islands who have lost their native homeland will become fierce.

In addition to the smaller powers, larger world powers who previously ignored such land will eventually see the profit potential of such areas and involve themselves in the competition. The large nations will be less interested in the usable space and more keen on the possibility of exploiting the relatively untapped oil resources of these areas for strategic economic positioning.

While this may seem like a gloomy outlook, the truth is that it is still only an outlook. There are steps the various countries and governments can take in order to reduce the possibilities of such an outcome.

Indeed, solutions exist. If each and every country embraces sustainability and launches its economy in a Green New Deal as the UNEP advocates, we would alleviate this threat.

Luckily for us, already one country begun a green New Deal. This will be the topic of our next article.