Global Climate Change May Possibly Destabilize Populations and Governments

MedIndia - Networking for health

Environmental Health
Subscribe Posted online: Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 4:07:08 PM

International-security experts have suggested that climate-change-related damage to global ecosystems and the resulting competition for natural resources may increasingly serve as triggers for wars and other conflicts in the future.

According to Jurgen Scheffran, a research scientist in the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security and the Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research at the University of Illinois, "The impact of climate change on human and global security could extend far beyond the limited scope the world has seen thus far." In a survey of recent research published earlier this summer in the 'Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists', Scheffran did critical analysis of four trends identified in a report by the German Advisory Council on Global Change as among those most possibly destabilizing populations and governments. They were: degradation of freshwater resources, food insecurity, natural disasters and environmental migration.

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