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War = Global Warming = War
By maudeaster on 2014-01-31 10:24:00
I’ve written previously here about how the huge carbon footprint of war-making leads to global warming. But I want to talk
today about how the resulting climate change also leads itself to social instability and war — a terrible circle of human and
social destruction that the US and other governments must find ways to interrupt. How climate change has contributed to the
terrible conflict in Syria was described in an excellent January 215' New York Times piece by Thomas Freidman, WikiLleaks,
Drought and Syria. He cites a WikiLeaked cable, sent from the US Embassy in Damascus to the State Department
lw idry riverbedwarning how the drought (which lasted from 2006 to 2010) was impacting Syrians, threatening mass
migration, social destruction and political instability. Freidman describes how prophetic this warning was — with one million
Syrian farmers, herders and their families since forced by climate change to migrate to urban areas. Syria is clearly
harbinger of future conflicts—as forecast since 2007 by US national security agencies- unless the global community takes
major steps to decrease current future carbon consumption and the resulting global temperature rise. |®drought 2030-2039
For those of us deeply concerned about the vicious cycle of global warming and war -- and about the US failure so far to
enact a much-needed carbon tax or undertake a national, all-out shift to renewable energy -- there was one encouraging shift
in public thinking reported the same day as Freidman’s story. Coral Davenport’s interesting piece, Industry Awakens to the
Threat of Climate Change reported how global droughts have woken Coca Cola and other«.drougth coca cola protest major
corporations to the climate threat. According to Davenport, “Coke reflects a growing view among American business leaders
and mainstream economists who see global warming as a force that contributes to lower domestic products, higher food and
commodity costs, broken supply chains and increased financial risk”. Davenport cites Nike, the World Bank the OECD and
the World Economic Forum as joining the chorus pointing out the economic costs of climate change. Even Douglas Holz-
Eakin, economic adviser to the McCain campaign, was quoted saying, “There will be agricultural and economic
| drought water tapeffects —it’s inescapable. I’d be shocked if people supported anything other than a carbon tax — that’s
how economists think about it.” Let’s hope this chorus from the right becomes itself a tipping factor in the US response to
climate change. If it does, maybe there’s a chance to interrupt the cycle of war & climate change & war — by cutting both
our military budget and our emissions.
