Climate Change and Peace
In order to break the cycle of conflict and work towards peace, stewardship of God's Earth and the impact of climate change must be addressed.
There have been over one hundred armed conflicts since World War II and most of these have been in developing countries. According to Carl Bruch of the Environmental Law Institute, 44% of countries emerging from violent conflicts relapse into conflict within the first five years. Climate change can undermine post-conflict peacebuilding measures if environmental stresses are not taken into account.
Consider Darfur. While the conflict takes place between different ethnic populations the root causes of the conflict are, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, ecological, and a result in part from climate change. A peacekeeping force can help quell the violence. But conflict will continue to take place unless a political solution is found to the crisis of diminishing natural resources necessary for survival.
Darfur is just one example of many “climate conflicts.” There are lessons to be learned so that when climate change and violent conflict intersect, appropriate, effective political solutions are enacted.
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