Climate Change and Inner Peace
Publisher: Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice
Author(s): Paul Wapner
Date: 2013
Topics: Climate Change
What is the relationship between climate change and peace? The most obvious is that climate change is an enemy of peace. Extreme heat, droughts, floods, and intensified storms exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, and thus increase the likelihood of conflict. Already tensions have risen in certain areas as freshwater has grown scarce, food prices have risen, climate refugees have sought new homes, and assistance resources have run thin. Moreover, almost everybody predicts such pressures will increase, as the world grows warmer. Climate change, in this sense, is a stressor undermining national and subnational security.