Climate change triggers war, warns expert
Pastor Dale Morgan
Climate change triggers war, warns expert*
By Catherine Best in Melbourne
October 13, 2006 03:52pm
Article from: AAP
CLIMATE change was one of the biggest menaces facing humankind and
threatened to breed terrorism, war and the collapse of civilisation, a
global health expert said today.
Dr Colin Butler of Deakin University painted a grim picture of the
catastrophic consequence of global warming as communities worldwide
competed for scarce resources.
Dr Butler, a senior research fellow in global health, said inequality
over access to resources, such
as water and food, bred desperation and resentment, potentially sparking
terrorism and war.
"Over the next century ... I see this (climate change) as an enormous
threat and I agree ... that this is one of the biggest threats that we
could face,'' Dr Butler said.
"People talk about it being bigger than terrorism but I think it
interacts with terrorism and can stimulate conflict and potentially the
collapse of civilisation.
"I know it does sound a bit alarmist but ... I think that you can
analyse global terrorism, in part, as a reaction to global inequality.''
Dr Butler was a presenter at a climate change conference hosted by the
Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne today.
He spoke about the impacts of global warming on human health and said
that while the physiological effects of drought, famine, heat and
cyclones were more tangible, the broader social consequences could be
catastrophic.
Already the effects of global warming were being felt in the spread of
malaria, and events such as the European heatwave of 2003 which killed
between 30,0000 and 50,000 people in France and Italy, Dr Butler said.
But, in the event of a massive drought, where food and water became
scarce, desperation could breed resentment.
"What's to stop someone who's desperate, who sees the world as so unfair
(becoming a terrorist)?'' Dr Butler asked.
In Australia, climate change is expected to result in more than 2000
heat-related deaths a year by 2100, when the temperature is predicted to
soar by up to 5.8 degrees.
The upside, Dr Butler said, was that there was more chance of
instigating change to combat global warming when people start feeling
its effects.
"Not too many people read the literature or necessarily can visualise
what's happening to a polar bear in Alaska but if you start to see that
it has a bigger impact; if you start to see it in your own family ... I
think that will really motivate people,'' Dr Butler said.