The Coming Resource Wars - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

Owl Mirror · #1 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

I believe each individual alive today should concern themselves with The Coming Resource Wars

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It's official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" -- and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."

The coming resource wars | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

The Anatomy of Resource Wars | Worldwatch Institute

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In the 1990s alone, more than 20 million people were killed, forced to flee to a neighboring country, or displaced inside the borders of their home country because of resource-driven conflicts.

Geographies of War: Perspectives on ˜Resource Wars : Geography Compass

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Natural resources figure prominently in studies of geographies of wars. This article reviews the three main perspectives on so-called ‘resource wars’: geopolitical, political economy and political ecology.

Blackwell Synergy

"Resource wars" ignite around the world - 10 January 2002 - New Scientist

Resource Wars, Michael T. Klare excerpt, ThinkingPeace

Worldwatch Paper #162: The Anatomy of Resource Wars | Worldwatch Institute

AlterNet: Environment: The Coming Resource Wars

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In several countries around the developing world, abundant natural resources help fuel conflict, either by attracting predatory groups seeking to control them or by financing wars that were initially caused by other factors. Prominent examples include Sierra Leone, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Afghanistan. Conflict has also erupted in several countries where the benefits of mining and logging projects—oil in Columbia and Nigeria, timber and natural gas in Indonesia, and copper in Bougainville/Papua New Guinea—accrue to a small elite while the social and environmental burdens are borne by local communities.

Governments, rebels, and warloads have made billions of dollars by selling conflict commodities and have used the money to arm themselves and line their own pockets. But the cost of these conflicts has been extraordinary—more than 5 million people killed during the 1990's, as many as 20 million driven from their homes, and considerable environmental destruction. In this new publication, Senior Researcher, Michael Renner assesses the anatomy of resource wars, examines a number of specific cases, and discusses efforts to break the link between resources and conflict.

SPACE.com -- Space Settlement and War

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"War is not healthy for children and other living things" goes the 60's poster.

It's true -- and yet we still fight wars. Why? Because war serves several important functions. One of the most important is to gain or preserve control of resources, particularly territory. For example, the European desire to expand in the 15th through 20th centuries could only take place on Earth, and inevitably sparked a long series of wars both in and out of Europe, culminating with the vast trench-warfare slaughter of World War I. Today there is an entirely peaceful and far more powerful alternative, space settlement.

Consider:

If the materials in the single largest asteroid, Ceres, were used for orbital space settlement construction, we could build territory equal to over 200 times surface area of the Earth (1). This is enough to provide every single nation as much territory as if they conquered the entire Earth. Furthermore, conquering Earth is probably impossible, whereas building space settlements is merely incredibly difficult.
The total energy resources of this solar system are about 2.3 billion times the energy available on Earth. This is simply the Sun's energy output -- and the Sun is an enormous nuclear fusion reactor that works perfectly right now, today, and is perfectly safe -- or at least isn't going away. Furthermore, we know, more or less, how to exploit space solar power ([reference]).
There are thousands of asteroids in orbits that cross Earth's, and just one of them, 3554 Amun, contains roughly $20 trillion dollars worth of precious metals.
Space settlement can make resource wars a thing of the past, something we only read about in history books, because space settlement can deliver far, far more resources at far, far less cost. Less money, less death, less destruction, and infinitely less stupidity.

Resources and territory are not the only reasons for war, but they cause a lot of them. The U.S. has spent far more defending oil access in the Mid-East than it would cost to build space settlements. Perhaps it's time to change direction. Perhaps it's time to make Earth a bit healthier for children and other living things. Perhaps it's time to choose life over war.

Perhaps it's time to start building space settlements.

~@~

Would the institution of a One-World Government serve to quell these wars?
Would the elimination of Nationalism and Imperial conquest be beneficial to all of Mankind ?

The last article above asks: "Perhaps it's time to start building space settlements."
Something tells me that unless Mankind solves his appetite for conquest and greed, warfare will only follow Man into Space.

Andrewl · #2 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Already there. Iraq is a resource war. Darfur is a resource war. Most wars humans fight are resource wars, and most of the time humans are fighting wars.

Could always get worse though I suppose.

Andrew

erikvv · #3 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Wars have mostly been about resources. Bronze, gold, land, slaves, tobacco you name it. There's even been an armed conflict about tulips.

Conflicts about resources are visible in our society a lot: think about all the stuff that is stolen.

TheLastBoyScout · #4 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

I understand the point of the article, but almost all wars throughout ancient and modern history were fought over resources.

To cite it as an alarming new trend is to ignore history.

Andrewl · #5 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

There is something newly alarming that was absent throughout history. And that is the type of weapons we now have at our disposal.

Andrew

goober · #6 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

If you read Daniel Yergin's "the Prize", or just watch the PBS version of it, you'll get the definite feeling that every war for the last 100 years has been about one thing, and one thing only. Oil.
He makes a pretty good case for it, other than for resources, why fight a war?

Andrewl · #7 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

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Originally Posted by goober

If you read Daniel Yergin's "the Prize", or just watch the PBS version of it, you'll get the definite feeling that every war for the last 100 years has been about one thing, and one thing only. Oil.
He makes a pretty good case for it, other than for resources, why fight a war?

Independence. But i think even in the end that comes down to resources, i.e., what is the point of independence if it is not so you have total control over said resources.

Andrew

Owl Mirror · #8 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

While wars have been fought over resources throughout history, and current wars have focused upon energy resources.
I believe the advent of future resource wars will be fought over WATER.

ScienceDaily: War Over Water Predicted By United Nations Environment Official

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"Everybody knows that we have an increase in population, but we do not have a corresponding increase in drinking water, so the result in the regional dimension is conflict,"

A global problem: How to avoid war over water - International Herald Tribune

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Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting over," Mark Twain once said.

At the start of the 21st century, his gloomy view on the water side of the equation has been getting endorsements from an impressive - if unlikely - cast of characters.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and, most recently, Britain's Ministry of Defense have all raised the specter of future "water wars." With water availability shrinking across the Middle East, Asia and sub- Saharan Africa, so the argument runs, violent conflict between states is increasingly likely.

The specter is also on the agenda for the experts from 140 countries gathered this week at the annual World Water Week forum in Stockholm. Meetings of water experts are not obvious forums for debating issues of global peace and security. But the ghost of Mark Twain is in Stockholm this week as we reflect on the links between water scarcity and violent conflict between states.

So, here's the question. Are we heading for an era of "hydrological warfare" in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled through proxy armies and client states? Or can water act as a force for peace and cooperation?

Our Water is Running Out- Boston Globe - January 6, 2002 By Jeffrey Rothfeder

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For those of us who can turn on the faucet confident that there will
be steady stream of clean water for bathing, drinking, cooking,
washing dishes, the thought that the world could go dry seems
incomprehensible. But the reality we face is sobering: water --
nature's most essential element -- is becoming dangerously scarce. A
freshwater crisis has already begun that threatens to leave much of
the world dry in the next 20 years, without enough water for a
minimum of life.

Nearly 2.2 billion people in more than 62 countries, one-third of the
world's population, are starved for water.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel warns of war over water

BBC News | World | World water crisis

How to Avoid War over Water

Avoiding war over natural resources

Water in Conflict - The Dark Side of Natural Resources - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum

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As demand for water hits the limits of finite supply, potential conflicts are brewing between nations that share transboundary freshwater reserves. More than 50 countries on five continents might soon be caught up in water disputes unless they move quickly to establish agreements on how to share reservoirs, rivers, and underground water acquifers. The articles and analysis below examine international water disputes, civil disturbances caused by water shortages, and potential regulatory solutions to diffuse water conflict.

erikvv · #9 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Considering I can buy 50 m3 of clean water for just an hour of simple work I dont think we'll see any war over it. Use your common sense.

Bullshit · #10 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

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Originally Posted by erikvv

Considering I can buy 50 m3 of clean water for just an hour of simple work I dont think we'll see any war over it. Use your common sense.

Actually, access to fresh potable water is a major world issue. For example, its estimated within the next 10 years the american southwest' #1 source of contention will be water rights. And thats in a wealthy industrialized nation. Purifying water is also very energy intensive. As the cost of energy rises so will the cost of water.

Andrewl · #11 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

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Originally Posted by erikvv

Considering I can buy 50 m3 of clean water for just an hour of simple work I dont think we'll see any war over it. Use your common sense.

The fact that you can buy so much for so cheap is part of the problem. This leads to incredible waste, mainly through industrial and agriculture use.

Andrew

White Rabbit · #12 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007

Theoretically speaking, peak oil theory ought to make our western economic system practically untenable within a few decades from now anyway, and that would likely provide some downward pressure on worldwide populations in the process - even without global warming or any other factor considered.

Owl Mirror · #13 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

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Originally Posted by erikvv

Considering I can buy 50 m3 of clean water for just an hour of simple work I dont think we'll see any war over it. Use your common sense.

Are you part of the ME ME ME generation who thinks only of themselves ?

MattInFla · #14 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

This thread has some interesting conversation points.

Too bad one of the usual suspect will probably come along and wreck it....

Water purification technology is pretty well advanced, and with enough power desalinizing salt water isn't that tough.

The third world will likely have serious water issues, but the developed world will probably adapt fairly easily.

Matt

Analyst · #15 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

This is a serious topic, indeed. To the American readers I must say that most modern wars have been initiated by USA in the whole planet (30 million civilians killed). Why? Because the economic system is such that consumption must grow all the time and there are no economic instruments used in environmental management. The exploitation of natural resources in USA is nothing but completely crazy and stupid. Ladies go for shopping with military 4-wheel drive cars made for troops ... and really fill the car with crap they trow away after few days. USA is consuming = wasting more than half of global resources.

Americans tend to say that they are model people in an ideal model country and that this way of life should be brought to the whole world. You cannot be more wrong! For example those Afghans and Iraqies have lived 30.000 yrs following traditions which have shown to be SUSTAINABLE. Natural resources are respected and never over-exploited (ok. over-grazing is a modern problem they have as money economy is there, too). Therefore, it would be useful for Americans to go to Afghanistan and Iraq to learn how to live. There you can see an ideal model for people to live with SUSTAINABLE economy. The US way is criminal and cannot be introduced to any country.

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