Energy security and climate change present massive threats to global security, military planners say, with connections and consequences spanning the world, reports Joshua Zaffos at Daily Climate News. Some scientists have linked the Arab Spring uprisings to high food prices caused by the failed Russian wheat crop in 2010, a result of an unparalleled heat wave. Climate change is predicted to hit developing nations particularly hard. Hotspots include the Middle East’s oil reserves, a flashpoint for conflicts. Military leaders are closely eyeing Yemen’s instability, related, in part, to water shortages, which are expected to worsen with climate change. If such instability led to a shutdown of the region’s major energy trade route, which runs by Yemen, this could cripple the global economy. As the warming Arctic becomes navigable, countries such as China and Korea will have new navigational routes, and this will impact trade and defense. “The extent of food and water scarcity throughout Africa, makes it highly vulnerable to projected droughts associated with climate change. “There are going to be Darfur’s all over the place,” says Bob Corell, of the Global Environment & Technology Foundation.
Source
The new geopolitics of global warming. Climate change, largely abstract in the United States, is already shaping conflicts around the world – and not for the better. Daily Climate http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/04/climate-geopolitics
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Military sees threats, worry in climate change. Climate policy may be a minefield in U.S. politics, but the Pentagon sees liabilities of a different kind and is forging ahead with plans to reduce the military’s carbon footprint and prepare for climate impacts. Daily Climate http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/04/climate-security
