New deserts, disappearing glaciers and unexpected wars? Armed conflict in times of climate change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Abstract
The spectre of climate change has been haunting the world in recent decades. We cannot deny (as many do, regardless of reality and scientific knowledge) that it exists.
Nor can we ignore the fundamental contribution that the industrial revolution, human recklessness towards nature and our civilisation based on unstoppable growth have made to it over the last hundred and fifty years. The planet will survive climate change.
We cannot say that with certainty about contemporary human societies. Wars, as complex phenomena of human interaction, are caused by people and people alone - by their politics, their interests, their emotions, the ability of societies to manage crises and to find solutions that do not lead to violence, to genocides and to wars.
However, we have rarely been able to do this since the dawn of civilisation. The pressures of the climate crisis, as shown by the real problems of the Global South and the potential conflict zones in the polar regions, present us with new challenges to try to be better and more peaceful.
But it is up to us how we deal with them.