Image by UNEP
Introduction
In recent years, we have seen that climate change has severely impacted our planet’s ecosystem, and experts say the worst is still to come. With the swift depletion of resources due to climate change, a mass population would have to survive on scarce resources. Many a time, these adjustments alter themselves into conflicts. Although climate change is directly not responsible for disputes, when combined with social, political and economic conditions, it aggravates the tense situation. For example, if one nation forbids the river flow to the country that is located downstream, it will sour the nations’ relations. It may result in a severe conflict if the situation prevails for an extended duration.
Conflicts can also lead to climate change. Many ignore the contribution of modern warfare in harming the environment. Certain examples of war's environmental impact include the World Wars, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, and the Rwandan Civil War. The introduction of nuclear and chemical weapons has taken risks to a new elevation. Their use causes detrimental effects to all organic life in the affected area. Mustard gas, a chemical weapon, for instance, contaminates the soil and can remain highly toxic for years after its initial use. Besides, the war contributes to greenhouse gases, pollution, vegetation degradation, etc. For example, the explosives used in the Vietnam War released toxic gases, resulting in severe air pollution. The war also saw extensive use of chemical weapons to clear dense vegetation to locate the enemies.
Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises due to Climate Change
The world has seen extreme climatic conditions in recent times. Stifling summers and unusually warm winters are impacting communities around the globe. Although this fluctuation in the climate may not impact the urban and well-off population much, as they have the resources to tackle the effects of climate change to some extent, it is undoubtedly creating disagreements among underprivileged communities that are dependent on natural resources and agriculture. For instance, scarcity of freshwater is provoking mass migrations due to immoderate weather conditions. As a consequence, climate change poses a substantial challenge to world peace and stability.
Rising temperature leads to grievous droughts and famines. In addition to that, the groundwater level drastically depletes, causing agonising water shortages. Severe droughts led to tensions between two neighbouring ethnic groups near Lake Turkana at the border of Kenya and Ethiopia in 2011. It led to the deaths of twenty Kenyan ethnic groups as well as four Ethiopians. Although, the Kenyan authorities claimed that the death toll might have risen as high as 69. Even though it is a territorial dispute, the water crisis intensified the ongoing situation. Likewise, Ethiopia is constructing the Great Renaissance Dam on the River Nile, but Sudan and Egypt, which lie downstream, seem agitated for their water security due to the construction. If not handled judiciously, this could lead to a large-scale conflict. Countries downstream of a river have hesitancy when an upstream country makes a dam on the river. The upstream country would have complete control over the river. In case of heavy rain, the excess water would be released towards the downstream country, posing grave risks. In times of droughts, the upstream country would try to restrict water for its own use. This creates dissatisfaction, and hence, rises to conflicts between nations.
Another problem climate change has triggered is the rising sea-level because of the melting polar ice sheets and glaciers. Many coastal countries and cities will soon be facing existential threat if the situation does not improve. The Maldives, an archipelagic country in the Indian Ocean, is expected to be immersed in the sea by the end of this century. Maldives' estimated population of half a million would become 'climate refugees' and have to settle in other countries. New settlements could bring forth conflicts and humanitarian crises.
In current circumstances, west Asia is one of the most volatile and fragmented regions due to civil and proxy wars, instability, mass exodus, and geopolitics. More than five million people have been killed and eleven million displaced till now in the Syrian Civil War. Severe droughts between 2006 and 2009 before the war led to the devastation of 75% of farms and 85% livestock. People migrated in waves searching for jobs and food from rural to urban areas, contributing to the instability, resulting in the rise against the government in 2011. According to the investigation conducted by National Geographic, when Syria collapsed into a devastating civil war, Iraq faced catastrophic weather conditions such as extreme floods, droughts, and winds due to climate change. This created an economic vacuum for the farmers, herders, and other businesses. Poverty and water woes allowed ISIS to recruit members and make them fight for their cause.
Acute water shortages have also exacerbated the people's misery in Yemen's civil war, which the New York Times says the "world's worst humanitarian crisis." More than ten thousand people died in the war, and millions are suffering because of a lack of food and water or some life-threatening diseases.
War: A Contributory Agent to Environmental Degradation
Due to the prevalence of trench warfare in World War I, long trenches were dug in the battlefields all over Europe, resulting in landscape changes, deforestation, soil erosion, and severe alteration of soil structures. Similarly, in World War II, excess production of weapons created stress on the limited natural resources. Bombings and air-raids endangered the vegetation as well as wildlife habitats. The use of atomic bombs on Imperial Japan was a catastrophe. The entire flora and fauna were wiped out due to the nuclear bombs' extremely high-temperature. The radioactive particles further contaminated the land and water. Sea warfare and the sinking of warships were detrimental to the aquatic ecosystem. Rebuilding Europe after the destruction of two World Wars further contributed to the draining of scant resources. In the Gulf and Iraq Wars, many oil fields were either spilled or set fire to.
A recent example of a conflict contributing to climate change occurred in November 2020, in Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reports alleged that when Armenians withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh, they burned trees, forests and houses. Azerbaijan alleges that Armenians performed environment terror during the control of the region, damaging the ecosystem, wildlife and natural resources in the last 27 years.
Analysis
The 1977 Protocols to the Geneva Convention, including Protocol I, envisages limit warfare that causes “superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” or “widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.” The World Charter for Nature, the Stockholm Declaration, and Rio Declaration declare that the States shall warrant that activities under their jurisdictions will not cause harm to the natural systems located within other States, and nature shall be safeguarded against damages caused by warfare or further hostile pursuits.” But on occasions galore, these conventions have been violated. To illustrate, the 1991 Somalian civil war demolished the water system, which further resulted in a massive cholera outbreak. The use of water as a weapon has astonishingly increased in the past few decades, especially in the middle-east, where proxy wars are continuously damaging the water systems and other natural resources. ISIS ambushed vital dams along Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. These facts illustrate significant loopholes in the environmental and humanitarian conventions. The ambiguous language makes the laws vulnerable to exploitation. Even though the violations seem visible, the perpetrators are seldom punished. Enforcement and bringing persons who violated the convention to trials is an obligation of the parties to the Geneva Convention. Still, the parties have shown impotence and unwillingness to do so.
Conclusion
The competition between local communities for the utilisation of natural resources is on the increase, which has been exacerbated by extreme weather conditions triggered by climate change. Consequently, the availability of food and volatility of the price of necessity goods have made the problem more severe. Hence, integrating the divided communities should be the prime task. To fulfill the same, energised leaderships are required. Problems related to climate change are not restricted to a single country but are worldwide. Therefore, international cooperation is paramount. Meetings like the 21st Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention were organised. Still, it is difficult to say if any concrete actions have been taken in accordance with those meetings. Instead, the US stepped out of the Paris climate agreement under the Trump administration. This showed that instead of soothing the bone of contentions related to climate change worldwide, politicians lack political will, are not taking climate change seriously, and prioritizing their political agendas first.
The developed countries should constitute an aid-granting organisation, similar to the World Health Organisation in the healthcare sector, to monitor and grant assistance to underprivileged countries, such as African countries, to counter environmental damages. Public influencers such as film and sports stars could play an important role in disseminating awareness among the masses about the detriments of climate change and pressurising the government to bring transparent policies concerning the same.
This article has been authored by Ashutosh Anand, a first year student of National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi and Pratham, a first year student of Chanakya National Law University, Patna.