E Cost of the 1994 dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) epidemic in Thailand
was estimated to be US$ 19—51 million.
E Cost of the 1994 epidemic of dengue/DHF in Puerto Rico was estimated to
be US$ 12 million for direct hospitalization costs alone.
In a world where anthropogenic activities are having an impact on Earth’s
life-supporting systems, we must consider how pressures on these systems have
the potential to lead to environmental conflict and insecurity, with all the adverse
effects on human health. This is the focus of the next section.
3 Environmental Conflict and Security
As human numbers expanded over the millennia, there was increased exploitation
of nature’s capital, and increasing territorial expansion. Territorial expansion, a
desire for greater wealth, and hegemonic power, often led to conflict between rival
groups. Although such conflict at different tempero-spatial scales is multifactorial,
complex and contentious, the competition for natural resources is a key
factor. The World Commission on Environment and Development argued
that nations have often fought to assert or resist control over raw materials,
energy supplies and land. One might therefore envision that the risk of conflict
will significantly increase in the near future because of increased natural resource
scarcity, much of it consequent to declining environmental goods and services.
The Persian Gulf War of 1991 is a recent example of major conflict triggered by
concern over an environmental resource: oil. Other examples from recent,
lesser known, resource-associated conflicts include those from India, the
Philippines and the West African states of Mauritania and Senegal.
In many countries, agricultural production is increasingly dependent on
irrigation, and this is likely to lead to conflict where there are existing tensions
over access to freshwater supplies. Many river systems (and thus scarce water
resources) are shared uneasily between neighbours in unstable regions: the Nile,
the Ganges, the Mekong, the Jordan and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
‘Water wars’ have therefore been postulated as increasingly likely in future, as
population pressures and demands increase, including in the Middle East, and
between Ethiopia and Egypt, Lesotho and South Africa, and India and
Bangladesh.
Motivation and opportunity are two other key factors for the emergence of
conflict. Excessive inequality may sow the seeds of resentment and future
T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, in Ecoviolence. Links among Environment, Population and Security,
ed. T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, Lanham, MD, 1999.
G. D. Snooks, The Dynamic Society. Exploring the Sources of Global Change, Routledge, 1996.
T. F. Homer-Dixon, Int. Security, 1994, 19, 5.
T. F. Homer-Dixon, J. H. Boutwel and G. W. Rathjens, Sci. Am., 1993, 268, 16.
P. H. Gleick, The World’s Water. The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources 1998—1999, Island
Press, Washington DC, 1998.
P. H. Gleick, The World’s Water. The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Island Press,
Washington DC, 2000.
V. Percival and T. F. Homer-Dixon, in Ecoviolence. Links among Environment, Population and
Security, ed. T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, Lanham, MD, 1999.
M. J. Ahern and A. J. McMichael
154
was estimated to be US$ 19—51 million.
E Cost of the 1994 epidemic of dengue/DHF in Puerto Rico was estimated to
be US$ 12 million for direct hospitalization costs alone.
In a world where anthropogenic activities are having an impact on Earth’s
life-supporting systems, we must consider how pressures on these systems have
the potential to lead to environmental conflict and insecurity, with all the adverse
effects on human health. This is the focus of the next section.
3 Environmental Conflict and Security
As human numbers expanded over the millennia, there was increased exploitation
of nature’s capital, and increasing territorial expansion. Territorial expansion, a
desire for greater wealth, and hegemonic power, often led to conflict between rival
groups. Although such conflict at different tempero-spatial scales is multifactorial,
complex and contentious, the competition for natural resources is a key
factor. The World Commission on Environment and Development argued
that nations have often fought to assert or resist control over raw materials,
energy supplies and land. One might therefore envision that the risk of conflict
will significantly increase in the near future because of increased natural resource
scarcity, much of it consequent to declining environmental goods and services.
The Persian Gulf War of 1991 is a recent example of major conflict triggered by
concern over an environmental resource: oil. Other examples from recent,
lesser known, resource-associated conflicts include those from India, the
Philippines and the West African states of Mauritania and Senegal.
In many countries, agricultural production is increasingly dependent on
irrigation, and this is likely to lead to conflict where there are existing tensions
over access to freshwater supplies. Many river systems (and thus scarce water
resources) are shared uneasily between neighbours in unstable regions: the Nile,
the Ganges, the Mekong, the Jordan and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
‘Water wars’ have therefore been postulated as increasingly likely in future, as
population pressures and demands increase, including in the Middle East, and
between Ethiopia and Egypt, Lesotho and South Africa, and India and
Bangladesh.
Motivation and opportunity are two other key factors for the emergence of
conflict. Excessive inequality may sow the seeds of resentment and future
T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, in Ecoviolence. Links among Environment, Population and Security,
ed. T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, Lanham, MD, 1999.
G. D. Snooks, The Dynamic Society. Exploring the Sources of Global Change, Routledge, 1996.
T. F. Homer-Dixon, Int. Security, 1994, 19, 5.
T. F. Homer-Dixon, J. H. Boutwel and G. W. Rathjens, Sci. Am., 1993, 268, 16.
P. H. Gleick, The World’s Water. The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources 1998—1999, Island
Press, Washington DC, 1998.
P. H. Gleick, The World’s Water. The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Island Press,
Washington DC, 2000.
V. Percival and T. F. Homer-Dixon, in Ecoviolence. Links among Environment, Population and
Security, ed. T. F. Homer-Dixon and J. Blitt, Lanham, MD, 1999.
M. J. Ahern and A. J. McMichael
154