213
tion has no chief leader, all members are responsible for their own work.
Such “virtual” organisations are flexible, free
of formalities and hierarchic decisions. They are
suitable for organizing and executing various
actions and campaigns but less successful in
tasks requiring permanent, subsequent activities
that are based on each other like, for example,
education. Internet could have a very important
role in the latter case as well but only with comprehensive, carefully designed educational programmes that are based on adequate methods.
The increasing role of information flow and
communication is reflected by the definition of
the essence of global civic society as “communicative power” as opposed to the power of force or
money (Anheier et al. 2012). According to a different approach, global civic society shall be
accepted as a subsystem of the global society.
Jaeger (2007) represents this cooperative concept
and not opposition to power and money. The
human factors of the global society have been
also studied recently. Marek et al. (2014), among
others, discuss the human aspects of contemporary engineering, science and technology.
Considering the above, the authors think that
the activity of the global civic society is likely to
increase worldwide and thus it could become a
major force in implementing sustainable
development.
5.4
Wars, Destroying the Society
and the Natural Environment
Although when the interpretation of environmental protection in the wider sense was discussed
the authors of the present book avoided analysing
the effects of wars because they wanted to emphasise that the peaceful production and consumption activities of humanity also cause
environmental destruction, wars accompanying
the history of humanity cannot be ignored considering sustainable development and altogether
the fate of humanity. One of the principles of the
authors is that sustainable development can be
realised only in peaceful circumstances.
The authors would like to emphasise primarily
the most frequent causes of armed conflicts and
the most severe conclusions that nowadays could
result in either directly or indirectly the global
destruction of the society and the degradation of
the natural environment.
It was already mentioned before that environmental reasons could cause conflicts as well
(even armed ones), but this time the issue is
approached more general. Conclusions can be
drawn on the basis of experience of former wars
focusing primarily on armed conflicts in the
twentieth century. These hundred years were the
bloodiest century in the history of humanity and
not only because of the two world wars (20 and
60 million deaths). It is less known that a dozen
other wars exceeded one million casualties in the
twentieth century (Table 5.1). In the meantime,
the standard of living increased in general compared to former centuries, average life expectancy expected at birth also increased worldwide,
welfare states came into being, no doubt the number of people living in immeasurable poverty
remained high enough. The population increased
fourfold despite enormous destruction.
Table 5.1 Wars having more than one million victims in
the twentieth century (excluding the two world wars) after
Ferguson (2006) with modification
Year
Name of war
1910–1920 Mexican Revolution
1917–1921 Russian Civil War
1926–1937 Chinese Civil War
1950–1953 Korean War
1960–1975 Indochina Wars
1962–1992 Ethiopian Civil War
1963–1995 Civil wars resuming in Rwanda and
Burundi
1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War
1971
Bangladesh Liberation War
1977–1992 Mozambican Civil War
1979–2001 War in Afghanistan
1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War
1983
Sudanese Civil War
1998–
Congo Civil War
Apart from the above listed events further six wars caused
0.5–1.0 million and 14 others caused 0.25–0.5 million
casualties
5.4 Wars, Destroying the Society and the Natural Environment
tion has no chief leader, all members are responsible for their own work.
Such “virtual” organisations are flexible, free
of formalities and hierarchic decisions. They are
suitable for organizing and executing various
actions and campaigns but less successful in
tasks requiring permanent, subsequent activities
that are based on each other like, for example,
education. Internet could have a very important
role in the latter case as well but only with comprehensive, carefully designed educational programmes that are based on adequate methods.
The increasing role of information flow and
communication is reflected by the definition of
the essence of global civic society as “communicative power” as opposed to the power of force or
money (Anheier et al. 2012). According to a different approach, global civic society shall be
accepted as a subsystem of the global society.
Jaeger (2007) represents this cooperative concept
and not opposition to power and money. The
human factors of the global society have been
also studied recently. Marek et al. (2014), among
others, discuss the human aspects of contemporary engineering, science and technology.
Considering the above, the authors think that
the activity of the global civic society is likely to
increase worldwide and thus it could become a
major force in implementing sustainable
development.
5.4
Wars, Destroying the Society
and the Natural Environment
Although when the interpretation of environmental protection in the wider sense was discussed
the authors of the present book avoided analysing
the effects of wars because they wanted to emphasise that the peaceful production and consumption activities of humanity also cause
environmental destruction, wars accompanying
the history of humanity cannot be ignored considering sustainable development and altogether
the fate of humanity. One of the principles of the
authors is that sustainable development can be
realised only in peaceful circumstances.
The authors would like to emphasise primarily
the most frequent causes of armed conflicts and
the most severe conclusions that nowadays could
result in either directly or indirectly the global
destruction of the society and the degradation of
the natural environment.
It was already mentioned before that environmental reasons could cause conflicts as well
(even armed ones), but this time the issue is
approached more general. Conclusions can be
drawn on the basis of experience of former wars
focusing primarily on armed conflicts in the
twentieth century. These hundred years were the
bloodiest century in the history of humanity and
not only because of the two world wars (20 and
60 million deaths). It is less known that a dozen
other wars exceeded one million casualties in the
twentieth century (Table 5.1). In the meantime,
the standard of living increased in general compared to former centuries, average life expectancy expected at birth also increased worldwide,
welfare states came into being, no doubt the number of people living in immeasurable poverty
remained high enough. The population increased
fourfold despite enormous destruction.
Table 5.1 Wars having more than one million victims in
the twentieth century (excluding the two world wars) after
Ferguson (2006) with modification
Year
Name of war
1910–1920 Mexican Revolution
1917–1921 Russian Civil War
1926–1937 Chinese Civil War
1950–1953 Korean War
1960–1975 Indochina Wars
1962–1992 Ethiopian Civil War
1963–1995 Civil wars resuming in Rwanda and
Burundi
1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War
1971
Bangladesh Liberation War
1977–1992 Mozambican Civil War
1979–2001 War in Afghanistan
1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War
1983
Sudanese Civil War
1998–
Congo Civil War
Apart from the above listed events further six wars caused
0.5–1.0 million and 14 others caused 0.25–0.5 million
casualties
5.4 Wars, Destroying the Society and the Natural Environment