The Impact of Armed Conflicts on Climate Change: Perceptions of Environmental Security and the Search for Ways to Overcome These Risks

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of armed conflicts on climate change, as well as the perception of environmental security and the search for ways to overcome these risks. Currently, issues related to environmental security and climate change are becoming a particularly significant item on the global political agenda. Modern societies have already witnessed such global phenomena and processes as large-scale natural disasters such as floods, droughts, fires, temperature fluctuations, and hurricanes; the depletion of vital natural resources essential to society; and changes in such vital indicators as the ozone layer, atmospheric gas composition, radiation pollution, and other dramatic changes in the biosphere. In this regard, this article analyzes the impact of war and military conflict on climate change over the past decade. It addresses the following questions: Do wars and conflicts accelerate the impacts of climate change? Why don’t governments mention wars and conflicts as important causes of global warming? To answer these questions, the article describes the increasing number of climate change events that are correlated with war and climate change. To this end, it reveals the lack of interest of national governments in raising awareness of the impact of wars and conflicts on climate change, and finally, some concluding comments are offered.