ABSTRACT
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record (WMO, 2009). The year 1998 was recorded to be the warmest year since records began. However, 2010 figures released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggested that 2010 was on course to be the warmest year since records began in 1880, with large parts of Canada, Africa, Europe and the Middle East facing extreme heatwaves and abnormally warm temperatures (NOAA, 2010). In what seems to be a particularly paradoxical life event, 2010, the year declared by the United Nations (UN) as the International Year of Biodiversity, will also be remembered as one of the years in which millions of people, in almost all continents, suffered their worst environmental disaster. The year began with Colombia declaring a state of environmental emergency in 25 of its 32 provinces so as to allow the purchase of firefighting equipment without going through procurement bidding procedure. The year also began with Haiti’s devastating earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people and left almost 2 million homeless. It was soon followed by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, which left mass devastation. Russia, witnessing its warmest summer in more than 1000 years, suffered one of its worst environmental disasters in decades. More than 800,000 hectares of land were destroyed by fire leading to the Prime Minister’s ban on all export of grain, which consequently lead to a 70 per cent price increase of wheat within one month of the ban. In the memory of Tokyo and Osaka citizens, August was the warmest month. Pakistan experienced its worst flooding disaster in more than 80 years. With almost one fifth of the country underwater, nearly 20 million people were displaced, 10 million left homeless and 1600 lost their lives. Heavy rains in the southern part of Mexico affected more than 100,000 people and Guatemala declared a state of emergency when days of heavy rain caused widespread flooding and landslides. Southwestern China suffered the worst drought in a century and 51 million people were faced with water shortages; however, heavy rains and floods have also affected 18.3 million people in the country. Sanya, in the Hainan
province of China, was hit by Mindulle, the fifth tropical storm of the year, while the Gensu mudslide was the deadliest individual disaster among the 2010 China floods. At the same time, half of Niger’s population is suffering from famine and malnutrition owing to severe drought. During the 20th century, North Kenya suffered 28 episodes of severe drought, with 4 during the last decade. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), at least 400 pastoralists have been killed in armed conflicts across Kenya since July 2008 (UNOCHA, 2008). The worst hit districts of Turkana, Marsabit and Mandera recorded more than 50 deaths each. In the Americas, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has
had a severe environmental impact on the marine and wildlife habitats of the region, affecting not only thousands of species and animals, but thousands of human livelihoods as well. The explosion of the platform on 20 April 2010 led to almost 5 million barrels of oil spewing into this unique marine ecosystem during 90 days. In an interview with US political website Politico, President Obama compared the Gulf oil spill catastrophe to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, saying: ‘In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come’ (Politico, 2010). His statement is not the first to link environmental threat to security issues. A report released in 2007 by CNA Corporation, concluded that global climate change presents a serious national security threat that could affect US citizens, impact its military operations and heighten global tensions. The report explores ways in which climate change poses as a threat multiplier in already fragile regions of the world, exacerbating conditions that provide breeding grounds for extremism and terrorism (CNA Corporation, 2007). A similar conclusion was reached by the report commissioned in 2008 by
former Prime Minister of the UK, Gordon Brown, to outline the new defence strategy, stating that ‘climate change is potentially the greatest challenge to global stability and security’ (BBC, 2008). Addressing the House of Commons, Prime Minister Brown stated: ‘The nature of the threats and the risks we face have – in recent decades – changed beyond recognition and confound all the old assumptions about national defence and international security’ (BBC, 2008); he also added that climate change and pandemic disease threaten international security as much as terrorism and that Britain must radically improve its defences. In addition, Sir David King, science advisor to former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, stated that ‘climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism’ (in Khor, 2006). Following the meeting of the Security Council of the UN devoted to climate
change, energy and security, the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated that the biggest threat to humanity is climate change. As early as 1988, the Prime Minister of the UK, Margaret Thatcher, requested a special meeting of the UN Security Council to address the threats of climate change. The meeting, that took place on 17 April 2007, convened a day-long Security
Council debate on the impact of climate change on security and featured interventions by more than 50 speakers. In the opening remarks, Margaret Beckett expressed the importance to tackle climate change as part of security issues, and added ‘this is a groundbreaking day in the history of the Security Council, the first time ever that we will debate climate change as a matter of international peace and security’ (UN, 2007). Two months later, the UN unanimously adopted a resolution titled ‘Climate change and its possible security implications’. The same year, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former US VicePresident Al Gore. Wangari Maathai was the first environmental activist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In announcing the decision of the chair of the Nobel Peace Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjøs, stated, ‘environment protection has become yet another path to peace’ (Mjøs, 2004). UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has said that ‘because the environment
and natural resources are crucial for building and consolidating peace, it is urgent that their protection in times of armed conflict be strengthened. There can be no durable peace if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods are damaged or destroyed’ (UNIS, 2009). Indeed the gravity of the impact of human-induced destruction of the natural capital of our planet has reached such a level that it poses a major threat to peace and security in the world. The third edition of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Global Biodiversity Outlook (Secretariat of the CBD, 2010), shows that today we humans continue to drive species extinct at an unprecedented rate. This comprehensive report on the status of biodiversity in 2010, based on 120 national reports submitted by parties, demonstrates that that biodiversity continues to disappear at an unprecedented rate – up to 1000 times the natural background rate of extinction. The report further warns that irreparable degradation may take place if ecosystems are pushed beyond certain tipping points, leading to the widespread and irreversible loss of biological goods and ecosystem services that we depend on for our health and well-being. The supremacy of human beings on other living species, though uncontrolled, is not a triumph. The human being is now jeopardizing life on Earth as well as his own existence. Since the industrial revolution, humanity has entered an era of global
changes that are transforming the face of the Earth and its effects will ripple down for centuries. Living standards are generally, increasingly, persistently tapping on natural resources. As such, humanity’s footprint has never been as significant. The pressures on the planet’s natural functions caused by human activity have reached such levels that ecosystems’ ability to satisfy the needs of future generations is seriously, and perhaps irretrievably, compromised. Humanity is facing two main global challenges that are interconnected: climate change and biodiversity loss. These challenges have further implications for peace, security and development. There is an intricate connection between the state of the environment and
biodiversity, and the state of peace or conflict among regions across the world.
