Environmental Open Hour - Environmental degradation and conflict
For one hour we aim to gather people from various disciplines to discuss contemporary issues of environmental politics, the science behind them and their potential consequences.
In this second session, we will be looking to explore the question of: What role shall environmental degradation and resource scarcity have in the creation of future conflicts?
Discussion will be kicked-off by a quick presentation before we engage in an open and informed deliberation, involving members from a range of faculties and fields. Tea, coffee and cake will be available.
Important information
This event is only open to UoB staff and students. Please contact Ed Atkins if you are interested in attending.
Full details
Two days after the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we shall meet to discuss the potential harbinger of insecurity of the post-1989 world: the environment. With the decline of the Cold War, and the traditional concerns that the period embodied, academics and policy-makers began to redefine what security means – with an increased focus on the environment, degradation and scarcity as a route to conflict. A paradigmatic causal chain has emerged: that population growth, by increasing consumption and production, shall cause environmental deterioration and scarcity, thus exacerbating competition and creating conflict.
The world’s population continues to grow; consumption patterns continue to expand and production is forced to keep up. The threat of degradation and scarcity is greater than ever before. With land-grabs appropriating land from communities, dams flooding protected indigenous land and several nations projected to run out of water in the next generation; the potential of this environmentally-induced conflict can only increase.
Whilst we cannot safely predict the role that degradation and scarcity will have, this forum will seek to understand the intersection between environmental problems and conflict (both violent and non-violent) with a particular reference to potential areas of heightened risk. We shall also seek to define conflicts as a means to understand the operational role that the environment may have.
Other Environmental Hour events
Environmental Open Hour - Economic development and sustainability - 7 October, 3 pm
Environmental Open Hour - Women and climate change - 9 December, 3 pm