Seed Magazine's recent cover story, The Truth About Water Wars, features seven water experts speculating about the prospect for water wars.
Okay, so I'm one of the experts.
From Maywa Montenegro's article:
It’s often been said that the next resource wars will be fought not over oil but over water. Here, seven experts debate the past and present existence of water wars, consider the difficulty of owning a fluid resource, and examine the hot spots for future conflict.
Are Water Wars a Myth or an Imminent Threat to Global Security? Our Panel Responds:
- Mark Zeitoun, environmental engineer
- David Hatton, Australia’s “water czar”
- Fred Pearce, environmental journalist
- Tobias Siegfried, environmental physicist and international relations scholar
- Michael E. Campana, hydrogeologist
- Sandra Postel, water analyst and author
- Peter Gleick, scientist and global water security expert
Here's a pdf of my essay:
Lots of food for thought. Enjoy!
"People are willing to do horrible things to each other. What they seem not willing to do is turn off each other’s water.” — Aaron Wolf
I agree with what I took to be the general concensus from those essays, water won't be THE reason for wars but it is a factor in many conflicts (Darfur, Israel and the Palestinians, etc). Also as one of the essays pointed out lots of times the party that gets the short end of the stick doesn't have a military that can be sent to fight a convential war but that doesn't mean that they can't react in other violent ways (guerilla tactics, suicide bombers, etc.).
Posted by: Leif | Friday, 15 May 2009 at 05:35 AM