Security

Analysts increasingly recognize that a multitude of social, economic, and environmental pressures underlie many of the world's armed conflicts. Struggles over resources like oil, water, timber, and minerals are often the result of depletion and degradation, or of an unsustainable increase in consumption. Degraded areas may be rendered uninhabitable, creating waves of environmental refugees. And the impacts of resource scarcity often reinforce existing social divisions. While the potential for conflict is particularly pronounced where poverty and inequality are extensive, resource wealth can also trigger conflict: the pillaging of diamonds, minerals, timber, and other resources has financed wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Worldwatch research on security helps to connect the dots between environmental degradation, inequitable resource distribution, consumer demand, and armed conflict.