Prof Klare has written an excellent paper showing how dwindling resources and climate change can spark resource wars. What he did not mention is that growing world population, especially in third world countries, means more demand for dwindling resources. Also there will be increased demand and production of goods which require more resources. There are large powerful governments and religious institutions that are enthralled by religious doctrines against birth control, or any control on human reproduction.

The reasons for wars in which resources are a factor, are usually camouflaged by a screen of propaganda. In the U.S. case it is the blanket phoney justification "war on terrorism" . This covers U.S. global domination plans, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the coming war with Iran, currently justified under the "wars on global terrorism" blanket. The real reasons include the theft of other people's oil resources.. The objective is to control middle east oil, prices and access to oil by competitors of the U.S. Rising oil prices is only the beginning.

Bush's official inquiry into why oil prices are rising in the USA: announced April 26, 2006 is hypocritical as it is his own wars and policies, more than dwindling oil resources, that have caused the rapid oil price increases. His friends and supporters in the oil industry are profiting mightily from their oil price increases. If he is not stopped from starting a war with Iran, it is likely that he will make oil prices go through the roof, thus severely affecting the economies of many other nations.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Coming Resource Wars

By Michael Klare, March 10, 2006

 

It's official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" -- and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."

Although not unprecedented, Reid's prediction of an upsurge in resource conflict is significant both because of his senior rank and the vehemence of his remarks. "The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur," he declared. "We should see this as a warning sign."

Resource conflicts of this type are most likely to arise in the developing world, Reid indicated, but the more advanced and affluent countries are not likely to be spared the damaging and destabilizing effects of global climate change. With sea levels rising, water and energy becoming increasingly scarce and prime agricultural lands turning into deserts, internecine warfare over access to vital resources will become a global phenomenon.

Reid's speech, delivered at the prestigious Chatham House in London (Britain's equivalent of the Council on Foreign Relations), is but the most recent expression of a growing trend in strategic circles to view environmental and resource effects -- rather than political orientation and ideology -- as the most potent source of armed conflict in the decades to come. With the world population rising, global consumption rates soaring, energy supplies rapidly disappearing and climate change eradicating valuable farmland, the stage is being set for persistent and worldwide struggles over vital resources. Religious and political strife will not disappear in this scenario, but rather will be channeled into contests over valuable sources of water, food and energy

Continue.........