Environmental Scarcity Research Articles

Land and genocide: exploring the connections with Rwanda's prisoners and prison officials

For the past two decades, a growing number of researchers have focused attention on the problem of environmental scarcity, particularly land scarcity, which they believe can contribute to violence ...

The Environment-Conflict Nexus

In the spring of 1994-only weeks following the debacle in Mogadishu and only months before a similar event would take place in Haiti-Robert D. Kaplan wrote a stirring article in Atlantic Monthly that seemed to explain the prevalence of such warfare, predicting its continuation in international affairs. Indeed, Kaplan's article, The coming anarchy, captured Washington's attention and became so popular that President William J. Clinton reported to have penciled notes on his copy for use during cabinet meetings. Receiving perhaps the most public attention was Kaplan's focus on the environmental and ecological causations of conflict and war. The environment, explained Kaplan, is the national-security issue of the early twenty-first century, where developmental-induced environmental scarcity will emerge as the central cause of intra- and inter-state conflict.'While Kaplan's article, later republished as the principal chapter of his best-selling book, Coming Anarchy, indeed a pleasurable and savvy journalistic read, it nonetheless political science light. That is, the article did much to elevate the and debate within governmental circles, civil society, the media, and academia, but achieved very little in terms of academic or theoretical advancement. Indeed, Kaplaris most important contribution to the enviro-conflict field was the influence he had on the popularization of the study in western society and the further infusion of its lexicon into everyday political and social parlance. His work, however, had very little influence on furthering knowledge within the subfield, in particular, or within political science/international relations in general. It did not postulate any novel hypotheses, rigorously verify or falsify existing ones, or advance any set of guidelines that could stimulate further research. It was simply a good read.What was perhaps most overlooked by the excited throngs who flocked to it was the fact that the enviro-conflict debate had not been invented by Kaplan, nor was it a novel area of investigation in general, and nor was the issue quite as simple as it had been presented. In fact, Kaplan took little notice of the nuance that accompanies the enviro-conflict debate or of the complicated nature that exemplifies its academic development. He does not mention, for instance, that the enviro-security approach had been developed in the mid-1980s, already had a rich theoretical history that pitted erudite proponents against equally well-versed critics, and had-perhaps most importantly-evolved into two major oppositional debates: theoretical debate and methodological/practical.Both areas of research have their advocates and opponents, arguments and counterarguments, rationales, examinations, and testimonies. Put together, these debates form the existential core of the enviro-conflict subfield. Evaluating the arguments set forth by both research agendas and analyzing their specific advancements and shortfalls therefore central to understanding how the field has evolved within IR, to appraising what scholarly progression has taken place, and to appreciating what measures need to be taken in order to advance analytic development.To this end, this article will review the enviro-conflict field and evaluate the central tenets of the research subject as they have been forwarded and explored by various academics since the late 19805. argument presented in three sections. Part one will focus on the first of the two debates, the theoretical dilemma, exploring its overarching question: are environmental concerns equivalent to concerns, or do they fall into a separate subcategory altogether? Advocates of enlarging the definition of security to include the natural environment pit themselves against those who espouse the traditional and much more limited Cold War definition. Part two will explore the second debate-the practical/methodological dilemma-and will explore its overarching question: are there causal links between the two variables (the natural environment and international conflict), and if so, how are we to accurately operationalize their occurrence, measure their strengths, and identify their causal mechanisms? …

Environment and Security

▪ Abstract A broadening research program focused on environment and security emerged over the past 30 years. But the meaning and operationalization of environment and security have been an implicit and increasingly explicit part of the scholarly debate. Approaches range from the more specific focus on the linkages between environmental change and violent (deadly) conflict, the possible role of environmental conservation, cooperation, and collaboration in promoting peace, and the broader focus on potential relationships between environmental change and human security (understood as freedom from both violent conflict and physical want). In addition to the different conceptions of environment and security, the type and direction of causal relationships among different factors continue to be a focus of research. With respect to the environment and violent conflict, which constitute the largest explicit research stream on environment and security, the debate has centered on whether and why environmental scarcity, abundance, or dependence might cause militarized conflict. Less research has been conducted on the environmental effects of violent conflict and war or traditional security institutions such as militaries and military-industrial complexes. Rigorous research on the consequences of peace or human security for the environment is virtually nonexistent.

Environmental Security: A Geographic Information System Analysis Approach—The Case of Kenya

Studies into the relationships between environmental factors and violence or conflicts constitute a very debated research field called environmental security. Several authors think that environmental scarcity, which is scarcity of renewable resources, can contribute to generate violence or social unrest, particularly within states scarcely endowed with technical know-how and social structures, such as developing countries. In this work, we referred to the theoretical model developed by the Environmental Change and Acute Conflict Project. Our goal was to use easily available spatial databases to map the various sources of environmental scarcity through geographic information systems, in order to locate the areas apparently most at risk of suffering negative social effects and their consequences in terms of internal security. The analysis was carried out at a subnational level and applied to the case of Kenya. A first phase of the work included a careful selection of databases relative to renewable resources. Spatial operations among these data allowed us to obtain new information on the availability of renewable resources (cropland, forests, water), on the present and foreseen demographic pressure, as well as on the social and technical ingenuity. The results made it possible to identify areas suffering from scarcity of one or more renewable resources, indicating different levels of gravity. Accounts from Kenya seem to confirm our results, reporting clashes between tribal groups over the access to scarce resources in areas that our work showed to be at high risk.

Environmental Conflict Between Refugee and Host Communities

Much of the existing environmental security literature examines the causal linkages between environmental scarcity and violent conflict. Such research is clearly useful for exploring the causes of violence but less useful for exploring the causes of peace. This article adopts a theoretical approach to the environment-conflict nexus that considers a range of local variables that shape the ways in which actors socially construct resource use competition. The basic approach is to accept that any resource use competition can be constructed in ways that engender either cooperative solutions or unproductive forms of conflict, including violence. The local variables that shape actors’ constructions of conflicts are, therefore, viewed as the determinants of the kind of outcomes that result from a resource use conflict. This theoretical approach is developed with reference to environmental conflicts in areas hosting refugees. The variable of resource management regimes is explored in more detail, illustrated by a case study from an Ethiopian refugee camp. The article finds theoretical and empirical evidence to support the view that participatory and inclusive resource management regimes may enable communities to construct resource use conflicts in ways that help to prevent unproductive conflict. Such forms of governance can potentially be initiated in places where the state is failing to mitigate conflict through its own institutional resources. Thus, there may be an opportunity to respond to the ‘ingenuity gap’ that Homer-Dixon identifies as a key linkage between scarcity and conflict.

Malthus v. Boserup: An Empirical Exploration of the Population-Environment Nexus in India

This paper presents an empirical study of population growth and environmental change using cross-section district-level data from South, Central and West India. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based greenness index. Unlike prior work, the analysis treats population and environmental change as jointly determined, distinguishes between rural and urban populations, and distinguishes between two components of population growth, natural growth and migration. Among key findings are that environmental decline spurs increased rural natural growth and increased net rural in-migration, which in turn prompt further environmental decline; environmental improvement spurs increased urban natural growth and increased net urban in-migration; and environmental scarcity spurs environmental improvement.

Where Oil andWater Do Mix: Environmental Scarcity and Future Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa

Many of wars of 20th century were about oil, but wars of 21st century will be over --Isamil Serageldin World Bank Vice President In eyes of a future observer, what will characterize political landscape of Middle East and North Africa? Will future mirror past or, as suggested by quote above, are significant changes on horizon? In past, struggles over territory, ideology, colonialism, nationalism, religion, and oil have defined region. While it is clear that many of those sources of conflict remain salient today, future war in Middle East and North Africa also will be increasingly influenced by economic and demographic trends that do not bode well for region. By 2025, world population is projected to reach eight billion. (1) As a global figure, this number is troubling enough; however, over 90 percent of projected growth will take place in developing countries in which vast majority of population is dependent on local renewable resources. For instance, World Bank estimates place present annual growth rate in Middle East and North Africa at 1.9 percent versus a worldwide average of 1.4 percent. (2) In most of these countries, these precious renewable resources are controlled by small segments of domestic political elite, leaving less and less to majority of population. As a result, if present population and economic trends continue, we project that many future conflicts throughout region will be directly linked to what academic researchers term (3)--the scarcity of renewable resources such as arable land, forests, and fresh water. The purpose of this article is twofold. In first section, we conceptualize how environmental scarcity is linked to domestic political unrest and subsequent crisis of domestic political legitimacy that may ultimately result in conflict. We review academic literature which suggests that competition over is key environmental variable that will play an increasing role in future domestic challenges to governments throughout region. We then describe how these crises of domestic political legitimacy may result in both intrastate and interstate conflict. Even though Middle East can generally be characterized as an arid climate, two great river systems, Nile and Tigris/Euphrates, serve to anchor major population centers in region. Conflict over of Nile may someday come to pass between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia; while Turkey, Syria, and Iraq all are located along Tigris/Euphrates watershed and compete for its resources. Further conflict over may embroil Israel, Syria, and Palestinians. Despite many existing predictions of war over water, we investigate intriguing question: How have governments in Middle East thus far avoided conflict over dwindling supplies? In second section of article, we discuss concept of virtual water and use this concept to illustrate important linkages between usage and global economy, showing how existing tangible shortages have been ameliorated by a combination of economic factors, which mayor may not be sustainable into future. Environmental Scarcity and Conflict: An Overview Mostafa Dolatyar and Tim Gray identify resources as the principal challenge for humanity from early days of civilization. (4) The 1998 United Nations Development Report estimates that almost a third of 4.4 billion people currently living in developing world have no access to clean water. The report goes on to note that world's population tripled in 20th century, resulting in a corresponding sixfold increase in use of resources. Moreover, infrastructure problems related to supply abound in much of developing world; United Nations estimates that between 30 and 50 percent of presently diverted for irrigation purposes is lost through leaking pipes alone. …

Environmental Planning and Cooperative Behavior

Environmental concerns have been framed in the planning profession as manifestations of resource scarcity, and hence a contributing factor in community conflicts. While mismanaged environmental scarcity can certainly lead to conflict, there is also considerable potential to stimulate cooperation on the basis of environmental scarcity itself. In the language of game theory, the latter outcome can be obtained by converting “dilemmas of common competing interests” to “dilemmas of common aversion.” The cooperation which would result from the use of environmental concerns as a binding element in conflicts among parties, is likely to catalyze a more “sustainable consensus”—a robust contract between erstwhile adversaries.Planners are in a unique position to glean the positive attributes of environmental indicators since they can bridge technical knowledge of environmental impact with an understanding of sociopolitical context at community consultation forums. This paper attempts to provide the theoretical basis for this approach and develop examples of how such a strategy for conflict resolution may be implemented.

Environmental Scarcity and International Conflict

Since the end of the Cold War, scholars have increasingly tumed their attention to examining the link between depletion of renewable resources and conflict. Within this environmental security literature, academic opinion varies across a wide spectrum with some predicting a dark future of environmental "resource wars" both between and within nations, while others question the extent to which environmental variables play any role in inducing conflict. This paper builds on the findings of previous case and statistical studies and presents a cross-national, time-series multivariate analysis of the relationship between militarized international disputes and the environmental variables most commonly cited in the qualitative literature-freshwater, soil, fish, and population. These environmental variables are tested individually and in combination, while controlling for other conflict-generating factors. The general finding is that states suffering from greater levels of environmental scarcity are more likely to be involved in a militarized international dispute.

Crime and justice in the context of resource scarcity

This concept paper presents a theory of environmental scarcity developed byHomer-Dixon. Homer-Dixon developed a model to describe the consequences of scarcity for sub-national violence in third world countries. This paper hasfour interrelated purposes. First, it presents the model of scarcity developedby Thomas Homer-Dixon in 1999. Second, it assesses the way in which the scarcity model contextualizes criminal justice and criminology research, andby extension, how research in crime and justice processes can broaden the scarcity model. Third, it applies elements of the model to the United States,a goal that represents a generalization of the model from third-world to first-world settings. Fourth, it presents a particular case, the migrationof African-Americans from the rural South to urban centers in the 1950s and1960s and consequent inner-city violence in the 1960s, that displays manyelements of the environmental scarcity model.

Population-conflict models: blaming the poor for poverty

International security is increasingly concerned with environmentally-induced regional conflicts. The standard approach to this field posits population growth as the primary cause of environmental scarcity and/or degradation, which then results in violence. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a limited focus on population growth per se disguises the violence that is inherent within the unequal distribution of social resources. The focus on population growth thus ends in blaming the poorest of the earth’s citizens for environmental scarcity. We draw on the agent/structure debate on violence in addition to ecofeminist and feminist critiques of the population-conflict models to draw attention to how the dominant culture maintains and normalizes the violence of social domination.

Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. By Thomas F. Homer-Dixon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999 253p. $45.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.

In Environment, Scarcity, and Violence, Thomas Homer-Dixon continues his examination of environmental scarcity. This exploration of the links between environmental scarcity and violent conflict captures much of the related complexity. He finds that scarcities of renewable resources, such as cropland, freshwater, and forests, can contribute to civil violence. As scarcities worsen, the incidence of this kind of violence is likely to increase. Although he acknowledges that environmental scarcity “by itself is neither a necessary nor sufficient cause” (p. 7) of violence, he argues that analysts should not underestimate its importance: Some conflicts cannot be clearly understood without an examination of the role of environmental scarcity. In this work, he offers “analysts and policymakers a tool kit of concepts and generalizations that they can use to analyze, explain, and sometimes predict connections between environmental scarcity and violence around the world” (p. 73).

Environmental Scarcity and Conflict: A Contrary Case from Lake Victoria

The thesis that environmental scarcity leads to violent conflict in many parts of the developing world has become ascendant in the literature and has gained much publicity in policy circles in the last decade. According to students of environmental scarcity and conflict, the most conflict-prone renewable resource is fresh water. Indeed, Lake Victoria (the world's second largest fresh water lake, shared by three African countries and affecting or affected by nine others in the basin) exhibits the conditions one would expect, based on the literature, to pro duce conflict, and sooner rather than later. However, based on research includ ing fieldwork conducted in June-July 2000, our findings indicate that while en vironmental degradation is evident in the magnitude expected to trigger conflict, violent conflict has not occurred. This paper seeks to explain why this is so, which may suggest how developing nations can avert the supposed trajec tory into violent conflict.

Economic Growth, Environmental Scarcity, and Conflict

The global population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, intensifying “environmental scarcity,” a term used here to denote environmental degradation and pressure on renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Currently, environmental scarcity is more pronounced in less developed countries (LDCs) than in developed countries (DCs). Many argue that this scarcity is increasingly promoting armed conflicts in LDCs. The conventional solution to the problem of environmental conflict is economic growth. It is argued that as LDCs' income per capita rises to the level ofthat of DCs, their population growth and environ mental scarcity will decline, preventing conflict and building peace. This paper illustrates that the growth approach to conflict prevention probably will not work because the biosphere most likely would not be able to support a DC-level standard of living for all the people on Earth, at least not at the current state of technology. The resulting intensification of pressures on natural resources is likely to induce more, not less, environmental conflict. Still, economic growth in LDCs is important on both moral and practical grounds. One could make economic growth in LDCs ecologically—and therefore politically—feasible by balancing it with a coordinated economic contraction in DCs. The difficulties associated with implementing this approach are discussed. I believe that the approach will probably be rejected by DCs in the short run, but might eventually be initiated in response to some global ecological-social-political crisis. The problem is that such a crisis also might result in extensive damages. Whether or not such damages could be alleviated would depend on the nature ofthe crisis and the extent of the damages up to that point.

Environmental Scarcity of Land, Migration and Violent Conflict: Bangladesh-India

Environmental Scarcity of Land, Migration and Violent Conflict: Bangladesh-India

Uncertainty Analysis and Toxicity Classification in Life-Cycle Assessment Using the Case-study of Gas Purification Systems

This comprehensive thesis structures the decision-making process for making a choice of the most adequate gas purification system (GasPS). Various gas purification technologies (biofilter, activated carbon filter, catalytic oxidation, thermo-reactor) have been evaluated based on an industrial case-study for waste gas streams. The ecological performance was quantified using the life-cycle impact assessment methods Eco-Indicator 95 and Swiss Ecopoints (environmental scarcities). Both life-cycle impact assessment methods have been improved by a new classification method for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which considers the environmental fate and exposure as well as the toxicity of these compounds. For life-cycle assessment, a detailed quantitative uncertainty analysis was carried out using Monte Carlo simulation. Based on the uncertainty analysis, developing statements about the significance of the results and of relative differences between various GasPS alternatives has been possible. The eco-efficiency of the investigated GasPSs was finally characterised based on four indicators: Net Ecological Benefit (NEBN), Ecological Yield Efficiency (lgEYE), Net Present Value (NPV), and Ecological-Economic Efficiency (EEE).

Environment and Security: Improving the Interaction of Two Science Fields

With the growing insight that outbreaks of violent conflict may be linked to environmental degradation and scarcity, “environment and security” has become an object of interest to both political and environmental science. The road to mutually reinforcing activities is blocked by several antagonisms, however, and the heavy emphasis on the national level has precluded the tapping of the wealth of conflict knowledge in anthropology. An improved relationship between the security and environment science fields is suggested by clarifying and linking the generalized “causal stories” that security and environmental scientists tell around their core concepts (security and sustainability, respectively). On that basis, and if focusing on a (subnational) scale that facilitates the involvement of anthropology too, joint research projects can yield a balanced understanding of the links between environment and security.

Lest the rhetoric begin:: migration, population and the environment in Southern Africa

In the spirited debate over cross-border migration in Southern Africa there is one issue that has been conspicuously absent: the environment. The issue is raised in this article not because it necessarily deserves to be part of the debate – it will be argued, in fact, that one needs to tread very carefully when drawing any linkages between migration and the environment – but because it has received an inordinate amount of attention in the academic and popular press in other parts of the world (particularly in the US) and could influence South African immigration policy and debates. In this article we look specifically at Thomas Homer-Dixon's influential work on environmental scarcity and migration and critically assess its relevance in the Southern African context. A brief review of the history of migration and immigration policy in the region is followed by a theoretical and empirical critique of Homer-Dixon's writings. It is acknowledged in the article that environmental degradation can (and does) contribute to forced migration and violent conflict in Southern Africa, but it is also argued that Homer-Dixon misses some fundamental points about the political economy of (post) apartheid Southern Africa and in doing so presents a very problematic interpretation of the causes and effects of migration in the region. The potential for these theories to lend themselves to a reactionary, closed-border approach to immigration in South Africa is also discussed and forms part of the impetus for the writing of this paper.

The History of Ecological Marginalization in Chiapas

In the hushed morning after San Cristobal's New Year's celebration in 1994, hundreds of masked troops moved through the empty streets, cutting phone lines, dismantling the local security apparatus, and establishing an alternative political order. The revolutionary Zapatista government lasted only four days in San Cristobal and other urban centers of the Central Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. In the following year, the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN), or Zapatista National Liberation Army, would bring the plight of Chiapan peasants to the attention of other Mexicans, foreign investors, and the international community, challenging anew the legitimacy of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the long-standing ruling party of Mexico. While many revolutionary objectives have been attributed to the Zapatistas, the rebels admit that their publicly stated aims mask their most enduring claim against Mexico's authoritarian regime: freedom and relief from the escalating environmental scarcities that have been impoverishing their communities. By exploring the ecological history shared by the people and natural environment of Chiapas in this century, a better understanding emerges of some of the tangible, proximate sources for the grievances of the EZLN, the group responsible for organizing many of the ecologically marginalized poor of Chiapas into open rebellion. The changing supply and quality of soil and forest resources can be traced through social periods defined by the general principles under which state elites managed resources and manipulated property rights. From the Spanish Conquest until the Mexican Revolution, an almost feudal social order in Chiapas allowed state elites to capture resources as necessary. The revolution sought to stop this practice by redistributing land resources to peasants, but powerful elites in Chiapas still manipulated the resource regime as the competition for resources grew fierce and their supply dwindled. The Mexican debt crisis of the early 198os prompted an economic restructuring which allowed elites to be more aggressive, resulting in a large population of ecologically marginalized poor, some of whom organized the Zapatista Rebellion in 1994. The ecological marginalization of many

IHDP Science Projects: Institutions—A Crosscutting Theme *Reprinted from IHDP Update — Newsletter of the IHDP, Number 1/1998.

ReportIHDP Science Projects: Institutions—A Crosscutting Theme *Reprinted from IHDP Update — Newsletter of the IHDP, Number 1/1998.Oran YoungOran YoungDartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USASearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:September 01, 2006https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.3.2.167PDFView Full Text ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 3Issue 2June 1998ISSN: 1016-9040eISSN: 1878-531X InformationEuropean Psychologist (1998), 3, pp. 167-169 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.3.2.167.© 1998© 1998 Hogrefe & Huber PublishersPDF download