Humans can find almost any reason to fight, but one of
the most used reasons is the fighting for resources. Natural resources have
always been limited in nature, whether it was game for nomadic tribes or oil
for modern day countries. And just like the tribes that fought over game
countries fight over oil nowadays. It is the feeling that I must always have
enough for me that drives people to gather and hoard as much as possible and
exclude their neighbors. This need to secure ones resources also leads to jealousy,
which leads to stealing. This means that people feel the need to secure their
belongings and their families from other people from trying to take them. The result
of this are militias and armies that have to sole desire to expand and control
the area around them.
When people are forced to do without they often finds
ways to get what they want, in the early 1930’s the USSR manufactured a
scarcity of food in the Ukraine to try to regain control of the populace. Millions
of people died as a result of this, and it had the opposite effect the USSR was
hoping for it enraged the Ukrainians and ultimate this resentment led to the
Ukraine being the deciding factor in the fall of the USSR. The resentment from
the horrible genocide never left the minds of the general populace. Even though
the USSR fell with very little violence, the hatred the Ukrainians felt was
very real.
One of the most contested natural resources are diamonds,
they have a very high economic value and tend to only exist in small pockets
throughout the world. For this reason a term has been created, a blood diamond,
this refers to a diamond mined in an area of conflict or fighting. Most often
this fighting is over the source of the diamonds themselves. Sierra Leone is a
major source of conflict diamonds and political power often rests with the
person who controls the diamond mines. In 1991 a civil war began when the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded Sierra Leone, and throughout the
nine-year civil war, fighting concentrated in and around the diamond districts.
RUF leaders were very aware that whoever controls the diamond mines controls
Sierra Leone, and profits from smuggled diamonds funded its attack. Even after
a peace agreement in 1999 the fighting began again in no time, and control over
the diamond mines is still at the center of the conflict. Ultimately as a
result, the UN has issued a ban on nongovernmental diamonds for Sierra Leone.
With the rapidly shifting climate that the world is
currently undergoing, scarcity is going to become more common for some areas,
and others will become more prosperous. The change in rainfall will make what
was once very fertile land become much less so and they will not be able to support
as large of a population as they were previously able to. This will lead to
migrations to areas where and existing population already lives. The people
that are established in the now fertile areas will be less than thrilled to
accept the influx of refugees coming in. This will naturally lead to conflict
as the group coming in will be marginalized, the will eventually fight against
those that wish to keep them down, and the native group will fight to protect
their land against the incoming masses. Scarcity is something that will more than
likely never disappear and neither will the conflict that it inspires.
I agree that with the changing climate, resource scarcity will become a bigger issue. I had one specific question about the UN only buying diamonds from the government of Sierra Leone. I don't know much about the conflict so this could be a stupid questions, but how does the UN know that the diamonds the Sierra Leone government is selling them are not blood diamonds? How are they to know how corrupt the government is?
ReplyDeleteThat is a question that I have as well. If the government isn't strong enough to prevent blood diamonds, how can it be reliable enough to only sell the "clean" diamonds?
ReplyDeleteI think your example about the USSR is a really interesting example because of this concept of "manufactured scarcity." We usually think of scarcity that is out of human control, when in fact it can be used purposefully as a violent tool. And even thinking back to my class I took on world hunger- there are enough food and water resources to feed everyone in the entire world with no problem, the issue lies within the food and water allocation. One of my fears about environmental conflict is this concept of manufacturing scarcity- clean water, clean air--it can be a new tactic that hasn't been used much that can truly grow into a major issue.