The Resource Wars
The
RESOURCE WARS are here.
Access to the basics of food, water and land are rapidly becoming the primary
planks of the scarce global resource platform that is quickly and realistically
defining the prospects for the continuity and survival of human civilization at
this most critical juncture in human history.
Water is, by all definitions, the most precious and most important resource of
all at the dawn of the 21st century. The current global water crisis can and
will only be exacerbated by further urbanization, increases in global population
pressure and highly unsustainable economic development practices in many areas
and nations throughout the world.
Already, water has become a major factor of regional and global instability. Of
particular concern is the Middle East region with 4% of the world's population,
2/3rds of the world's known oil reserves, and less than 1% of the planet's
fresh water resources. Acute scarcity is already a major problem as nations in
the region rely heavily on a very limited source of water for their industrial,
agricultural and societal use. In the coming years, population growth in the
Middle East is expected to be more than double that of the world average,
placing increased (extreme) pressure on food, water, energy and land resources
in the region.
Access to food and adequate levels of nutrition have and will continue to be,
along with water, a fundamental resource that will define the human condition
well into the 21st century. Already, as of 2004, there are 3 billion people on
the planet (that's roughly 1/2 of the world's population of 6.2+ billion) who
are chronically malnurished, starving and who live in a state of absolute
abject poverty.
Global population is out of control and has quadrupled in the 20th century
alone, from 1.6 billion in 1900 to an unprecedented 6.2+ billion in 2004. This
has led to a virtual explosion in the development and consumption of finite
resources of energy (oil), timber, soil, minerals, water, land etc...and is
contributing greatly to the planet's principle environmental problems, such as
global warming.
Major conflicts are now being fought over diminishing supplies of our most
precious natural resources. To compound the situation, newly emerging
developing countries of the Global South are trying to duplicate the lifestyle
of the Industrialized North, which is based solely on an unsustainable and
environmentally destructive Hydrocarbon/Oil-based economy.
Future world conflict will be increasingly characterized in the years to come
by disputes over access, use, exploitation and distribution of finite natural
resources- food, water and land being the most scarce and most contentious of
them all.
With a world armed to the teeth with thermonuclear weaponry and a dramatic
shift of the world's population moving to and inhabiting large
"megacities" (cities with over 10 million), an impending disaster
(i.e. holocaust) over dwindling supplies and increased demands over resources,
grows larger and larger with each passing day. Lines will inevitably be
tripped... its not a matter of "if", but "when".
However, with leadership, intelligent design and bold initiative on the part of
the world's leaders, the damage can be minimized. Most desperately needed now
is the "fast track" construction of an internationally sustainable
economic infrastructure with global environmental authority and enforcement.
Resource wars can turn into resource abundance and freedom for all. New energy
systems, prolific information exchange, population control measures, investment
in sustainability, healing and nurturance can make all the difference. But it
has to be done NOW, while there is still time left- TIME ITSELF being the most
precious resource of them all.
Steve
Jones
Kailua-Kona, Big Island
Hawaii, USA
E-Mail: ziontide7@yahoo.com
