New research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) indicate that there’s no connection between natural resource scarcity and conflict. This premise printed in the Population and Environment journal, flies against conventional thinking, and even the reason behind the Nobel Committee’s Peace award for climate change.
Researchers from NTNU’s Department of Sociology and Political Science, looked at the environmental pressures in 150 countries in the period from 1961 to 1999. Using the Ecological Footprint technique to compare environmental sustainability indicators with records on armed conflict.
Interestingly, they concluded that areas where lands and resources were most heavily exploited had the least amount of conflict. Similarly, countries with conflict had lower rates of exploitation. While the researchers don’t argue that scarcity breeds conflict, they do indicate that we need to take a closer look at the cause of conflict.
I find this research stimulating. I’ve read Jared Diamond’s books, Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and am fascinated by how the societal choices we make affect our collective outcomes. It’s easy to believe that scarcity breeds conflict. If that’s not the case, then we need a clearer understanding of the drivers in order to ensure a more peaceful future for both our population and our environment.
