Extremes and Extremism - Initiative on Extreme Weather & Climate

Extremes and Extremism:
Why Climate Stress Increases
Political Violence
Extreme Weather and Climate:
Hazards, Impacts, Actions
Columbia University 6 May 2015
Marc Levy
CIESIN, Earth Institute
Columbia University
[email protected]
@marc_a_levy
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4 out of 43 pages
devoted to
environmental
Security
All subsequent
threat assessments
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Syria civil war
>220k deaths,
> 3.3 m refugees
Our latest candidate for
a “climate war”
Unprecedented,
widespread drought,
massive relocation,
severe deprivation
preceded violent unrest
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Gleick 2014
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/
03/top-twenty-five-schoolsinternational-relations/
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Security Council begins holding debates on
climate change in 2007
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CLIMATE CHANGE 2014:
IMPACTS, ADAPTATION, AND VULNERABILITY
Human security will be
progressively threatened as
the climate changes (robust
evidence, high agreement).
Adger et al,, 2014 IPCC AR5 WG2 Chapter 12
What’s behind
the
convergence?
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Larrick et al, 2011 HT Solomon
Hsiang
Evidence from
many quarters that
climate extremes
make it harder to
regulate violence
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Red = T
Green = Anomaly
Blue=P deficit
These are effects
net of country
circumstances
Hsiang et
al 2013
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This is very bad news
McElroy and Baker 2012
The climate stress
that historically
doubled conflict
risk is now much
more common
WMO
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Number of countries
that are neither
democratic nor
autocratic is at all-time
high
1%
12%
1%
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X
Democratization trend,
replotted as instability
risk
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Risk of electoral
process breaking down
goes up as temperature
goes up
Levy, 2014
Year-controlled results not
significant below 30-year
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Efforts to manage
climate extremes can
shift risk to others
(security dilemma)
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Tuareg kept
moving as
drought
continued
Government
stole food aid
Tuareg in northern Mali
affected by large-scale
drought in 1970s/1980s
After Gaddafi
deposed, many
returned to Mali
helped topple
government
Many ended
up in Libya
Gaddafi
radicalized,
armed,
trained, and
deployed
Tuareg
Today, Libya is
key link in
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migration crisis
It is a bad time to be
facing systemic risks
Globalization and political fragmentation yield little
resilience, few tools.
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Shockingly, not
everyone agrees
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Fears of
environmental
determinism
and racism
1) We went too far in rooting
out objectionable views.
Geography does matter!
1957
2) This is not your father’s
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environmental determinism.
We
thought
things
were
going so
well
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The contexts are
frightening
This is not a fad.
The convergence is
evidence-based
Climate extremes
make it hard to
regulate violence
Many responses
trigger more
problems
"You have a very silly statement in
the draft summary that says that
people who live in war-torn
countries are more vulnerable to
climate change
Climate and
governance trends
are interacting
perversely
Globalization makes
cascading
breakdowns more
likely
Don’t shoot the
messenger, join the
search for solutions
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