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Scientific paper

Text

Let them Eat War: Climate Change, Food Insecurity and Conflict

Author:
Sören Köpke

Entry type:
Scientific paper

Year of publication:
2014

Publishers:
Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Language:
English

Abstract: Climate change is increasingly framed as a security concern. Proponents of the environmental security discourse warn that dwindling water resources, loss of arable land and grazing grounds will cause hunger and conflict. These resource-related conflicts will arise in the most vulnerable parts of the Global South. However, this discourse is blind to the political economy of a growth-based capitalist world economy. Narratives of scarcity reinforce the conflictuality of climate change and manifest the securization of the field. Climatic extremes have a potential to compromise food security, but volatile markets, government neglect, and violence also contribute to the problem. Using a political ecology approach, the paper is an attempt to deconstruct the neo-Malthusian argument that food insecurity as a consequence of climatic change and population growth is a root cause of conflict. The author argues that food insecurity will increasingly become a question of climate justice which will have to be tackled through re-allocation of resources, not through deployment of troops.

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