Vicious Circles: Violence, Vulnerability, and Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change threatens core dimensions of human security, including economic prosperity, food availability, and societal stability. In recent years, war-torn regions such as Afghanistan and Yemen have harbored severe humanitarian crises, compounded by climate-related hazards. These cases epitomize the powerful but presently incompletely appreciated links between vulnerability, conflict, and climate-related impacts. In this article, we develop a unified conceptual model of these phenomena by connecting three fields of research that traditionally have had little interaction: ( a) determinants of social vulnerability to climate change, ( b) climatic drivers of armed conflict risk, and ( c) societal impacts of armed conflict. In doing so, we demonstrate how many of the conditions that shape vulnerability to climate change also increase the likelihood of climate–conflict interactions and, furthermore, that impacts from armed conflict aggravate these conditions. The end result may be a vicious circle locking affected societies in a trap of violence, vulnerability, and climate change impacts. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Perspectives on tipping points in integrated models of the natural and human Earth system: cascading effects and telecoupling

“…If people cannot cope with the consequences and limit the risks, generally through robust institutions, instability and conflict is more likely (e.g. Buhaug andUexkull 2021, IMCCS 2021). In these cases, there may be further adverse impacts, including additional overexploitation of resources, low agency migration (McLeman et al 2021) or the prolongation of violence or conflict in areas that are already experiencing conflict (Kamta et al 2021).…”

Morphological and Physiological Response of Different Lettuce Genotypes to Salt Stress

“…The changing progression of climate is a significant factor in the global agricultural system [1]. Salt stress (SS) is abiotic stress that significantly limits agricultural production worldwide [2].…”

“…High salt concentration, or SS, refers to excessive soluble salts in the plant root zone, making it difficult to extract the soil's water and essential mineral nutrients [5]. It affects the plant in two different ways: (1) it causes osmotic stress by lowering soil water potential, restricting water intake, and (2) it causes excessive ion absorption, notably, Na + and Cl, which interferes with numerous metabolic processes [6]. High salt concentrations affect 100 million hectares (5% of arable land) and 45 million hectares (20% of irrigated land) around the world, limiting crop growth and annual crop output [7,8].…”

“…1 Dry mass (in gram) on per plant basis 2. Means followed by different letters are significantly different from each other (p < 0.05) as assessed by Tukey's test 3.…”

“…index (CI) (mean ± standard deviation, n = 6) of leaf-and romaine-type lettuce cultivars grown under control and salt-stress conditions (100 mM) after 42 days of sowing (10 days after salt treatment) 1. Chlorophyll index on per plant basis 2.…”