Is Global Warming a Threat to Security - Essay Example

An increase in the scarcity of resources gives more emphasis on globalization is becoming a threat to national security. The dynamics of the scarcity of resources – in particular negative changes in per capita resource access – imposes more challenges on a static society (Terriff, et al 1999). Global warming after the mat is unexpected or sudden climate-induced events such as tropical storms, droughts, and flash floods which constituted a larger threat to human security than gradual reductions in resource availability (Sheehan, 2007).

Despite the mechanism that has been put in place in an attempt to combat these calamities such as establishing costly shock-resilient buffers or robust infrastructure, financial pools the challenges of global warming are persistent (Terriff, et al 1999). Overall, the expected unpredicted events are more hazardous to the prospects of sustained peace than less rapid changes in resource availability, which in turn are likely to be more harmful than a stable but scarce resource base (Terriff, et al 1999).

What has become more crucial over the recent past is the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of affected societies and determining whether an armed conflict is a potential end result of worsening climatic conditions (Sheehan, 2007).A summary of prevailing evidence on how climate change is expected to affect national security can be broadly illustrated in the three environmental phenomena as below.Changes in climate have adverse security implications on the availability of resources necessary to sustained livelihood through its effects (Sheehan, 2007).

In line with common practice, scarcity is defined as low per-capita access to a resource (Dannreuther, 2007). The scarcity of resources is referred to as the low availability of renewable resources per capita such as freshwater (Terriff, et al 1999). The dwindling resource is increasing the scarcity of resources and the consequence of either one (or both) of the two processes is the increased demand for the resource through the increased population (Sheehan, 2007).