Blame Governments, Not Climate Change, for Future Failed States
Idean Salehyan, coauthor of “Climate Change and Conflict: The Migration Link,”argues in Foreign Policy that climate change cannot be the exclusive cause of future wars for water and resources. Corrupt and tyrannical governments should remain under scrutiny. Ban Ki-Moon’s statement linking the horrors in Darfur to climate change is false and misleading: Khartoum is the source of the ongoing violence there, and putting the blame on global warming is playing into their hands. Salehyan points to the decline in armed conflicts around the world between 1989 to 2002 as evidence of a downward trend, one which would not be seen if climate change in fact correlated with increased violence.
