Missing the link between climate change and terrorism

Articles — By forcechange on December 3, 2008 3:15 pm

Apparently in a recent speech, former President Clinton ranked climate change higher than terrorism on a list of global concerns.  This has provoked a somewhat heated critique by some, who either don’t believe climate change is real, or think that terrorism is a greater threat than climate change.  To those on the fringe who fall into the former category, we hopelessly direct you here, but to those who reasonably fall into the latter category, we have a suggestion–

It doesn’t matter which is a “greater” threat.  Time spent debating this issue is a missed opportunity.  This is because climate change and global terrorism have a very real relationship, and if the two issues are framed as such, we will be much more likely to achieve meaningful progress in addressing them both.

The argument for their relationship is simple– climate change is caused by excessive burning of fossil fuels– oil, in particular.  The sooner we get off of oil, the sooner we will begin to heal the atmosphere.  And terrorism, to a large extent, is funded by individuals and countries involved in the selling of oil.  Eliminate the over consumption of oil, and the bottom falls out of the oil market for good, drying up a major source of finance for terrorist groups.

Of course, the relationship between the two issues is not absolute.  For example, burning coal for electricity does not send money to the Middle East, and some terrorists may not receive financing from those involved in selling oil.  But the connections are substantial enough to be very real.  If the public can stop looking at these issues as mutually exclusive, and instead understand their inter-relationship, it will be more likely that we can build a real consensus to materially address both of these existential dangers.

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