The Looming Accelerant: the Growing Links between Climate Change, Mass Atrocities, and Genocide

Jul 11, 2019 | Robert Kiel
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The purpose of this research commentary is to show a growing link between climate change and genocide and mass atrocities. The International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific reports describe the dire environmental effects that will exacerbate ongoing ethnic, religious and other intrastate tensions, as witnessed in Syria and Darfur (see below). Moreover, even before we reach the far-reaching climatic changes foreseen by the IPCC in 2030 and beyond, there are multiple cases of how climate change and related environmental effects drive mass atrocities and potentially even genocide. These linkages are expected to grow as the effects of climate change worsen.