February 18, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Speaking before the United Nations Security Council, an official from the Marshall Islands argued that climate change is a threat to international security, citing the impact that global warming has had on his own island nation to illustrate his point.

Tony deBrum, a minister and assistant to the president of the Marshall Islands, petitioned the body on Friday to recognize the phenomenon as a potential hazard to the very survival of his country and of other low-lying island nations, Edith M. Lederer of the Associated Press (AP) said.

DeBrum spoke with members of the media after addressing the Security Council during their closed-door Security Dimensions of Climate Change conference, telling reporters he hoped that council members can be convinced that global warming is a security issue and not just an economic-political-social issue.

He said climate change has already taken a toll on the Marshall Islands, Lederer reported. Wells have filled with salt water, making drinking water scarce and in turn affecting food production. One small island in a lagoon is now under water, and coastlines are being eroded. The impact of climate change is also causing migration to other islands, as well as to Australia and the United States, he said.

However, she also said that deBrums petition is being opposed by China and Russia, both of whom are permanent members of the UN subgroup, as well as a coalition of 130 primarily developing nations who assert that climate change discussion does not belong at Security Council meetings.

According to Bloomberg News, Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, also spoke before the council in New York on Friday.

In discussing possible climate change-related security scenarios, he presented one which was set 20 years in the future, in which India has become the most populous nation in the world, but due to drought conditions and the resulting lack of crops, people begin to starve and the the seeds of conflict take root among the countrys 1.5 billion citizens, the news organization said.

On Friday, the AP spoke with Rachel Kyte, the World Banks vice-president for sustainable development. During that interview, Kyte said that since the last round of talks on global warming, the sense of urgency had increased amongst UN officials.

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Marshall Islands Among Those Petitioning UN To Address Security Issues Of Climate Change