A warmer world is a more violent one, too

Using apocalyptic images, three presidents and seven foreign ministers warned Thursday that a warmer world is also a more violent one.

At a ministerial meeting of the Security Council, the officials urged the U.N.’s most powerful body to do more to address the security implications of climate change and make global warming a key part of all U.N. peacekeeping operations.

The leaders and ministers pushing for more U.N. action said warming is making the world less safe, pointing to Africa’s conflict-plagued Sahel region and Syria and Iraq as examples..

Micheal Martin, Ireland’s president, who chaired the meeting, said climate change “is already contributing to conflict in many parts of the world.” And Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said climate change “is a war without gunfire so to speak that causes economic damage and losses in lives no less dire than actual wars.”

“The effects of climate change are particularly profound when they overlap with fragility and past or current conflicts,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “And when natural resources like water become scarce because of climate change, ”grievances and tensions can explode, complicating efforts to prevent conflict and sustain peace.“