Geoscience Reference
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environmental harm will vary depending upon the mix of physical,
social, political, cultural and economic features that characterise a
particular location.
transborder conflicts over land
While environmental harm is localised in many respects (in that it
originates somewhere specific and spreads out from there), this is
not always the case. For example, borders do not have much material
relevance when it comes to the environmental harm associated with
global warming. Climate change affects us all, regardless of where we
live, regardless of social characteristics. However, the effects of climate
change, while felt by everyone, are not the same for everyone (White,
2012). There are crucial differences in how different groups and
classes of people are situated quite differently in relation to key risk
and protective factors. Indeed, it has been estimated that over half the
world's population is potentially at risk (Smith andVivekananda, 2007).
The consequences of global warming will have the greatest impact on
those least able to cope with climate-related changes.
The conflicts pertaining to diminished environmental resources, to
the impacts of global warming, to differential access and use of nature,
and to friction stemming from the cross-border transference of harm
are overlaid by questions of class and state power, and the histories and
contemporary manifestations of imperialism and colonialism. At the
centre of contemporary and future conflicts are land and people, and
basic questions about ownership, control and access.
When water for drinking dries up and natural disasters destroy
productive lands, when subsistence fishing, farming and hunting withers
due to overexploitation and climate change, and when present systems
of aquaculture and agriculture fail to meet actual need, then great
shifts in human populations and in resource use will take place (see,
for example, Refugee Studies Centre, 2008). From the point of view
of national interests and international security, the mass movement
of peoples is generally presented as a significant problem (Solana and
Ferrero-Waldner, 2008). In particular, there is a popular inclination to
view third-world ecological ruin as first and foremost a threat to first-
world stability and existing wealth. Typically, for the 'rich' nations the
first response to asylum seekers has been containment and coercive
law enforcement (Pickering, 2005).
As environmental conditions deteriorate due to global warming, the
size and extent of migration will be shaped by geography, global power
relations and political struggles over human rights. Some people will
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