Year 2, Month 8, Day 9: Insecurity.

Sigh:

NYT, 07/23/11:
UNITED NATIONS — The persistent inability of the United Nations to forge international consensus on climate change issues was on display Wednesday, as Security Council members disagreed over whether they should address possible instability provoked by problems like rising sea levels or competition over water resources.

Western powers like the United States argued that the potential effects of climate change, including the mass migrations of populations, made it a crucial issue in terms of global peace and security. Russia and China, backed by much of the developing world, rejected the notion that the issue even belonged on the Security Council agenda.

Ditherers. Sent July 23:

It is absolutely indisputable that climate change is an international security issue. Every one of the factors currently considered security threats by the world’s nations will be hugely exacerbated by the rapidly warming climate. The planet’s weather patterns are becoming wilder, weirder and more damaging in response to the mounting greenhouse effect. Can there be any doubt that a similar transformation is going to unfold in the geopolitical arena? When nations are threatened with extinction as a consequence of rising sea levels, when vast regions may be depopulated by drought, when increasingly scarce resources will make everyday life all over the world a struggle for survival, the question is not whether global heating belongs on the agenda of the UN Security Council, but whether anything else poses an equal threat to global stability. What is crucial is action, for the Earth’s window of opportunity is closing faster by the day.

Warren Senders