Fighting against organized crime and armed violence: new type of war concerning the environment?

 

 

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (UN) of 1992 ratified 27 principals in order to define this millennium’s new challenges. The 24th principal cites: “War is, by definition, the enemy of sustainable development. Hence, states shall respect international law’s dispositions concerning environmental protection during conflicts”. The 25th principal indicates that peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and inseparable. Armed conflicts, civil war, drug traffic almost always lead to the ecosystem’s deterioration. If we consider the Colombian situation for example, the culture of coca affected both the vegetation and the culture of licit products. Since 1984, oil pipeline destruction by the FARC and the ELN caused massive soil contamination, making it unusable.  

 

 

Nuclear energy, danger or solution in regard to the planet’s sustainability?

 

Energy resources are one of the most crucial factors to the environmental transformation, which we will have to undergo; not only because of fossil fuels’ effects on the climate but also for its direct impacts on the energy exploitation. Today, energy consumption dramatically increased in Latin America, in particular in emerging countries and this increase mostly relies on fossil fuel-based energy. Oil and gas are the principal energy sources and can represent up to two thirds of primary energy. Hydraulic energy has a heavy weight in Brazil and Venezuela. Other more sustainable forms of energy are still rare in the region. In that context, nuclear energy might be seen as an intermediate solution. However, at the present day, only two countries are capable of producing nuclear energy: Argentina and Brazil. While nuclear power plant are becoming less dangerous, health and environmental risks still exist and could cause catastrophes such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, which might question the long-term viability of nuclear projects in Latin America.

 

 

           

Prevention against global warming, a costly struggle that seems necessary to national and international security: who should be the leading actors?

 

During years, negotiations about inter-state safety questions widely relied on arms, territories and geopolitical strategies. The last two decades have defined new and complex issues, making us face an imperceptible enemy, potent and capable of impacting a wide range of sectors. Today, one of the principal risks for our society is not war, even if conflicts still exist in the region, but environmental security. Our future natural resources and the viability of environmental projects to come will impact each and every one of us. The evolution of human activity must be analyzed in order to encounter viable solutions. Facing a 60% increase of disaster occurrence, international security begins to be questioned. Fukushima, Katrina, Haiti, Santiago de Chile, Mitch are names that have marked Latin American and international minds. Public institutions are developing a growingly important role in the prevention of such events, however they do not always manage to be fully efficient, who could be the ideal actors (public, private, international, local…) to safeguard us?