Abstract
The water lapped at the shore with timeless repetition; the insects sang in unison from the trees that clung to the cliff like moss to a wall. A seagull circled on silent wings and headed out to sea. A crab scuttled over rocks and sought refuge in a small pool, iridescent in the evening light. A fish leaped from the sea and then, with a splash, returned to its coral world. The palm trees swayed gently in the breeze as the sun dipped below the horizon, signalling the end of another perfect day.
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References
See D. Deudney, The Mirage of Eco- War: The Weak Relationship Among Global Environmental Change, National Security and Interstate Violence in Global Environmental Change and International Relations (LH. Rowlands & M. Greene eds., 1992)
Readers interested in the links between environmental degradation and security should refer to: N. Brown, The Strategic Revolution: Thoughts for the Twenty-First Century (1992);
S. Dalby, Ecopolitical Discourse: ‘Environmental Security’ and Political Geography, 16(4) Progress in Human Geography (1992), at 503–522;
S. Dalby, Security, Modernity, Ecology: The Dilemmas of Post-Cold War Security Discourse, 17 Alternatives (1992), at 95–134;
M.J. Edwards, 1(1) Definitions, Threats and Pyramids: The Changing Faces of Environment and Security (1996), at 96–123;
P. Ehrlich & A. Ehrlich, The Environmental Dimensions of National Security, in Global Problems and Common Security (J. Rotblat & V.I. Goldanski eds., 1989);
T.F. Homer-Dixon, On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict, 16(2) Int’l Security (1991), at 76–116;
T.F. Homer-Dixon, J.F. Boutwell & G.W. Rathjens, Environmental Change and Violent Conflict, Sci. Am., Feb. 1993, 38–45;
M.V. Soroos, Global Change, Environmental Security, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma, 31(3) J. Peace Res., at 317–332; A.H. Westing, Environmental Security and its Relation to Ethiopia and Sudan, 20(5) AMBIO (1991), at 168–171.
Views concerning how climate change will affect both national and international security vary. Some scholars believe it will merely exacerbate existing resource, demographic and economic pressures, T.F. Homer-Dixon, 19 Environmental Change and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases’ International Security (1994), 5–40, 7–8, while others believe changes in climate are “... likely to cause unpredictable consequences.”
D.A. Wirth, Catastrophic Climate Change in World Security: Trends and Challenges at Century’s End (M.T. Klare & D.C. Thomas eds., 1991) at 388.
Until there is greater certainty regarding the nature, timing, likelihood and intensity of regional impacts of climate change, it will be difficult to predict the implications for security See P.H. Gleick, Global Climatic Change and International Security, 1(1) Colo. J. Int’l Envtl. L. & Pol’y (1990), at 41–56. Although this creates uncertainty, it is imperative that research is facilitated because, either way, climate change will have implications for security through the exacerbation of existing threats, the creation of new threats or both.
See for example, P.H. Gleick, The Implications of Global Climatic Changes for International Security, 15(1/2) Climatic Change, at 309–325; P.H. Gleick, How Will Climatic Changes and Strategies for the Control of Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Influence International Peace and Global Security? in Limiting the Greenhouse Effect: Options for Controlling Atmospheric C0 2 Accumulation (G.I. Pearman ed., 1992);
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Part I of this chapter is a revised and updated version of: M.J. Edwards, Climate Change, Worst-Case Analysis and Ecocolonialism in the Southwest Pacific, 8(1) PAC. Rev. (1996), at 63–80.
In the Southwest Pacific, climate change and sea-level rise could render atoll nations uninhabitable; inundate low-lying parts of larger/higher islands, see R. Chase & J. Veitayaki, Implications of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise for Western Samoa, Report of a Preparatory Mission, 59 Sprep Reports and Studies Series, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (1992);
increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, storm surges and high tide, see J.C. Pernetta, Impacts of Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise on Small Island States: National and International Responses, Global Environmental Change, March, 1992, at 19–31;
lead to declines in agricultural and fisheries production, see J. Connell, Climatic Change: A New Security Challenge for the Atoll States of the Southwest Pacific, 31(2) J. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics (1993), at 185;
damage coral reef and mangrove ecosystems, see R.W. Buddemeier & S.V. Smith, Coral Reef Growth in an Era of Rapidly Rising Sea Level: Predictions and Suggestions for Long-Term Research, 7 Coral Reefs (1988), at 51–56;
J.C. Ellison & D.R. Stoddart, Mangrove Ecosystem Collapse During Predicted Sea-Level Rise: Holocene Analogues and Implications, 7(1) J. Coastal Res. (1991), at 151–165;
increase the incidence of vector borne diseases such as malaria, filariasis and dengue in islands affected by these diseases. See Aspei Task Team Members, Overview of Potential Impacts of Climatic Change in the Sprep Region, in Implications of Expected Climate Changes in the South Pacific Region: An Overview, United Nations Environment Programme Seas Reports and Studies, No. 128, (J.C. Pernetta and P.J. Hughes, eds. 1990); and contaminate freshwater resources. See P. Roy and J. Connell, Climatic Change and the Future of Atoll States, 7(4) J. Coastal Research (1991), at 1057–1075; R.W. Buddemeier & J.U. Oberdorfer, Climate Change and Island Groundwater Resources in Pernetta & Hughes, id.
Gleick, supra note 3, at 45.
H. Brookfield, Global Change and the Pacific: Problems for the Corning Half-Century, The Contemporary Pacific, Spring/Fall, 1989, at 16;
A. Buckley, The Proof We Fear Could Kill Us, Pac. Islands Monthly, June, 1992 at 35;
J. Connell & J. Lea, ‘My Country will not be There ‘: Global Warming, Development and the Planning Response in Small Island States, Cities, November, 1992, at 295;
W. Laban, Keeping Our Heads Above Water: The Effects of Climate Change on Tuvalu, 46 Tok Blong Pasifik (1994), at 19;
P. Roy & J. Connell, The Greenhouse Effect: Where have all the Islands Gone?, Pac. Islands Mo., April/May, 1989, at 16.
P. Chatterjee & M. Finger, The Earth Brokers: Power, Politics and World Development (1994), at 148.
SeeR.B. Norgaard, Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Coevolutionary Revisioning of the Future (1994).
According to the Programme of Action for Small Island States: “... small island developing States should, in accordance with their own priorities, endeavour to achieve the goals of sustainable development by, inter alia, formulating and implementing policies, strategies and programmes that take into account development, health and environmental goals, strengthening national institutions, and mobilising all available resources, all of which are aimed at improving the quality of life.” Programme of Action for Small Island States, Earth Summit (Bridgetown, Barbados, Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, 26 April-6 May, 1994, at 5.
Id at 10.
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Id.
See G. Bertram, The Political Economy of Decolonisation and Nationhood in Small Pacific Societies, in Class and Culture in the South Pacific, Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Auckland and Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, (A. Hooper eds., 1987).
E. Hau’ofa, The New South Pacific Society: Integration and Independence, id., at 1 & 9–10.
According to Knight, the word ‘control’ is particularly important in any discussion and understanding of the rights of indigenous people to self-determination. D.B. Knight, Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples: The Contest for Change in National Self-Determination and Political Geography (R.J. Johnston, D.B. Knight & E. Kofman eds., 1988), at 126.
G.T. Morris, International Law and Politics: Toward a Right to Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples, in The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization and Resistance (M.A. James ed., 1992), at 56.
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See J. E. Hay, Regional Assessment of the Vulnerability of Pacific Islands to the Impacts of Global Climate Change and Accelerated Sealevel Rise, Report prepared for the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (1996).
If their cultures are eradicated and their land is taken from them, the skills and knowledge of indigenous peoples will be lost forever. See J.H. Bodley, Victims of Progress (1990). Industrialisation that has caused climate change is also eradicating people who may be able to help industrialised nations find solutions to many environmental problems, including climate change.
V. Shiva, Conflicts of Global Ecology: Environmental Activism in a Period of Global Reach, 19 Alternatives (1994), at 195–207.
See also, M.A. Hajer, Ecological Modernisation as Cultural Politics, in Risk, Environment and Modernity: Towards a New Ecology (S. Lash, B. Szerszynski & B. Wynne eds., 1996), at 258;
V. Shiva, Does the New World Order Have Trees?, 24 Hours Supplement, Feb., 1992, at 39;
V. Shiva, The Greening of the Global Reach, in Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict (W. Sachs ed., 1993).
A. Jamison, The Shaping of the Global Environmental Agenda: The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Risk, Environment & Modernity (Lash et al., eds.), at 224; V. Shiva, The Greening of the Global Reach, in Global Visions: Beyond the New World Order (J. Brecher, J.B. Childs & J. Cutler eds., 1993).
Id. at 53. See also, Hawkins, supra note 28, at 227; A. Hurrell, A Crises of Ecological Viability?, Global Environmental Change and the Nation State, XLII Political Studies (1994), at 161; D. Slater, Other Contexts of the Global: A Critical Geopolitics of North-South Relations, in Kofman & Youngs, supra note 26, at 281.
Shiva, supra note 31.
The Chambers Dictionary (C. Schwarz, ed. 1993), at 710.
Shiva, supra note 31, at 195–196.
B. Adam, Re- Vision: The Centrality of Time for an Ecological Social Science Perspective, in Lash, supra note 32, at 89.
Id.. Adam uses the phrase ‘global present’ to refer to the immediacy of information dissemination as a consequence of technological advancement. She suggests that ‘global simultaneity’ means the local becomes inseparably tied to the global.
See J. Saurin, International Relations, Social Ecology and the Globalisation of Environmental Change in The Environment and International Relations (J. Vogler & M.F. Imber eds., 1996).
G. Esteva & M.S. Prakesh, From Global to Local Thinking, 24(5) The ECOLOGIST (1994), at 163.
U. Hannerz, Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organisation of Meaning, in Environmentalem: The View from Anthropology (K. Milton ed., 1993), at 9.
Shiva takes a slightly different view concerning the ‘global present.’ She believes ignoring the present shifts responsibility away from current polluters so that future polluters, such as India and China, can be implicated as major contributors. This “... creates a moral base for green imperialism.” (Shiva, supra note 31, at 198).
Adam, supra note 37; Slater, supra note 33, at 227.
For Ingold, the alienation of people from their ‘lived’ environment is the cause of many globally pervasive environmental problems. He suggests: “...what is perhaps most striking about the contemporary discourse of global environmental change is the immensity of the gulf that divides the world as it is lived and experienced by the practitioners of this discourse, and the world of which they speak under the rubric of ‘the globe.’ No one, of course, denies the seriousness of the problems they address; there is good reason to believe, however, that many of these problems have their source in the very alienation of humanity from the world of which the notion of the global environment is a conspicuous expression.” T. Ingold, Globes and Spheres: The Topology of Envi-ronmentalism, in Milton, supra note 41.
Esteva & Prakesh, From Global to Local Thinking, supra note 40, at 162.
Id, at 163.
Shiva, The Greening of the Global Reach, in Brecher, supra note 32.
R. Falk, The Making of Global Citizenship in Brecher, supra note 32, at 39–50. See also, Slater, supra note 33, at 284–285.
J. Brecher, J.B. Childs & J. Cutler, Introduction: Globalization-from-Below, in Brecher, supra note 32, at xi.
Brecher et al., Introduction: Globalization-from-Below, Brecher, supra note 32, at xv.
P. Atanraoi, Customary Tenure and Sustainability in an Atoll Nation: The Case of Kiribati, in Customary Land Tenure and Sustainable Development: Complementarity or Conflict, South Pacific Commission and Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, in (R.G. Crocombe ed., 1995), at 72.
Local scale initiatives should use the knowledge and skills of the indigenous people who know their islands best. According to Trask: “No one knows how better to care for... our island home, than those of us who have lived here for thousands of years. On the other side of the world from us, no people understand the desert better than those who inhabit her do. And so on, throughout the magnificently varied places of the earth.” H.K. Trask, Malama ‘Aina: Take Care of the Land, in Brecher, supra note 32, at 128.
T. Skelton, Globalization, Culture and Land: The Case of the Caribbean, in Kofman & Youngs, supra note 26, at 326.
J. Short, Howard Splits Forum over Greenhouse, The Weekend Australian, Sept. 20–21, 1997, at 2.
S. McKenzie, PM Rejects Pacific Claims on Global Warming, The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 19, 1997, at 17.
In 1996, the Director of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Dr. Fisher, was reported as having suggested that an evacuation of small island states might be more efficient (cheaper) than forcing industrialised countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. N. Bita, Island Evacuation a Greenhouse Solution, The Weekend Australian, June 8–9, 1996, at 24. Fisher was obviously using cost-benefit analysis to decide the fate of Pacific islanders; he was clearly placing a lower value on the lives and cultures of inhabitants of the island states of the Southwest Pacific, compared to the higher value he was placing on the economies of industrialised nations. Economists of Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have also been criticised for work they have carried out that places a higher value on the lives of people in developed countries compared to the lives of people in developing countries.
C. Raghavan, Climate Body Economists Asked to Redo their Work, South-North Development Monitor, Third World Network (1995).
See R. Taplin, International Policy on the Greenhouse Effect and the Island South Pacific, 7(3) Pac. Rev. (1994), at 271–281.
Hay, supra note 29, at 72.
Research currently being undertaken by the author suggests that agricultural practices, building techniques and land tenure systems could all be adapted to reduce the vulnerability of Pacific islanders to climate change. See also, Hay, supra note 29.
Hay, supra note 29, at 72.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The Science of Climate Change: Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary of the Working Group I Report, World Meteorological Organisation; United Nations Environment Programme, 1996, at 11.
R.C. Kiste, Pre-Colonial Times, in Tides of History (K.E. Howe, R.C. Kiste & B.V. Lal eds., 1994).
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S. Breyman, Knowledge as Power: Ecology Movements and Global Environmental Problems, in Lipschutz & Conca, supra note 28, at 131.
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Edwards, M. (2000). Parochialism and Empowerment: Responding to Ecocolonialism and Globalisation in the Southwest Pacific. In: Gillespie, A., Burns, W.C.G. (eds) Climate Change in the South Pacific: Impacts and Responses in Australia, New Zealand, and Small Island States. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47981-8_14
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