The exposure of U.S. communities to wildfire makes wildfire a potentially potent weapon for economic warfare and mass destruction. Most analysts suggest that, since water itself would dilute any toxin or pathogen, the quantity of material needed to sufficiently contaminate the supply makes such an attack technically difficult. Militant organizations including ISIS, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda have openly promulgated a strategy of ecological jihad. Unlike bin Laden, who might have felt sincere distress about climate change, the terrorist groups that looked to him for guidance demonstrate little real concern for the welfare of the natural environment, likely seeing environmental issues as just another opening to strengthen their cause. Terrorists take advantage of disruptions in fragile states – and these include water and food shortages associated with climate change. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. ISIS employed a multipronged strategy, offering recruits food and $400 a month while arguing that the Iraqi government cared little about the environmental issues devastating the heartland. WASHINGTON: Disruptions like political violence and sectarian strife in fragile states empower terrorist groups, and the same is true of climate change. In 2018, meanwhile, Al Shabaab, a Somali offshoot of Al Qaeda that coordinates many of its operations with AQAP, outlawed plastic bags after terming them “a serious threat to the wellbeing of humans and animals alike.”. It could increase poverty (affecting food security and livelihoods) and inequalities (with scarce resources captured by elites, or grievances invoked by climate injustices), which could act as instigating causes for terrorist activity ( … While developing countries produce few greenhouse gases, they have the most to lose to the greenhouse effect, and militants are highlighting this disparity. Rather, there is a growing potential for vulnerable ecosystems to be exploited or destroyed as a means to intimidate or provoke a state of terror in the general public for a political, ideological, or philosophical agenda. One military officer wrote in his 2005 thesis: “An opportunistic terrorist can unleash multiple fires creating a conflagration potentially equal to a multi-megaton nuclear weapon.” Wildfires can have a profoundly negative effect on a region’s economy: the damage from California’s 2018 conflagrations is estimated at $400 billion. Severe drought as a result of climatic weather shifts raises vulnerability of water systems as reservoirs continue to dry up. While the United Nations has funded solar-powered pumps to combat water scarcity in Yemen, the international community must go further. The rise of non-state armed groups and terrorism poses new challenges for national, regional and international security. Water scarcity: As climate change depletes supplies of drinkable water in Africa and the Middle East, terrorists blame the West, posing as environmental leaders with holier-than-thou messaging (Map: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations), Outside the Middle East, militants have attempted to implement the beginnings of environmental policies. Duterte tells UN: Fight climate change with the same urgency as … The Taliban, the Islamic State and Al Shabaab have expanded the effort, using the West's failure to act on climate change for recruitment purposes. AQAP fixed water mains and wells in towns struggling with droughts as political violence undercut the ability of the Yemeni government to provide similar basic services to the few regions under its control. The eco-terrorists seem likely to end up as footnotes in a larger and darker history of climate calamity. Terrorism and environment: Osama bin Laden, the environmentalist? This report is hardly the first to note the connection between Environmental Change and Security Program. Sources: Council on Foreign Relations, Homeland Security Today, National University System Institute for Policy Research, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, PRI, Sustainability, The New York Times, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Wildfire Today. Climate Change Fiction Is Rethinking The Ecoterrorist We don't need to be on board with the extreme actions of characters in First Reformed … Photo Credit: Rescuers and residents gather at the charred scene following a bomb blast connected to Boko Haram at Terminus market in the central Nigerian city of Jos on May 20, 2014. Analysts suggest that Al Shabaab opted to ban plastic bags because plastic pollution was choking the livestock that it taxed, not because the Somali militants cared about the potential for an ecological crisis. Militants from Indonesia to Mali stand to gain from climate change if this trend persists. Austin Bodetti studies the intersection of Islam, culture and politics in Africa and Asia. Climate trauma: The invisible cost of climate change | News | Eco … In reality, the terrorist groups that claim to lament environmental degradation instead aggravate it in the name of financing sectarian violence. Elsewhere, ISIS’s shortsighted efforts to tap wells seized from the petroleum industry led to oil spills throughout Iraq, and Al Shabaab has burned once-lush Somali forests in its search for charcoal and wood to sell. The Islamic State and its predecessor, Al Qaeda in Iraq, jumpstarted the trend after 2009 by wooing farmers who had lost their livelihoods to water scarcity. But a holistic approach offers opportunities to address both problems at once. In 2012, an issue of the online magazine Inspire surfaced on jihadi Internet forums detailing how to construct an “ember bomb” to target forested areas of the United States. Courtesy of Diariocritico de Venezuela/AFP. The Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, used wildfire as a part of its military strategy,  as well as an economic and psychological attack, during its 2006 conflict with Israel. Distributed power systems, such as on-site photovoltaics or micro-grid generation, reduce the risk of widespread power failures as well as the cascading effects and economic damage that result. Because precarious central governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen lack the financial resources and political bandwidth to prepare for the worst effects of climate change, terrorist groups can pretend to adopt the mantle of environmentalism as they devastate the natural environment in regions outside the control of overstretched militaries. Nature Iraq, the Somali Green Party and other environmental organizations in fragile states are already spearheading the fight against climate change in war zones, and their leaders – actual environmentalists – have special standing to criticize ISIS and Al Qaeda’s exploitation of the natural environment. In Afghanistan, the Islamic State and the Taliban often profit from illegal logging. Around the world, environmental stress due to unpredictable weather catalyzes political violence, further undermining weak governments. Eco-fascism featured in El Paso terrorism suspect’s alleged manifesto The racist rant calls for mass killings to make America more ‘sustainable.’ Other terrorists have done the same. For their part, scientists have warned that climate change will significantly worsen living conditions in the Middle East and in North Africa” and “prolonged heat waves and desert dust storms can render some regions uninhabitable.” The greater the havoc wreaked by global warming in the region, the more opportunities terrorist groups find to coopt the environmental movement. From Afghanistan and Iraq to Somalia and Yemen, terrorist groups are pushing false narratives that they, not cash-strapped central governments, are leading campaigns against deforestation, water scarcity, crop failures and other environmental issues ravaging local communities across Africa and Asia. Biden will be the fourth U.S. president that Merkel — who has led Germany since 2005 — has dealt with as chancellor. Ecosystems can serve as natural buffers from extreme events such as wildfires, flooding, and drought. The emerging threat is not about eco-terrorism—a term used to describe acts of violence in support of ecological or environmental causes. “While developing countries produce few greenhouse gases, they have the most to lose to the greenhouse effect, and militants are highlighting this disparity.” Osama bin Laden, organizer of the 9/11 attacks who was killed in 2011, relied on environmental issues in his propaganda. At the same time, not teaching climate change is doing our students a disservice. Planned Chaos Part 6 - Arson & Eco Terrorism - Prepare For Change Drought also creates tinderbox conditions, increasing the potential for intentionally set fires near populated areas and critical infrastructure. In addition, sustainability practices and ecosystem management must become part of a cohesive strategy for national infrastructure protection. Fire as a tool of warfare is well documented. Environmental degradation has become a matter of global security. 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