Encyclopedia of Global Resources part 110 ppt

Definition The resource curse is the term used to describe the fact that countries with large endowments in re-sources have often tended to develop more slowly eco-nomically than countri

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water monitoring, corrective action, closure,

post-closure monitoring, and financial assurance While

Subtitle D sets federal criteria for landfills and other

solid waste disposal facilities, it empowers states to

develop their own plans for managing municipal and

nonhazardous industrial solid wastes Some states have

set requirements that are more stringent than the

fed-eral standards

Subtitle C of RCRA pertains to hazardous waste—

that is, waste materials that are ignitable, reactive,

cor-rosive, or toxic Under Subtitle C, hazardous waste is

controlled from the time it is created until its final

dis-posal Waste generators, transporters, and treatment,

storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs)—along with

any facility that makes, burns, or sells waste-derived

fu-els—are required to adhere to RCRA record-keeping

and permitting requirements In particular, TSDFs

must perform waste analysis, conduct environmental

monitoring, observe land-disposal restrictions,

per-form inspections, train personnel, develop

contin-gency plans and emercontin-gency procedures, and maintain

written records as part of their compliance with RCRA

In 1984, Subtitle C was amended by HSWA to establish

treatment standards to prevent land disposal of

un-treated wastes It increased EPA enforcement

author-ity and closed substandard landfills and incinerators

Subtitle I, introduced to RCRA as part of HSWA,

pertains to underground storage tanks (including

as-sociated piping) that contain petroleum products

and hazardous substances Owners and operators of

underground storage tanks must comply with

require-ments for tank design, installation, corrosion

protec-tion, spill and overfill protecprotec-tion, release detection

measures, postrelease corrective action, tank removal

or environmentally responsible in situ abandonment,

record keeping, and reporting A 1986 amendment to

Subtitle I created the Leaking Underground Storage

Tank Trust Fund, which provides states with monies

from a tax on motor fuel for cleanup of petroleum

releases from underground storage tanks

Subtitle J, established in 1988 with the enactment

of the MWTA, was a limited-duration demonstration

project for tracking medical waste and regulating

medical-waste handlers After Subtitle J’s expiration

in 1991, medical-waste regulation was handled by

in-dividual states, except in cases in which certain

na-tional standards have been violated

The 1992 FFCA amendment strengthens RCRA

en-forcement authority at federal facilities States are

given the right to sue the federal government and

col-lect fines and penalties for noncompliance with envi-ronmental regulations The EPA is granted the same enforcement power over the federal government that

it has over other entities Federal TSDFs are made sub-ject to EPA inspection and EPA groundwater monitor-ing FFCA also lays the groundwork for regulations that define at what point munitions are to be consid-ered and treated as a hazardous waste

LDPFA amends the HSWA to provide flexibility in land disposal of certain solid wastes These include low-risk wastes already regulated under the Clean Water Act or Safe Drinking Water Act and wastes that have been treated so that their hazardous compo-nents have been removed, destroyed, or immobilized LDPFA also exempts small landfills in arid or remote locations from certain groundwater monitoring re-quirements, provided there has been no prior evi-dence of groundwater contamination from a facility Inactive or abandoned hazardous waste sites are outside the scope of RCRA, as are spills requiring emergency action These are addressed by the Com-prehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), also known as Superfund

Impact on Resource Use Because of RCRA’s broad scope, the law impacts sev-eral sectors, among them manufacturing, transporta-tion, waste treatment, utilities, mining, and mineral processing operations While complying with RCRA Subtitles C and I, in particular, leads to increased operational costs for industry, it also results in signifi-cant waste reduction, improved environmental qual-ity, and more careful management of resources The EPA reports that an estimated 3 billion kilograms of hazardous waste were reduced, treated, or properly disposed of under RCRA in fiscal year 2008

The EPA periodically selects a national RCRA en-forcement and compliance assurance priority, based

on a review of environmental risk and noncompliance patterns The priority sectors for fiscal years 2005 through 2008 were mineral processing and mining These exceed all other industrial sectors in generat-ing wastes that are corrosive or laden with toxic met-als The EPA noted a pattern of groundwater, surface water, and soil contamination at mineral processing and mining operations Many large-scale operations had a serious impact on local water supplies and wild-life The proximity of some facilities to populated areas posed a human health risk Mineral processing

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facilities producing phosphoric acid and phosphate

compounds were of particular concern because of the

environmental threat posed by these chemicals By

making the mineral processing and mining sectors a

nationwide priority, the EPA sought to protect human

health and the environment by ensuring maximum

RCRA compliance

Karen N Kähler

Further Reading

Applegate, John S., and Jan Laitos Environmental Law:

RCRA, CERCLA, and the Management of Hazardous

Waste New York: Foundation Press, 2006.

Karnofsky, Brian Hazardous Waste Management

Compli-ance Handbook New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold,

1997

U.S Environmental Protection Agency FY 2008

OECA Accomplishments Report Washington, D.C.:

U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2008

_ Hazardous Waste Generator Regulations: A

User-Friendly Reference Document Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 2006

_ RCRA Orientation Manual Washington, D.C.:

U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2008

Wagner, Travis The Complete Guide to the Hazardous

Waste Regulations: RCRA, TSCA, HMTA, OSHA, and

Superfund 3d ed New York: John Wiley & Sons,

1999

Web Sites

U.S Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery

http://www.epa.gov/osw/basicinfo.htm

U.S Environmental Protection Agency

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

Enforcement

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/rcra/

index.html

See also: Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act;

Environ-mental degradation, resource exploitation and;

Envi-ronmental law in the United States; EnviEnvi-ronmental

Protection Agency; Hazardous waste disposal;

Land-fills; Mining wastes and mine reclamation; Nuclear

waste and its disposal; Oil spills; Solid waste

manage-ment; Superfund legislation and cleanup activities;

Thermal pollution and thermal pollution control;

Waste management and sewage disposal; Water

pollu-tion and water pollupollu-tion control

Resource curse

Category: Social, economic, and political issues

The “resource curse” refers to an ongoing debate about the role a country’s endowment of resources, such as minerals and oil, plays in its rate of economic develop-ment The possible existence of a resource curse and how it can be avoided are important issues in the devel-opment of resources globally.

Definition The resource curse is the term used to describe the fact that countries with large endowments in re-sources have often tended to develop more slowly eco-nomically than countries with small endowments in resources This behavior is the opposite of the ex-pected, traditional view that abundant resources are

an important aid in a country’s economic develop-ment

Overview That an abundance of resources is an important ad-vantage for the economic development of a country has been widely believed However, there is an oppos-ing view based on the comparison of the rate of eco-nomic advancement for developing countries The comparison shows that countries with large endow-ments of resources have tended to develop at slower economic rates than countries without such endow-ments in resources This type of situation has become known as the “resource curse.” The resource curse is considered a particularly likely problem for a country that has a large endowment of a nonrenewable re-source, like minerals or oil, that leads to an export-oriented industry that is large relative to the country’s domestic economy

Several arguments are made to explain why the re-source curse might happen In general, exporting natural resource products is less desirable than manu-factured products Natural resources tend to have de-clining prices relative to manufactured goods over time, and natural resource markets are very volatile, with large swings up and down in prices A second argument is that the presence of a large, export-oriented resource industry, often operated by foreign companies, can severely damage a country’s economy

by taking workers (higher wages) from important do-mestic sectors and raising dodo-mestic prices (inflation)

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This is referred to as the “Dutch disease” after the

im-pact of a large natural gas find on the economy of the

Netherlands in the 1960’s A third argument points

out that the profit that does go to the country for its

resource development is often wasted through

cor-ruption or current consumption and is not invested

in the country to replace the value of the resources

be-ing used up It can also lead to civil unrest as different

groups in the country fight for a share of the wealth

Ultimately, the debate is not about the value of

re-sources in a country’s economic development but

about how well a country uses the resource wealth it

has been given Countries with large resource wealth

often are not able to use it wisely for economic

devel-opment purposes and may misuse it to the point that

overall economic development is hindered It does not have to be that way, as shown by a case like Bo-tswana, which has used its diamond industry as an im-portant factor in its successful economic develop-ment, but past experience shows that care must be taken when a country is found to be endowed with a large resource, to avoid the potential problems that can lead to the resource curse

Gary A Campbell

See also: Developing countries; Environmental deg-radation, resource exploitation and; Mineral re-source ownership; Natural capital; Rere-source account-ing; Resources as a medium of economic exchange; Resources as a source of international conflict; Re-sources for the Future

Resources as a medium of economic exchange

The value of worldwide environmental products and services is estimated to be in the tens of trillions of dol-lars annually The true value of natural resources, such as breathable air and potable water, is difficult to calculate Determining the cost of substitutes for nonre-newable resources, if they exist, also presents problems Further complicating the equation, resource ownership

is commonly not clearly defined.

Background Many developing nations have natural capital but few financial resources The lifestyles of citizens of wealthy nations are resource intensive Japan has almost no natural resources of its own Even the resource-rich United States imports oil and platinum There is in-ternational trade of manufactured goods, but natural capital underpins that as well Broad categorization of natural resource capital includes water, food, energy, land, minerals, timber, fisheries, atmosphere, and biodiversity

Total water use continues to grow, tripling globally from 1950 to 2010, leaving one in three people af-fected by water scarcity Although water is generally not treated as an economic commodity, rivers are an economic natural resource Countries, states, and municipalities downstream are affected by draw and

“Dutch disease” is a term used to refer to a type of resource curse that

afflicted the Netherlands after a large natural gas find in the

1960’s Above, a worker monitors an offshore natural gas facility in

the Netherlands (Jochen Luebke/dpa /Landov)

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pollution from upstream neighbors In terms of food,

the United States is the largest agricultural exporter

North Africa and the Middle East import the largest

amounts of food Global climate change is expected

to exaggerate this trade imbalance

Global mineral resource use will continue to

in-crease because of population growth and improving

lifestyles Where large amounts of money are

ex-changed (such as in the diamond trade), greed,

cor-ruption, and violence prevail While global shortages

of nonfuel minerals are not predicted for the near

fu-ture, environmental and social consequences of

min-eral exploitation are of immediate concern

Forests are primarily threatened by conversion of

the land to subsistence farming and large-scale

ranch-ing In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s,

nongovern-mental agency (NGO) initiated debt-for-nature swaps

were temporarily successful in Latin American

coun-tries These programs wrote off a portion of foreign

debt in exchange for protection of rain forests and

biodiversity Short duration of the exchange

agree-ments, corruption, cronyism in the governagree-ments, and

monitoring and enforcement difficulties limited the

success of these programs

Pollution reduction is at the center of

interna-tional atmospheric agreements Without even

discuss-ing the costs and responsibility for pollution controls,

nations disagree over parity in emission reductions

For example, one issue concerns how a developing

nation’s gross national product (GNP) suffers if that

nation is not allowed to develop along the path of

al-ready developed nations Related issues entail

deter-mining the responsible parties for reducing carbon

emissions Whether a resource is renewable or

nonre-newable, plentiful or scarce, widespread or localized,

or privately owned or publically held, the life cycle of

a particular resource is shaped by political, economic,

and environmental factors

Politics

Resources are unevenly distributed around the globe

Many resources are located and harvested in poor,

densely populated nations, for use by industrialized

countries The disconnect of distance divorces

grow-ing resource scarcity and pollution from the appetite

for resource consumption, leaving little incentive to

develop technologies to conserve or economize use

Questions remain concerning what will happen as

de-veloping nations industrialize and increase their

re-source use The economic expansion of highly

popu-lated countries, such as China, adds to the urgency for change in resource management in and between na-tions

Poor countries tend to have communal property rights to resources, based on custom and traditions, rather than legal deed For example, in Africa’s Sahel, state rules destroyed communal management of the forests, bankrupting the fragile ecosystem and spur-ring the rapidly advancing desertification of the land-scape From the individual to the national scale, little incentive exists to conserve publically held resources

In the scramble for profit, what one person does not use, another will Maximizing one’s resource use max-imizes individual profit

Rather than fostering wide distribution of prosper-ity and social progress, globalization tends to sharpen the existing contrast between rich and poor The number of people living in poverty continues to ex-pand Resource cash flow in developing nations all too often ends up in the ruler’s personal coffer Governments have continually oversubsidized the overextraction of resources On one hand, taxes fund environmentally harmful subsidies, while on the other hand, citizens pay increased prices for substi-tute services a degraded ecosystem can no longer pro-vide Subsidies damaging to the environment will eventually damage the economy also Global gover-nance of development (resource use) is inflicted on the majority by those in the privileged minority, spur-ring a growing global justice movement that advo-cates greater social regulation of market capitaliza-tion

Economics Externalities, side effects borne by those outside a transaction, are unidirectional rather than recipro-cal, providing little incentive for changing business as usual Subsidies for virgin material extraction are counterproductive Epitomizing outrageous reverse

logic, the clean-up costs for the Exxon Valdez oil spill

were added to the U.S GNP

Dumping is the term used to describe the selling of products in other countries below actual production costs Holding environmental costs outside economic assessment virtually guarantees the perpetuation of dumping across the board, which is good neither for the environment nor for business The practice of dis-counting, valuing today’s “needs” over future events, also favors exploitation

Subsistence economies revolve around meeting

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the basic needs of survival Capitalist market

econo-mies, of course, involve monetary transactions

be-tween buyers and sellers, with prices shaped by supply

and demand A centrally planned economy with

gov-ernment intervention may be part of the means to

ac-tually valuate natural resource capital Traditional

capitalism relies on market solutions to provide

equal-ity of opportunequal-ity A new global capitalism would

re-quire redistributive measures to encourage equality

of outcomes

Conversely, environmental economies internalize

environmental costs, through initiatives such as

pollu-tion taxes and deplepollu-tion quotas Industrial ecosystems

use renewable energy, share and minimize the use of

natural resources, and use each other’s waste and

by-products Human society and the environment are

in-terdependent Promotion of environmental

sustain-ability may hinge upon redistribution of global wealth

and democratization of international politics

Technology

Economic growth is limited Society must face the fact

that natural capital, rather than man-made capital, is

the limiting resource Usable resources are those that

are accessible at affordable prices Prices may not

re-flect impending collapse of a resource base

Dwindling natural resources provide incentive for

technological advances Bioengineered crops

allevi-ate a multitude of natural resource woes While not

immune to controversy, bioengineered crops can

re-duce soil erosion, water usage, pesticide use, and

fer-tilizer runoff and can increase yields

In terms of natural resources, technology has

posi-tive and negaposi-tive attributes It may allow us to prolong

dependence on a particular resource, by becoming

increasingly input driven, thereby producing less

re-turn and more waste Diminished accessibility

dou-bles the cost of oil production every fifteen years

Sec-ondary recovery methods, such as energy-intensive

enhanced oil recovery consume one barrel of oil to

extract three additional barrels Copper of declining

grade triggers deeper strip mines, increasing the

strip-ping ratio of waste rock

Despite technological changes, vast quantities of

natural resources are still used and wasted Policies

that eliminate subsidies for outdated technologies;

re-move barriers to trade; provide incentives for

recy-cling, reuse, and conservation; and adjust prices to

make solutions economically competitive and

feasi-ble are necessary

The Future International discourse, decision making, and trade would surely benefit from a scientific approach to cost/benefit analysis Economic downturn, coupled with resource scarcity, will increasingly feed national-ist tendencies and pit country against country Ideally, practices of sustainability and environmental justice should guide resource brokerage

Sarah A Vordtriede

Further Reading

Bernstein, Steven F., and Louis W Pauly Global Liberal-ism and Political Order: Toward a New Grand Compro-mise? Albany: State University of New York Press,

2007

Brennan, Scott R., and Jay Withgott Environment: The Science Behind the Stories San Francisco: Pearson,

Benjamin Cummings, 2005

Costanza, Robert, and Lisa Wainger, ed Ecological Eco-nomics: The Science and Management of Sustainability.

Reprint New York: Columbia University Press, 2004

Dasgupta, Partha Human Well-Being and the Natural En-vironment New York: Oxford University Press, 2001 Goklany, Indur M The Improving State of the World Why We’re Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives

on a Cleaner Planet Washington, D.C.: CATO

Insti-tute, 2007

Keohane, Robert O., and Marc A Levy Institutions for Environmental Aid: Pitfalls and Promises Cambridge,

Mass.: MIT Press, 1996

Murphy, Dale D The Structure of Regulatory Competition: Corporations and Public Policies in a Global Economy.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004

Singer, Peter One World: The Ethics of Globalization.

New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002

Spoor, Max, ed Globalisation, Poverty and Conflict: A Critical Development Reader Boston: Kluwer

Aca-demic, 2004

Stead, W Edward, and Jean Garner Stead Management for a Small Planet: Strategic Decision Making and the En-vironment 2d ed Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1996.

See also: Agricultural products; Biodiversity; Bio-technology; Capitalism and resource exploitation; Climate and resources; Conservation; Developing countries; Energy economics; Energy politics; Natu-ral capital; Renewable and nonrenewable resources; Resources as a source of international conflict; Re-sources for the Future; Strategic reRe-sources

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Resources as a source of

international conflict

Natural resources are a critical component of the global

economy Most such resources are geographically

lim-ited, often to regions of social and political instability,

making their possession, exploitation, sale, and

sumption topics of national and international

con-cern Many current intrastate and cross-border violent

conflicts happen because of disagreements over

re-sources; such disputes are likely to grow with increased

resource demand and resource scarcity.

Background

Access to resources for industrial applications was a

key concern of most major nations both during and

shortly after World War II in the late 1940’s and early

1950’s The advent of the Cold War period, however,

saw a shift away from concerns over resource

acquisi-tion to those dealing with the political, ideological,

and military developments occurring throughout

Eu-rope and Asia Military forces in particular were

redis-tributed along key international borders in response

to growing tensions As the Cold War ended and the

global economy began to expand, resources became

of paramount security concern once more Moreover,

this concern was no longer limited to developed

na-tions Rather, it grew to encompass the

underdevel-oped and developing nations within whose borders

many critical resources lie

The United Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP) estimates that since the 1950’s roughly 40

percent or more of all intrastate conflicts can be

linked to the possession of natural resources

Accord-ing to the World Bank, fifty of the armed conflicts

aris-ing between 2001 and 2009 could be linked to natural

resources These conflicts occurred throughout the

developing world, especially in Africa Natural

re-sources can trigger, intensify, or sustain violent

con-flicts depending on the resource involved and the

context in which it is found Intrastate conflicts in

par-ticular are further prone to ethnic and religious

esca-lation, both of which can easily push resource

con-flicts across disputed borders Because the possession

and sale of natural resources fuels the national

econ-omy of many countries, global economic depression

only serves to put additional pressure on potential

resource-conflict hot spots Militarization within these hot spots further erodes options for peaceful resolu-tions

Resources, Economics, and Population Growth Natural resources essentially represent naturally oc-curring, tangible substances that have some eco-nomic value even in their unprocessed form How much worth a resource holds depends on what it is, how much of it there is, its relative extractability, its de-mand, and how much people or nations are willing to pay for it Renewable resources can, over time, regen-erate themselves unless they are harvested, extracted,

or consumed at a rate that exceeds the rate of replace-ment While renewable resources are generally not the subject of conflict, some, like old-growth timber and fresh water, are becoming significant sources of conflict due specifically to the rapid progression to-ward unsustainable consumption Nonrenewable re-sources are much more likely to be re-sources of conflict These resources exist in a fixed amount in nature or form over such a long period of time that they are es-sentially unreplaceable Oil, coal, and natural gas are effectively nonrenewable because of the limits of geo-logic formation and time Nonrenewable resources also tend to be highly limited geographically Gen-erally, as materials become scarce in an environment where demand does not change, the real or perceived value of the material goes up Scarce resources are worth more for the simple fact that little exists Add to this the fact that many nonrenewable resources are heavily tied to modern industry or to social and cul-tural usage, and their value only increases as scarcity looms

Because many resources are scarce, hard to extract,

or highly valuable, possession of resources is critical

as a driving force for the economies of many nations, especially those of developing and underdeveloped countries that lack diversification in their economic structures Economic dependence on resources can lead to conflict as intrastate or interstate arguments arise over resource ownership or control over the routes by which the resources reach the marketplace Resource exporters must maintain control over the resource to acquire the benefits of sale while resource importers must be able to assure continued importa-tion of materials Both groups have a vested interested

in cooperation and yet both groups are subject to global pressures and concerns Ultimately, the eco-nomic and social fragility of many impoverished

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countries creates unease in global markets,

produc-ing tensions among those nations dependent on

ex-ternal resources Use of force becomes more likely as

a way of protecting resource flow, both regionally and

globally While natural resources alone are not the

cause of all conflicts, they become influential in

situa-tions where ethnic conflict, poor economic

condi-tions, and border disputes have already raised

ten-sions to volatile levels, and where the concerns of

larger nations force them to be more protective of

re-sources necessary to ensure domestic security

Population growth has a significant impact on

re-source development, consumption, and scarcity

Growth places huge demands on general resources

such as food, water, energy, timber, fibers, and

miner-als In some cases, demands are for bare subsistence,

but general increases in standards of living over the

last several decades have also resulted in increased

de-mand for goods that go beyond subsistence Energy

consumption in particular has increased dramatically,

both in individual usage and as a driver of

industrial-ization and manufacturing The population dynamic

of resource consumption is complex Typically,

birth-rates decrease with increased urbanization and

in-creases in standards of living, but increased wealth

leads to even greater consumption High birthrates

often push individuals to cities to find work (thus

in-creasing urbanization) but also place burdens on

al-ready limited arable land Technology can reduce

consumption of some resources, but manufacturing

of alternatives places its own demand on resources

While it is difficult to predict the outcome of these

growth parameters, it is clear that global population

continues to rise, which will only increase the demand

for resources As the human population approaches

Earth’s carrying capacity, conflicts over dwindling

re-sources will only increase

Energy Resources

The global economy essentially runs on

nonrenew-able supplies of fossil fuels: oil, natural gas, and coal

Renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar

power represent only a tiny fraction of energy

produc-tion and consumpproduc-tion, and then only in developed

nations Thus, the increased scarcity of limited

fossil-fuel supplies is expected to lead to increasing tensions

over resource acquisition Global consumption of

en-ergy resources is rising roughly 2 percent per year, and

with increased globalization, the demand is not likely

to peak anytime soon

Both geology and geography work against fossil-fuel acquisition As natural products, fossil fossil-fuels were produced under particular geological conditions in the distant past Furthermore, fossil fuels are buried resources and must be extracted physically from the geologic formations in which they are captured Ex-traction becomes more difficult technologically as less of the resource remains in the ground and as more inaccessible fields have to be tapped as primary fields run dry Once extracted, fuel resources typically must be transported, often over large distances and through different national territories Security of the resource and security of transport are thus inter-twined Except for a few fields located in uncontested regions of the globe, such as the North Slope of Alaska, every major oil field lies in a contested border region experiencing recurrent crises and violence Since World War II, petroleum has been a con-tested resource; the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was one of the most visible recent conflicts directly at-tributable to one group seeking dominance over a shared border resource In the 1970’s, the Arab-Israeli conflict, coupled with an oil embargo and price in-crease by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), demonstrated how critical pro-tected oil supplies were to the international commu-nity and the United States in particular Formation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the United States was a direct result of this conflict, as was the Carter Doctrine (1980), which stipulated that any hostile power restricting the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf would be countered with military force Oil importers are primarily concerned with safe delivery to ensure economic security, while oil exporters are concerned most with maintaining possession of the resource Be-cause oil is a lucrative asset, it is no wonder that the concerns of importers and exporters often come into conflict

Almost 65 percent of the world’s known petroleum reserves can be found in the Persian Gulf Significant untapped reserves of oil and natural gas are also lo-cated in the Caspian Sea basin and the South China Sea Additional global deposits of oil can be found in Indonesia, Africa (Algeria, Angola, Chad, Nigeria, and Sudan), and South America (Colombia and Ven-ezuela) It is further believed that large fields of oil may lie beneath Arctic waters Because measuring the longevity of any one oil field is difficult, hard numbers are elusive, but one U.S State Department estimate puts the value of the untapped reserves in the Caspian

1024 • Resources as a source of international conflict Global Resources

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Sea basin alone at roughly $4 trillion (and likely more,

given that this estimate was made in 1997) The vast

majority of all this oil and natural gas is extracted for

sale to countries in the West, and the safety of

trans-port can be as tenuous as the safety of the fields

them-selves The bulk of the oil shipped from the Persian

Gulf must leave the region in ships confined to the

narrow and troubled waters of the Suez Canal and the

Strait of Hormuz, whereas oil from the Caspian Sea

travels through former Soviet states currently at odds

with Russia Of the civil wars and internal conflicts

that have arisen since the 1970’s, at least four have had

some direct relevance to conflict over oil: Angola,

Co-lombia, the Republic of the Congo, and the Sudan

For these four nations oil is a key component to

grow-ing national economies, and the battle of groups to

keep control of the fields is intense

Water

Water is essential to life, and yet the vast majority of

the Earth’s water supply is salt water (roughly 97

per-cent) and therefore unavailable for immediate

hu-man consumption Most of the fresh water that does

exist is trapped in polar ice and glaciers The World Bank estimates that each person in the world requires approximately 1,000 cubic meters of water per year, both for immediate use in drinking and bathing and

as a by-product of industry, agriculture, and other uses that provide humans with their daily needs The U.N Commission on Sustainable Development esti-mates that the amount of water actually available per year is 12.5 million cubic meters Current usage by the world’s population is roughly 50 percent Available water is the water from rain and snowfall minus the water lost to evaporation and land runoff Rain and snow are intimately associated with climate There-fore, global climate change and global warming have

an effect on the amount and distribution of available water Persistent water scarcity is already a problem

in many areas of the world, including the Middle East and certain portions of Africa and Asia Climate change exacerbates the problem As temperatures rise, two things happen First, rain increases along the coastlines of oceans and large bodies of water and de-creases inland, leading to persistent drought Second, increased temperatures cause increased water

evapo-An American howitzer fires on an Iraqi position during the 1991 Gulf War, a conflict precipitated by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait for the pur-poses of acquiring additional oil reserves (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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ration and a corresponding loss of arable land

With-out water for drinking or irrigation, famine and social

upheaval result

River systems are absolutely critical to the provision

of fresh water Many of the world’s largest river systems,

which provide water for millions of people, traverse

two or more countries These rivers include the Nile,

the Jordan, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Indus, and

the Amu Dar’ya River systems The Nile alone is

bor-dered by nine different countries Upstream countries

control the flow for all downstream consumers;

there-fore, sharing water resources is vital Contestation over

supply, however, exists in all of these major systems

Tension and conflict are likely to increase as demand

for water approaches 100 percent of capacity

Land, Minerals, and Timber

Among undeveloped and underdeveloped countries

the primary source of conflict centers on the control

and exploitation of vital national resources as the

main contributor to national income Critical

re-sources include diamonds, emeralds, miscellaneous

gems, gold, copper, tin, iron, and organic resources

such as timber, cotton, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, rubber,

and fish Scarcity is becoming an issue for many of

these resources, particularly old-growth timber

For-ests in Brazil, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of

the Congo, Liberia, Mexico, the Philippines, and

In-donesia are among those experiencing not only

dev-astation to old-growth timber but also increased

con-flict between governments wishing to gain from the

sale of the timber and indigenous populations that

depend on the forests to survive

Arable land has become a scarce natural resource

in many areas of the developing world Climate

change, urbanization, and lack of sufficient water for

irrigation are creating wastelands instead of

agricul-tural fields, leading to decreased food sustainability

Nowhere is this more visible than in the Darfur region

of the Sudan When this scarcity is combined with

so-cial inequalities and injustice, conflicting territorial

claims to the same materials, and ethnic and religious

tensions, violent conflict often erupts and, in many

cases, escalates to cross-border warfare

Civil war in Angola represents a case study of the

impact natural resources can have on conflicts The

fight between the socialist independence movement,

the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

(MPLA), and the anticolonialist movement, the

Na-tional Union for the Total Independence of Angola

(UNITA), began as a Cold War battle fueled by for-eign money In 1992, Angola held the first multiparty elections in its history, as foreign influence waned The MPLA won, but UNITA rejected these results and turned to violence, using the profits earned from dia-monds to fund its war efforts For its part, the Angolan government used the proceeds of oil sales to counter UNITA, making natural resources a sustainer of con-flict on both sides In 2000, the United Nations passed

a resolution demanding an end to “conflict diamonds” (“blood diamonds”), a call echoed by the World Dia-mond Council Rejection of blood diaDia-monds in favor

of documented conflict-free diamonds from other ar-eas of Africa and the world has greatly depressed the revenue available to UNITA, illustrating how market forces can be used to either drive conflicts or end them

Conflict Resolution Several factors influence whether conflict over re-sources is likely to turn violent These include, but are not limited to, the relative stability of the country or region in general, the history of relationships be-tween bordering nations, local military balance, and general levels of social inequality (the globalization gap between rich and poor) Resource scarcity is a re-ality in most cases and so solutions to conflict must ad-dress the ancillary conditions that make conflict more likely Effective governance of natural resources is the key to reducing resource conflict and enhancing the standard of living of those countries mired in con-flict Methods must be found to inventory and allo-cate global resources on a more equitable basis, espe-cially during times of scarcity Conservation efforts are needed to preserve the resources that remain Investing money in economic growth rather than con-flict maintenance can change the social and eco-nomic dynamics of countries so as to reduce the potential for future conflict Finding alternatives to scarce resources and seeking technologies that save materials and reduce consumption, so long as these alternatives and technologies are available to all, will also reduce the problem of future resource conflicts

Elizabeth A Machunis-Masuoka

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