News & events
New campaign on climate change and international security: Cashing in on catastrophe
Does climate change cause you to worry? Do you read news about increased carbon emissions - and the paltry inadequate political responses - and despair? Do you wonder what will happen as the impacts of climate change hit home? - Ben Hayes and Nick Boxton
We know already that it is too late to stop climate change: it is already happening. And the scary reality is that while we do our bit to stop even worse climate change, a web of corporate and military analysts are already looking to exploit a climate-changed future. And their agenda is not one of how to protect the vulnerable nor how to put people at the heart of decisions. Instead they are looking at how to secure control of resources or profit from climate change.
In 2010, for example the Pentagon started organising war games to explore the implications of "large scale economic breakdown” in the face of climate change, focusing on how they could maintain "domestic order amid civil unrest”. A year later, arms companies, such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Thales at a conference breathlessly welcomed “what looks set to become its most significant adjacent market since the strong emergence of the civil/homeland security business almost a decade ago.” In the last few months, we have seen how the US and many EU countries have established an unparalleled surveillance system, supposedly targeted at terrorism but one that can equally be used to control populations.Suddenly, all the talk is of 'security'. Food security, energy security, water security. But very few are asking the questions: What is being secured? For whom? And at what cost?
That is why we linked up with the Transnational Institute - a small well-respected research institute which has worked closely with popular movements for 40 years - and decided to commission a wide range of experienced researchers to delve into these issues, to expose the key actors, and suggest a way forward - a map that we can all use during difficult times.
Read more and support he project here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cashing-in-on-catastrophe