to what extent are environmental issues a security issue? critically discuss

Security means a defense of its territory from any external powers or protects its sovereignty. In addition, security can be referred to the military power where, according to Mearsheimer (1994), “the greater the military advantage one state has over other states, the more secure it is. Every state would like to be the most formidable military power in the system because it is the best way to guarantee survival in a world that can be very dangerous… The aim is to acquire more military power at the expense of potential rivals.” Moreover, environment security is defined as deterrence of any threats which will have an adverse effect on human, animals, plants and the climate. To what degree are the environmental conflicts a security issue? The following essay will point out that environmental issues are certainly a security issue. These environmental issues include the environmental ethnic conflicts, exploitation of natural resources, global warming, deforestation and health problem. On the other hand, some scholars opposed the possibility that the environmental issues a security issue.

Firstly, when the country experiences, environment destructions and decrease in resources, it makes the residences migrate and eventually lead to ethnic conflicts due to people battling for resources for their daily needs. For example, in Northern Darfur, where she experienced prolonged erosion for the past decades, it had forced the people to migrate to the southern part of Sudan. It had caused ethnic conflicts and continued to threaten the peaceful relations amongst them. Thus, this became an important security issue as it enraged tensions since February 2003, and this issue should be securitised. This argument supported with evidence made by Dup...

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...be securitised as it affects the health and will endanger the health of the people.

To sum it up, the issues such as environment-ethnical conflict, overuse of resources, global warming, deforestation and the environment, health based problems are considered as a security problem and need to be securitised. Ethnic conflicts recognised as a security issue because it is often happening in a poor state and can trigger the stability of the world. In addition, states that have absolute controlled on resources tend to overuse it and will cause environmental degradation. Moreover, global warming can also provoke instability on the planet as it can cause enormous catastrophe. Lastly, the problem of illegal deforestation and health problems caused by the environment degradation is also considered as a security problem because it can cause the worst complications in humans.