The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis ignores the real enemy
From the first ambushes of prehistoric humans, war and terror have been savage but effective tools of advancement.
But as we watch the horror of the endless ancient blood feuds between Jews and Palestinians, or Ukrainians and Russians, it raises a question that seems absurd on its face: Have we reached a point in human history where war is obsolete?
It’s not because war is immoral, savage, or a phenomenal waste of national treasure. That is all true. But that has been the case since the dawn of man. And yet we survive — even advance in the backwash of the carnage.
Climate is a threat multiplier
Today is different. Fighting wars is putting our very existence on this planet at risk. This is because climate change, like nuclear bombs. is a “threat multiplier.” The toxic cocktail of climate change and war makes an already challenging crisis infinitely more complex — and dangerous.
Last year, Israel’s leading security policy center, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), convened a special conference with the International Committee of the Red Cross on the impact of climate change on Gaza. In a prescient conclusion, they warned that “while the Israeli defense establishment is aware of the Gordian knot between the humanitarian conditions and the security threat emanating from Gaza, it has thus far ignored the disastrous implications climate change could have on the Strip, and in turn on the potential for escalation.”
Today is different. Fighting wars is putting our very existence on this planet at risk. This is because climate change, like nuclear bombs. is a “threat multiplier.”
Weather data
Much of the INSS reporting comes from the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS) measuring stations on the border of Gaza that were some of the same towns that were terrorized last week — Besor Farm, Nahal Oz, Be’eri, and Magen. According to its data, the number of days over 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees C) will triple by 2100. Water is also disappearing or becoming undrinkable. And what rain there is will be delivered with more extreme rainstorms. Last year, intense flooding in Gaza damaged homes and knocked drainage systems out of commission.
Ignorance is bliss
Of course, these reports were ignored at the time. Too bad because Gaza is, once again, in a “rinse, wash, and repeat” cycle of conflict, as the global war establishment loves to say. This happens not because we lack alternative options as outlined at the INSS conference. This happens because hopelessly conflicted poobahs of the military, political, terror, and religious establishments ignore the climate crisis and cling to war like a baby to a teat. When in doubt, might is right.
Is abolishing war a kooky idea?
This is because abolishing war and terror is considered by global policy “realists” as astonishingly naive and “wet behind the ears.” But it was not too long ago that climate activists were considered kooks. And it would have been preposterously naive for the The New York Times to publish, as it did this weekend, that the earth is warming 40 percent faster than when New Yorkers were boogying to Saturday Night Fever in discos in the 1970’s. “Global warming has accelerated over the past 15 years rather than continued at a gradual, steady pace,” warns Zake Hausfathert, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth.
There is an alternative
So, as a million panicked Palestinians flee Gaza City, let us consider an alternative vision outlined at the 2022 conference attended not by mad terrorists and vengeful political leaders but by climate change experts, Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders, representatives of international organizations, and the humanitarian community.
Floods
Instead of air raid sirens for incoming rockets, both sides would jointly implement a flood warning system to cope with the projected increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Knowledge
Instead of gathering intelligence against each other, both sides would collect and share crucial weather data that can accurately guide need-based project development.
Infrastructure
Instead of creating mountains of rubble, both sides would rebuild regional roads and sewers to capture surface runoff water so that instead of running into the sea as it does now, it could be used to reduce the Gaza aquifer’s salinity.
Power
Instead of cutting off power, both sides would collaborate on renewable energy projects by investing, not destroying, an electrical grid based on regionally produced solar energy. The climate group EcoPeace has a bold plan where Jordan would supply solar energy to Gaza to support more desalination facilities, with Jordan receiving water in return. They also propose the construction of solar farms in Israel, with the electricity being sent to Gaza through the Israeli grid.
Past wars have always been devastating to the environment. But the human proclivity for infinite conflict is a direct contradiction to a finite atmosphere that is reaching its carbon limit.
War and no peace
Sadly, it’s hard to implement this vision when terror and war prevail. This is why war is so dangerous. It distracts or blocks the critical climate adaptation and mitigation work that needs to be done. “Climate models have consistently found that once we get emissions down to net zero, the world will largely stop warming,” writes Hausfather.
But that requires the kind of cooperation that can only happen if both sides learn to live with, not kill, each other. Human civilization no longer has the luxury of taking periodic “time outs” to slaughter each other to achieve what seemed so important at the time.
Moving on
Past wars have always been devastating to the environment. But the human proclivity for infinite conflict is a direct contradiction to a finite atmosphere that is reaching its carbon limit.
For this reason, we must recognize we are fighting the wrong enemy. The climate crisis has put humans on the razor’s edge of extinction. Efforts to reduce carbon pollution must be at the center, not the periphery, of human concerns and not a periodic sideshow overshadowed by the latest conflagration.
Of course, even in Gaza, focusing on climate is not a silver bullet. As the INSS report concludes: “The key recommendation is to adopt a long-term planning approach that relies on calculated risk management while not undermining the pursuit of seeking immediate solutions to Gaza’s urgent problems.
War and terror, however, cannot be among those solutions.
Photo credit: INSS / Yousef Masoud / SOPA Images / Sipa USA
