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Future wars and civil violence will often arise from scarcities of resources such as water, forests, fish… Thomas Homer-Dixon, 1991, On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict
Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, climbing sea levels and more extreme weather events will intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty and conflict. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, 2014.
Human security will be progressively threatened as the climate changes (robust evidence, high agreement). IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptations, and Vulnerability
There is no doubt that impoverishment and human insecurity may arise as a result of climate change, if preventive measures are not undertaken. However, there is missing evidence that global warming directly increases conflict. (…) The causes of conflict are primarily political and economic, not climatic. Warlords — who foster conflict — may exploit draught, flooding, starvation, agricultural or natural disasters in their strategies, like they did in Somalia and Darfur. But what will drive their fight is not the rain, the temperature, or the sea level — they will always fight for the same goals of power, territory, money, revenge, etc. Dr. Vesselin Popovski, United Nations University