To say global warming is serious has become a politically correct statement in this age. But some people have moved the issue into the category of security.
The United Nations Security Council convened last week to deliberate on climate change. Even retired US admirals and generals have issued warnings that global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security" and the United States likely will be dragged into fights over water and other shortages.
Similarly, the Pentagon alerted the world to the scenario that military confrontation may be triggered by a desperate need for natural resources such as energy, food and water rather than by conflicts over ideology, religion or national honor.
The call for the international community to address climate change is sensible, but sensationalizing it as an issue of security is conspiratorial.
The Security Council is primarily responsible, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is supposed to deal with threats to peace.
Under this UN definition the impacts of climate change on the world are not a subject within the realm of the UN body.
Understanding how human activity modifies the atmosphere and oceans governing our planet's weather is enormously difficult. The subject has stretched some of the world's best scientific minds while the calculations to decipher the variables are vast.
Scientific studies have found that climate change is a global issue, as presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The solutions to environmental problems must be found worldwide rather than among a small group of countries such as the Security Council members. It is understandable that the developing countries have posed challenges to the Security Council's getting involved in the issue of climate change.
The international community needs to pull together to improve scientific research in predicting climate change, researching nations' vulnerability to abrupt climate changes, and better preparing to respond to climate change.
The issue counts on sensible research and consensus on solutions rather than sensationalization.
(China Daily April 24, 2007)
