Blog Post #4: The nature of scarcity

Blog Post #4: The nature of scarcity

                  The nature of scarcity is to cause conflict. When resources (which in turn become goods and services) become increasingly scarce, humans become increasingly aggravated. As seen in multiple case studies from around the world, scarcity has led to corrupt governments, piracy, a multitude of uprisings, and other forms of violent behaviors. The issue of scarcity will continue to be exacerbated as the world continues to warm.

                  Resources are necessary to survive. In other words, food, water, and natural resources such as timber and oil (along with many others) are essential to sustain life and make a living. Without these resources, humans are unable to live and prosper. Over the past few decades, the environment (and unequal distribution of resources) has become a more prominent issue, as global warming causes parts of the earth to wither, dry, freeze, or flood. This is turn causes the people who live in or around those areas to relocate and acquire a new set of resources to survive. However, a growing population of people in search for a deteriorating set of resources is a poor equation, and most of the time results in conflict.

                  It is not simply the scarcity of the resource that leads to conflict around the world – scarcity is more complex than that. The scarcity of a resource (and the conflict that arises from it) is usually coupled by other factors such as weak governance, ethnic tension, environmental degradation, increasing population, and/or religious strife (Lecture 21). As seen in the case in Chiapas, Mexico, conflict arose due to the environmental scarcity regarding agricultural land. However, this conflict (which ultimately resulted in the Zapatista Uprising in 1994) did not arise on its own; it was accompanied by cropland degradation and the inequitable distribution of land resources in Mexico (Homer-Dixon, 1996). In addition, “economic liberalization reduced the governing regime's capacity in Chiapas and provided greater opportunities for violent challenges by opposition groups” (Homer-Dixon, 1996). This combination of scarcity and along with weak governance and the unequal distribution of agricultural land is what led to the Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.

            Another example of how scarcity (paired with other factors) ultimately leads to conflict can be seen with the case study of Brazil: conflict over the Amazon Rainforest interacts with weak local governance and corruption to cause low levels of violence in the shape of assassinations and murders, in which over 1,000 environmental activists, religious workers, organizers, and rural workers were killed over a 2-decade long period (Lecture 22). The scarcity of the Amazon, coupled with the weak Brazilian government (which also faces its own set of issues regarding corruption) has resulted in violent crime and behavior. Resource scarcity can be extremely dangerous, and should be considered more carefully as global warming intensifies the degradation and availability of these resources.

                  Because resources are a necessary factor for human survival, it is not necessarily surprising that resource scarcity results in conflict (more times than not). Due to the nature of scarcity, and the requirement of resources to sustain a life (and a livelihood), conflict may continue to arise in societies around the world as the world continues to warm. In addition, as the global population continues to grow and as the existing stock of resources continues to be stressed and ultimately depleted, conflict such as uprisings, violent outbreaks, and even murder may become an inevitable part of society.