Although a reference to the tsunami is rather unconfortably crammed in the first few paragraphs, a Jared Diamond article summarising the threats the environment faces is an interesting read, regardless of the timing.

His linkage of failed states with those facing environmental damage is an interesting one, but he doesn’t do enough to convince me. Neither Iraq, nor Afghanistan, are facing potential environmental catastrophe in the same way that famine-struck African nations or low-lying countries like Bangladesh are. While environmental strain can undoubtedly a major factor in many cases, I would hesitate to draw a one-on-one relationship, when there can be so many other causes (I doubt the environment factors were a major contribution to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, for example).

The article gets stronger as it goes on, attacking some of the existing myths about the enrionment. Renewable energy is not viable in the short-term, and GM crops will do little to prevent starvation. Most importantly (although this is only granted a couple of sentences) the adoption of more resource-intensive lifestyles by existing people in developing worlds, rather than population growth itself, is the biggest concern. The world’s two most populous countries, China and India, are rapidly growing economically; the addition of hundreds of millions to the global middle class, and the increase in energy and resources needed to satisfy them, while we in the West show little leadership by reducing our own heavily unsustainable consumption, is one of my biggest worries for the environment’s future.