The soil–peace nexus: our common future

Figures & data

Figure 1 Non-renewable resources over the human time frame.

Table 1 Views on the resource scarcity-conflict relationship.

Views	References
A. Resource scarcity increases conflict
Inadequate resources	de Soysa and Gleditsch (1999)
Land scarcity and weak institutions	Baechler (1999)
Poverty and excessive taxation	Le Billon (2006)
Increase in population, deforestation, land degradation and water scarcity	Hauge and Ellingsen (1998)
Rainfall deficit and water scarcity	Miguel et al. (2004)
Climate change and mitigate can aggravate conflicts	Reuveny (2007)
Population, resource degradation, and political violence	Urdal (2005; 2008)
Environmental scarcity and conflict	Homer-Dixon (1996); Percival and Homer-Dixon (1998)
B. No direct link between conflict and resource scarcity
No strong impact of land degradation	Hendrix and Glaser (2007)
Mixed effect of population density, water scarcity and soil degradation, without any direct link	Suhkre (1997); Etsy et al. (1999); Raleigh and Urdal (2007); Klare (2013)
Climate change may confound (increase of decrease) impact on population-resources nexus	Maxwell and Reuveny (2000)
No link between ecoscarcity and conflict (soil degradation, deforestation, water scarcity)	Collier and Hoeffler (2004); Buhaug and Rød (2006); Hegre and Sambanis (2006); Theisen (2008)
C. Positive effects of technology and population
Population growth may prevent conflict	Simon (1989)
The resource curse or state-centered mechanisms	Le Billon (2001); de Soysa (2002a, 2002b)
Resource abundance can exploit wealth for personal gains	Collier and Hoeffler (1998)
Population growth reduces land degradation	Boserup (1965, 1981, 1990); Tiffen et al. (1994)

Table 2 Collapse of historical civilizations.

Civilization	Region	Era	Cause of collapse
Sumerian	Mesopotamia	10,000 BCE	Salinization
Harappan	Indus Valley	2800–2600 BCE	Desiccation
Inca	Andean Region	750–900 CE	Soil erosion
Maya	Central America	750–900 CE	Soil erosion
Axum	Northern Ethiopia	100–600 CE	Ecological degradation
Roman	Mediterranean	27 BCE – 395 CE	Exhaustion of soil

Table 3 Evolution of human systems.

Stage	Species	Society	Tools	Era (Ma)	Population
1. Paleolithic	Homo erectus	Tribes, hunter/gatherer	Stone, fire	2.5	2–20 million
2. Neolithic	Homo sapiens	Agricultural	Powerful tools	0.01	900 million
3. Carbon Civilization	Homo “carbonapiens”	Fossil fuel	Scientific methods	0.003	7.3–11 billion

Figure 2 Impact of environmental scarcity on decline in soil quality jeopardizing ecosystem functions and services.

Figure 3 Impact of soil degradation on conflict, violence and political instability. C: carbon.

Figure 4 Securitization of food and the environment through soil sustainability. Updated from Lal (2012).

Figure 5 The vicious cycle of soil diminishment, hunger/thirst, poverty and strife. Soil degradation is an “ecological plague” that is impacting several nations in the developing world.

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