The UN Security Council has held its first debate about climate change but resolved to take no action in the face of some members’ objections that the panel is overreaching its authority. Others argue that global warming’s threat to peace places the issue within the Council’s international-security scope. The UK chair explained that wars often start over water, food production and land use, and military analysts called climate change a "threat multiplier" creating crises as people flee natural disasters and fight over Arctic shipping lanes.

Island nations that are sinking as ocean levels rise said that climate change posed the biggest threat to them. The Security Council has broadened the concept of threats to peace and security in the last several years. In 2000, it began considering the risks posed by HIV/AIDS, and has discussed how poverty can engender conflict and terrorism.

Main Source: LA Times

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