Water Every year, contaminated water kills 1.8 million people worldwide from diarrheal diseases, mostly concentrated on children in developing nations. Beyond serving basic needs, water is critical to development—not only can it serve as a major power source, but is vital to agriculture and many industrial processes. Water can also be the source of conflict; some have argued that competition over scarce water resources was a contributing factor to the violence in Darfur.
Climate Change The impacts from all changes in climate and weather will have severe impacts on health, development, and peace and security. Many in the developing world depend on subsistence farming to get nutrients and income; changes in rainfall and decreased water availability will greatly impact agriculture and especially those already living with unstable access to food. Without food security, people can suffer from malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and starvation—all of which make development efforts all the more difficult. In some cases, the change to the land might be so intense that people will need to migrate to another town or nation; however, many nations fear the impact climate refugees could have on their nations or internal sovereignty.
Fossil Fuels comprise more than eighty percent of the United States energy usage, but the majority of the supply comes from outside our borders. For many in the military, this creates an unsustainable security risk; not only are troops in danger from attacks on supply lines, but the possibility of future military action to protect the United States’ access to oil looms large. Beyond the possibility of conflict over oil, the usage of fossil fuels also has health and development impacts. Exhaust from transportation vehicles and coal fired power plants cause climate change, as noted above, but can also kill—which can prove fatal to children and the elderly with poor respiratory health. A Clean Air Task Force 2010 study found that pollution from coal power plants will kill approximately 13,200 people in 2010 along with 9,700 hospitalizations and 20,000 heart attacks. Electricity from fossil fuels, however, can be a key component of development strategies. Simply having a light at night gives people in developing countries the ability to work at night, interact with the larger world through television, and allows children to study after dark.
