Today is International Peace Day…a designation assigned by the UN.  This year’s theme for Peace Day is sustainability.  Makes sense.  Many of the world’s armed conflicts are rooted in scarcity of resources (or unjust distribution of them).

In his book Eaarth:  Making Life on a Tough New Planet, author Bill McKibben writes:  “On the new world we’ve built, conflict seems at least as likely as cooperation.  In 2006, British home secretary John Reid publicly fingered global warming as a driving force behind the genocide in Darfur, arguing that environmental changes ‘make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely.  The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a signficant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur.  We should see this as a warning sing.’  When Time magazines’ Alex Perry traveled to the region the following year, he reported that ‘the roots of the conflict may have more to do with ecology than ethnicity.'”  (p.82)

Based on a Department of Defense report in 2009, an author in Fortune magazine wrote:  “Wars over resources were the norm until about three centuries ago.  When such conflicts broke out, 25% of a population’s adult males usually died.  As abrupt climate change hits home, warfare may again come to define human life.”

Sobering.

Today my prayer for peace is that everybody on the planet have everything they need to live, especially food and water.

What is YOUR prayer for peace?