Bowdoin College has published a news item about a senior there who "is writing a 10,000-word thesis" about whether "those who are morally responsible for climate change can be targeted" in a war to prevent environmental threats. The item reports:
Suppose a small developing nation is very seriously threatened by the effects of climate change, in particular by the actions of large developed nations and the corporations therein. This nation has tried using diplomacy to get these developed nations to curb their emissions and to help them adapt to climate change, but the developed nations continue on as usual, indifferent to the smaller nation's plight. In this case, would the small nation have a 'just cause' to go to war to force any of the developed nations to stop emitting and to help it adapt?"
It's a question likely to be of increasing relevance to nations like The Maldives and Micronesia, for whom climate change and sea level rise represent an existential threat, and also to countries like Bangladesh, where large portions of land could disappear underwater.
The Bowdoin senior "is adamant that...rectifying or preventing the harms of climate change can in theory be a just cause for war."
