The Nexus between Climate Change and Criminality: The Nigerian Experience

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue X, October 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Nexus between Climate Change and Criminality: The Nigerian Experience

 Prof. Dagaci Aliyu Manbe¹, Anthony Abah Ebonyi²

¹Prof. of Sociology, Criminology/Counter-Terrorism and Insurgency, Department of Sociology, University of Abuja, Nigeria
²Doctoral Candidate in Criminology, Department of Sociology, University of Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract: – The increase in global temperatures is worsened by frequent natural events and human activities. Climate change has taken a prominent space in the global discourse on crime and criminality. Compared to when the subject centred around the discussion on the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming, today, the narrative revolves around the implications of changes in weather and climatic conditions in relations to violent crimes or conflict that traverse vast social, economic, and political spaces in different countries. Global warming and climate change refer to an increase in average global temperatures in the Earth’s near surface air and oceans, which occurs due to human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuel such as gas flaring. The trend is projected to continue, if unchecked. This paper seeks to explore the nexus between climate change and criminality in Nigeria. It further examines the main ecological changes that predispose conflict dynamics of security threats factored by climate change to peaceful co-existence in Nigeria. It concludes with recommendations on the way forward.

Key words: Conflict, Climate Change, Criminality, Global Warning, Peace

I. INTRODUCTION

Climate Change Causes Conflict (CCCC), averred that climate change outcomes including rise in international sea levels due to glacial melt, unstable river-water flows (leading to floods) and intense rain storms, would cause large-scale, deadly, humanitarian consequences in terms of human migrations fleeing flooded seacoast and push riverside or coastal peoples who depend on rainfall or irrigated agriculture to, in search of access to water and land, engage in fierce conflict with the host communities, consequently leaving behind tales of deaths among different families (Messer, 2010). The linkage between climate change and criminality is mystified, adumbrated and exemplified in several criminal activities by herders and farmers, terrorists or insurgents, bandits and rustlers, kidnappers, among others in different parts of Nigeria. It identified the implications of their actions and required deep scholarly offered recommendations on possible ways out of the quagmire.

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