Environmental conflicts are ubiquitous.
A variety of causes contribute to environmental degradation including over consumption by northern countries, rapid population growth in the south, increasingly sophisticated chemical products or by-products that have unanticipated toxic effects, deforestation, and massive use of fossil fuels in transport. Even a brief examination of environmental troubles exposes rifts between those who address the problems. Players in environmental conflicts seldom fit easily into bipolar camps. Conflicts are almost always adversarial and seldom resolved to the satisfaction of all sides. The one player common to all these conflicts, the ecosystem, generally remains voiceless.