If the current global population lived as the richest 20 percent do, consumption of energy would increase 10 times and minerals 200 times. Policymakers on all levels need to shape integrated policies and programs that reflect the relationship between improved lives for poor people and reduced population growth, reduced consumption of nonrenewable resources, and protection of the environment. New and continuing civil strife are the source of severe human disasters in Afghanistan, Burma, Mozambique, Nagorno-Karabakh, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Most victims of these conflicts are innocent civilians, not combatants. A study by Frances Stewart found that in 14 of 16 developing countries at war since 1970, per capita food consumption dropped, by more than 15 percent in 6 of them.
War slows or stops food production and marketing.
Food supplies are plundered and used as instruments of war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and breeding livestock are consumed in desperation, and children suffer permanent damage as a result of insufficient food. Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending drains resources away from food production, education, and health care. Some of the savings have shifted to national social programs, but none have gone to international development assistance. One-quarter of this would provide primary health care for all their citizens, reduce adult literacy by half, and provide family planning to all willing couples. Racial discrimination and competition between ethnic groups have caused hunger, malnutrition, and resource deprivation for black populations in South Africa and the Americas, Indians in Latin America, Kurds in Iraq, and Tamils in Sri Lanka, to name just a few.