Stop Resource Wars: An Inside Job

            Stopping resource wars: An inside job.
             It is true that not everyone wants peace; many want war for various reasons. People sometimes take the path of violence with the intention of compelling their opponent to fulfill their will. If you take a close look at the history of war, you can catch the motivating factors of why the wars were waged, and see that one of the main reasons was resource conflicts. This unfortunately will be one of the most likely causes of war in the coming century. Unlike the Cold War when most conflict rose from political and ideological motives, the future is set for global struggles over resources, especially oil and fresh water. By the time the world population grow to an estimated global population of 9 billion (by 2050), we may enter an era of resource wars. Recent research finds that war fought over diminishing essential resources often last longer and cause more human suffering than similar conflicts did during the cold war era. At this point, we must ask what is creating this problem. Why do we need more resources year after year? Is it simply because of a growing world population, or is there another reason we haven't recognized? People were happy with relatively little material goods such as cars and appliances in the past. Now people are digging into limited resources aggressively to fulfill their unlimited avarice. This is a product from the development of modern materialist culture, which promotes rampant consumerism.
             One of the consequences of consumerism is the increased demand for resources; especially energy mostly comes from oil. We are living in an affluent society which encourages us to buy; however people will never be satisfied regardless of how much they have. People are seeking larger homes equipped with more appliances, luxury cars, frequent traveling driven by a social standard.