So I just now posted about areas already affected by climate change, so let’s now take a look into the future, and see what areas might be up next on the global warming countdown. This time we look to the Australian military, which last year wrote a report stating that global warming may soon threaten security in the Pacific, and ultimately set off a global conflict over energy reserves in the Arctic.

Says Reuters:

A confidential security review by Australia’s Defense Force, completed in 2007 but obtained in summary by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, said environmental stress had increased the risk of conflicts in the Pacific over resources and food. But the biggest threat of global conflict currently lay beneath the Arctic as melting icecaps gave rise to an international race for undersea oil and gas deposits, it said.

The report basically says that as temperatures go up, shortages in food and supplies with exacerbate tensions between nations, ultimately leading to serious conflict. This may lead to “increasing the chance of state failure,” as the report so eloquently puts it.

As for the energy reserves in the Arctic, that does seem like a very real threat. I can’t wait (well, I probably can) until the U.S. and Russia start bickering over who gets the oil up there.

But these are not the only issues to arise in the report, because why stop there?

The defense analysis said rising sea levels would affect nations and islands with low-lying coastlines, and may lead to increase in refugees from vulnerable Pacific islands. It could also lead to more illegal immigration and fishing, bringing disputes over access to scarce food resources. That could mean an increasing presence north of Australia by the country’s navy, the report said.

So now global warming will lead to illegal immigration, as well. What can’t climate change do?