No Water, No Peace: Beyond the Ethnic Battle in Darfur (Humanist Essay Contest: Second Place Winner) (Essay‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP has always existed between humankind and nature. The development of entire cultures has been dependent on environmental factors: the ease of collecting food, the shifting of seasons, the availability of building materials. Developed nations, with their instant climate control and millions of miles of highways, are often apt to forget this relationship; we trick ourselves into believing that we are independent of our environment, and we ignore the millions of pounds of pollutants we spew into the atmosphere and water each year. Every so often, though, an event takes place that reminds us that we can never truly disassociate ourselves from nature. As our world becomes more and more industrialized and environmental problems increase in severity, the importance of acknowledging this relationship becomes clearer than ever, a fact proved only too well by the crisis in Darfur.