Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answers to this item should be based on the passage only.

What climate change will undeniably do is cause or amplify events that hasten the reduction of resources. Competition over these diminishing resources would ensue in the form of political or even violent conflict. Resources based conflicts have rarely been overt and are thus difficult to isolate. Instead they take on veneers that appear more politically palatable. Conflicts over resources like water are often cloaked in the guise of identity or ideology.

What does the above passage imply? 

The correct answer is "Environmental issues contribute to resource stresses and political conflict."

Key Points

• The given passage deals with the conflicts due to the reduction of resources by the climate change and these conflicts appear more likely to be politically motivated. 
• Reduction of resources leads to more stress on the available resources leading to more political conflicts and are difficult to be removed.
• All these pieces of information are clearly written in the first and fourth sentences respectively and are giving the whole idea of the passage.
• Hence the correct answer is option (3).

Additional Information

• Let us look at the meanings of some of the difficult words mentioned in the passage:
• conflict- a struggle or an opposition.
• overt- done in an open way and not secretly.
• veneers- a part of somebody’s behaviour or of a situation which hides what it is really like underneath
• palatable- something that is found to be merely agreeable.
• guise-  a customary way of speaking or behaving.