Los Angeles: A new study claims that there is scientific ground to predict that climate change, resulting in higher temperatures, would contribute to violence and conflict.
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley report in the journal Science that even slight spikes in temperature and precipitation have greatly increased the risk of personal violence and social upheaval throughout human history.
Projected onto an Earth that is expected to warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, the authors suggest that more human conflict is a likely outcome, reports Science Daily.
The researchers analysed 60 studies from a number of disciplines - including archaeology, criminology, economics and psychology - that explored the connection between weather and violence in various parts of the world from about 10,000 BCE to the present day.
During an 18-month period, the Princeton-Berkeley researchers reviewed those studies' data -- and often re-crunched raw numbers -- to calculate the risk that violence would rise under hotter, wetter conditions.
They found that while climate is not the sole or primary cause of violence, it undeniably exacerbates existing social and interpersonal tension in all societies, regardless of wealth or stability.
They found that one standard-deviation shift - the amount of change from the local norm -- in heat or rainfall boosts the risk of a riot, civil war or ethnic conflict by an average of 14 percent.
Comments
| Quick linksNews
National
International
Regional
Politics
Education & Career
Business
Science & Technology
Health
Views & Analysis
The Funny Side
© 2012 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.
Government defends move to amend RTI Act, activists furiousThe government Friday defended its decision to amend the RTI Act to keep political parties out of its ambit, saying they would not be able to function if the CIC order was implemented. The step however drew..... More
Also Read: Cabinet approves keeping parties out of RTI ambit
Ample evidence to prove existence of Indian MujahideenThirteen Muslim youth, mostly from the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were falsely implicated in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts. About half-a-dozen SIMI activists were ....... More
If the hon'ble judge had visited the building he could have found that the building has only one exit which was manned by police and there was no possibility to escape by jumping. In such case the accused either had to be caught or had to be shot. The escape theory put up by the police does .... More
"If this activity is going on in Punjab's prisons, it's a very dangerous thing and has implications for our national security. A number of Pakistani prisoners and those linked with the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) are lodged in these prisoners. Though the social networking sites, these prisoners can link to their ..... More
