Climate change leads to war

Historically, with climate change comes war, famine and population reduction, reports a team of international researchers.

In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers in the United States, China, Hong Kong and Britain explain how global warming is one of the most significant threats to humankind.

“With more droughts and a rapidly growing population, it is going to get harder and harder to provide food for everyone, and thus we should not be surprised to see more instances of starvation and probably more cases of hungry people clashing over scarce food and water,” Peter Brecke, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s, told Reuters news agency.

The researchers studied the time period between 1400 and 1900 and found that when there are significant changes in the climate, people tend to move to another place, and those mass movements often led to health epidemics and war.

A separate report said half of the world’s countries will be at risk of conflict or serious political instability due to climate change. International Alert, a London-based conflict-resolution group, identified 46 countries (home to 2.7 billion people) where climate change would create a high risk of violent conflict. Another 56 international states face a risk of political instability, the group said. Such places include west and central Africa as agricultural patterns change, Bangladesh as the Ganges River water levels decline, the Middle East as water shortages increase already strong tensions, and currently peaceful parts of Latin America, where melting glaciers could affect rivers.