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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: "Climate change and warfare: Cool heads or heated conflicts? A lesson from history on how to prevent climate-induced wars," The Economist, 10 October 2009.
Fascinating study by some Irish institute in Dublin: they look at history from 1000 through 2000 and seek correlations between weather changes and wars.
What they find is a bit counter-intuitive to the whole global warming debate: through 1800, the only strong correlation was that cold spells were followed by more warfare. Why? Theory is crop loss.
Then comes industrialization and the link between weather change and warfare disappears, yet another organic link severed.
So what does this tell us about the future? Be wary of droughts leading to crop loss and plan accordingly. Best antidote? Bio-engineered crops that are resistant to droughts and the pests that accompany them.
So if you want to avoid climate change "wars," support bio advances in ag.
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