Does Climate Changes Lead to More Conflict?

Does Climate Changes lead to more conflicts? This is the topic of the first plenary session today, including Marshall B. Burke, Nils Petter Gleditsch and Karen M. Witsenburg. Dr Burke is the lead author of article on Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2009). His research suggests that warm years in the recent past are strongly linked to increases in African civil war, and when combined with climate model projections of future temperature trends, this historical response of war to temperature suggests as much as a 50% increase in incidence of civil war by 2030. Dr Gleditsch on the other hand argues there is little peer-reviewed evidence in favor of climate changes leading to an increase in civil conflicts.Dr. Witsenburg adds to the question with a case study from Northern Kenya.

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