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Article: Climate change and global conflicts: "cold" wars have existed throughout history; heat wars are next.(Government)
- Article from:
- The Futurist
- Article date:
- March 1, 2008
- Author:
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Traumatic climate cooling may have launched wars in the past, like the Little Ice Age of the mid-sixteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries. Cold-induced stresses on agriculture led to wars, famines, and population declines, an international team of researchers believes. Now, they warn that future climate change that turns up the heat could also increase conflicts.
Sudden changes in temperature don't directly cause conflict, but they do disrupt water and food supplies. Shortages of such critical resources can lead people to rise against their governments or invade neighboring countries, according to studies led by University of Hong Kong geographer David Zhang ...