Climate Change and Civil Conflict: The Rainfall Impact
Crops and Rain Rates Linked to Deadly Violence
MILWAUKEE, July 21, 2015 - How serious is climate change when it comes to crops? New research links the amount of rain in certain areas to an outbreak of violence and terrorism.
In “Climate Change, Agricultural Production and Civil Conflict”, Benjamin Crost of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign highlights one country where this civil unrest led to 100,000 deaths and insurgent groups targeting government officials and resources.
“[This paper] provides strong evidence the link between climate change and conflict is agriculture,” Crost said. “We are just seeing the start of this with some models predicting the wet season can get wetter and the dry season can get drier.”
The concern is big enough on a global scale the United States Department of Defense (DOD) recently issued a report on how to deal with this issue.
Could changes in our climate lead to fears of Agro-terrorism? Don’t miss this presentation July 27th during the 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
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Contact: Allison Scheetz
Senior Communications Manager
(414) 918-3190
Email: ascheetz@aaea.org