Winds of War

UN Scientists looking at the weather have found that over the past 500 years, climate change has marched hand in hand with war, New Scientist reports:

The 100-year warming period would have briefly relieved social tensions, …[says Peter Brecke of the Georgia Institute of Technology]. But, from the early to mid-1800s, temperatures dropped again, and conflicts resumed.

Although the world is now predicted to get warmer, not cooler, the researchers point out that forecasts suggest global warming will lead to long-term food shortages much as cooling did during the Little Ice Age, by disrupting global water cycles.

“Modern societies have more mechanisms to cope with these problems,” says Brecke. But he cautions that the mechanisms may fail if society is forced to cope with a whole slew of environmental problems at the same time, as is predicted by several major environmental reports.