The study found that while climate is not the sole or primary cause of violence, it undeniably exacerbates existing social and interpersonal tension in all societies, regardless of wealth or stability.
Rise in temperatures and precipitation is likely to result in more personal violence and social upheaval, a new study has revealed.
According to the study conducted by researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley, Earth that is expected to warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, more human conflict is a likely outcome of increased climate change.
The researchers explored the connection between weather and violence in various parts of the world from about 10,000 BCE to the present day to calculate the risk that violence would rise under hotter and wetter conditions.
The study found that while climate is not the sole or primary cause of violence, it undeniably exacerbates existing social and interpersonal tension in all societies, regardless of wealth or stability.
Lead author Solomon Hsiang said that there is a causal relationship between the climate and human conflict and once it is known what causes this correlation effective policies or institutions to manage or interrupt the link between climate and conflict can be designed.
The study examined three categories of conflict namely personal violence and crime, intergroup violence and political instability, institutional breakdowns which are abrupt and major changes in governing institutions or, in extreme cases, the collapse of entire civilizations.
According to the study, sometimes heat just makes people more aggressive and the researchers found that personal violence was far more influenced by a leap in temperature.
Hsiang explained that there is a large amount of evidence that environmental conditions actually change a person's perception of their own condition, or they also can change the likelihood of people using violence or aggressive action to accomplish some goal.
He further said that their study is not saying that climate is the only cause of conflict, and there's no conflict that should be wholly attributed to some specific climatic event and added that every conflict has roots in interpersonal and intergroup relations and the research points that climate is one of the critical factors the affect how things escalate, and if they escalate to the point of violence.
