Researchers at Princeton and the University of California, Berkeley — one of the nation’s most noted liberal institutions of higher learning — said they’ve found a new reason to combat climate change: To curb violence around the world.
The researchers found that even the smallest of temperature fluctuations or rainfall levels can boost acts of violence, United Press International reported.
“We collected 60 existing studies containing 45 different data sets and we re-analyzed their data and findings using a common statistical framework,” said the study’s lead author, Solomon Hsiang. “The results were striking.”
Researchers found similar shifts in weather patterns were joined by increased domestic violence in India and Australia, by increased numbers of murders in the United States and in Tanzania, and by increased acts of ethnic violence in Europe and South Asia.
“We found that a 1 standard deviation shift towards hotter conditions causes the likelihood of personal violence to rise 4 percent,” said one of the other study authors.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.