Climate change is more than heat waves, hurricanes, floods, droughts, sea level rise, melting ice and ever-increasing temperatures. It could be a bit unexpected, like a study linking warmer climate to a rise in winter crimes in the United States. Climate change does that, even in matters of national security, said Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University. “Climate change didn’t cause the Syrian civil war” but in a place that’s unhappy, a drought arrives, farmers move to an overcrowded city and problems multiply and lead to war, Alley said. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”Conflict over climate change impacts is not confined to Syria, says University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Renee McPherson.

Source: National Post December 01, 2018 14:48 UTC