NYT warmist readers refuse to accept war/global warming links: ‘Climate change, our top global challenge, is on track to kill many millions this century, but not from wars’

To the Editor:

Marshall Burke, Solomon Hsiang and Edward Miguel argue that their analysis of the literature establishes a strong link between weather and the level of violence in human society. As they know, however, this result has been met with some skepticism in specialist circles.

On the other hand, there is universal agreement that poverty, inequality and weak civil institutions are at least as important as weather in explaining levels of violence.

Policy makers must not lose sight of this in all the excitement about climate change.

ANDREW R. SOLOW
Woods Hole, Mass., Sept. 1, 2013

The writer is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.