Climate change will 'cause huge increase in murder, robbery and rape'

An environmental economis" has produced a study in which he claims that climate change this century will "cause" millions of violent crimes in the United States, over and above those that would have happened anyway. Matthew Ranson holds a B.A. in Environmental Science and Public Policy and Economics and a PhD in Public Policy …

[Khaptain]

Difficult to take this serious

I would suggest that

* Increasing disparity of wealth ( Rich get richer, poor get poorer)

* Globalisation

* Overpopulation

* Insatisfaction with Governements.

* Corporate Theft. ( Silverstein cough cough)

Were more more likely to cause Murder and Robbery than that that might arrive from a change in climatic conditions.

( Rape is a subject I won't include as it's probably very, very difficult to determine the reasons but I am not sure that Climatic Conditions are the major factor, ymmv)....

[Scott Broukell]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

But is it not the case that poor management and implementation of at least the first three items on your list are themselves root causes of the quantifiable anthropogenic input to the greater climate change we are experiencing. I think what the author is pointing to is that the richer, better equipped, minority are likely to fair better when things start getting really tough and the growing number of disenfranchised, less well of folk, will be fighting tooth and nail, *between themselves*, for survival, whilst said minority gaze down upon the unfolding scene from their bomb-proof, glass and steel bunkers. The time for humanity to pull together is now, for the sake of future generations, but when has humanity ever demonstrated it's ability to do that - never. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

[BillG]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

In 1996 didn't Al Gore predict the oceans would rise and flood the major cities by 2010?

[Vociferous]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

> In 1996 didn't Al Gore predict the oceans would rise and flood the major cities by 2010?

Not as far as I can find.

However, in 2007 he said that according to one study arctic sea-ice could be gone as early as 2014, which currently seems like it might.

[Fluffy Bunny]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

"greater climate change we are experiencing"

What experiencing? Temperatures haven't gone up in over 10 years.

[h4rm0ny]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

>>"I think what the author is pointing to is that the richer, better equipped, minority are likely to fair better when things start getting really tough and the growing number of disenfranchised, less well of folk, will be fighting tooth and nail, *between themselves*, "

That's not at all what the author of the paper is "pointing to". Just read the actual abstract linked in the very article you are replying to. In the entire time it took you to write what you imagined the author was saying, you could have checked. They basically studied crime statistics and correlated them with changes in temperature and found that more of these crimes happen in hot weather than cold. They then concluded that if average temperature rises, so will such crimes.

They included more numbers and statistics in their paper, but that's the basic principle. When did reading go out of fashion and become replaced with trying to sound authoritative?

[Vociferous]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

> I would suggest that (examples)

It's a bit potayto/potahto kind of thing. All your examples and global warming all have overpopulation as ultimate cause.

> Rape is a subject I won't include

I believe very often increases in rape is an artifact of increased reporting, e.g. India is seeing an explosion in reported rape right now not because there are more rapes, but because for the first time women can report rape and reasonably hope that the culprit will get punished.

See also Sweden, with sky-high rape statistics because of a uniquely victim-friendly justice system, and Pakistan, which effectively have no reported rapes because the victim is far more likely to be imprisoned than the culprit.

[Scott Broukell]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

There is no doubt whatsoever that increasing access to education for females in the developing world, giving them a voice in the male-dominated cultural and political landscape, is a 'must-do' with regard to getting the largest, and most vulnerable, populations of the planet to realize their own potential and find a way out of living behind the curve. The same can be said for large parts of the developed world as well.

In fact I am confident that given a chance, educated younger minds in the third world would fair better at realizing how to live sustainably, re-using material and seeing 'waste' as a resource, than many in the developed world - they should do, because not only will they have learned lessons from our throw-away culture, but the poor bastards have got enough of our waste to deal with to boot. They also have greater experience of hardship and making-do to fall back on.

(Slightly OT rant over - "nurse ....")

[Brennan Young]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

I go along with the main thrust of your argument, but I feel compelled to correct your misuse of a homonym (in two separate posts!)

It's 'fare better' as in 'farewell', not 'fair better' which suggests an honest gambler. (Fair has never been a verb).

Otherwise, yes, alienation (and therefore crime) amongst the lower classes is exacerbated when the conditions of existence deteriorate. (And regardless of the causes of that deterioration).

[Irony Deficient]

(“Fair” has never been a verb.)

Brennan, I suggest that you check Shakespeare’s Sonnet 127 before making that claim.

You are correct on the mistaken homophone, though.

[sisk]

Re: (“Fair” has never been a verb.)

I suggest that you check Shakespeare’s Sonnet 127 before making that claim.

Consulting Shakespeare on grammar is like consulting Wikipedia on science. He made up his own grammar rules much of the time. As a man with an acting degree that includes two semesters of classes dedicated to Shakespeare and over a dozen Shakespearian shows under my belt* I feel I can speak as an authority on that subject.

*Admittedly the classes and the plays were all about one and a half subjective lifetimes ago. Certainly they were two careers and an entire second run through college ago. On a somewhat related note if anyone ever invents a time machine go slap some sense into my 19 year old self for me so he'll pick a realistic major.

[Irony Deficient]

Re: (“Fair” has never been a verb.)

sisk, I did not claim that Shakespeare introduced fair as a verb; I simply provided an example of his use of it. The OED shows its first documented source as a verb from c. 1175, and its most recent source was from 1959, each of which stands as a counterexample to Brennan’s claim that it has never been used as a verb.

You’ve piqued my curiosity. Since you’re speaking as an authority on that subject, which grammar rules did Shakespeare make up, in comparison to the grammatical rules of Elizabethan English?

[sisk]

Re: (“Fair” has never been a verb.)

Since you’re speaking as an authority on that subject, which grammar rules did Shakespeare make up, in comparison to the grammatical rules of Elizabethan English?

He basically invented an entire pidgin of Elizabethan English. The differences between what he wrote and the way others spoke and wrote at the time are far too numerous to list.

[Irony Deficient]

Re: (“Fair” has never been a verb.)

sisk, the differences are so numerous that none of them can be listed? Thank noun that we have you here as an authority on Shakespeare’s pidgin English.

[BillG]

Re: (“Fair” has never been a verb.)

Consulting Shakespeare on grammar is like consulting Wikipedia on science.

+1 for that

[Goat Jam]

Optional

"There is no doubt whatsoever that [...] giving [females] a voice in the male-dominated cultural and political landscape, is a 'must-do' with regard to getting the largest, and most vulnerable, populations of the planet to realize their own potential and find a way out of living behind the curve. "

Ha ha ha, that's a cracker. Every western nation that has been infected with the cancer of feminism is rapidly unravellng as we speak. To think that having more of it will make the world even better despite all evidence to the contrary is just crazy.

You give females a voice and they go straight to voting themselves a big daddy government. In other words the first thing they say is "give me your stuff you beastly male" Then they spit on you.

Stop being a beta Scott and take the red pill, you will be all the better for it.

[Moosh]

Re: Optional

Oh look, another moron who lives on the internet too much and has lost sight of what life is like in the real world.

The tumblrites and the braindead reactionarys (that's you by the way) are the only ones talking about this retarded lop-sided feminism in any serious way, and thank the lord that you're both exteremely marginal parts of society, because otherwise I might have to hear your mindless prattling elsewhere, too.

Why don't you wake up and smell what you're shovelling? Supporting the education and rights of women in countries that routinely brutalize them and refuse them education is being "beta" now?

I think you'll find that being unable to move past your neolithic ideas because you're such a fucking child that you can't handle a different worldview is a bit more beta than sucking it up and admitting there's a clear problem in some parts of the world, and that maybe being a "redpilled" regular of /pol/ and other reactionary, circlejerking sites where you and 50 others can congratulate yourselves on being enlightened isn't representative of whats actually going on outside your basement.

[sisk]

Re: Difficult to take this serious

See also Sweden, with sky-high rape statistics because of a uniquely victim-friendly justice system

Not to mention that in Sweeden 'rape' includes situations where the 'victim' consents at the time but later changes their mind. At least that's how I understand it.

[Goat Jam]

The global warming catastrophists are truly getting more desperate every day.

It is a sure sign that they are losing the argument.

[Graham Marsden]

Or is Lewis getting more desperate to prove his view of the argument...?

[Vociferous]

He's always been cherry-picking and misrepresenting studies. This study is utterly unimportant but since it agrees with his prejudices he writes a piece on it instead of, say, this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a pseudoscientific interpretation of "too hot to handle"?

(Yes this is a slow Monday morning...)

[Ole Juul]

Is that a pseudoscientific interpretation of "too hot to handle"?

It's a carbon copy.

[Pete 2]

Time to get the calculator out

> Between 2010 and 2099, [ a period of 90 years ] climate change will cause an additional ...1.3 million burglaries

And we are told¹ there are 2.2 million burglaries in the USA every year. So climate change will account for an extra 1,300,000 / 90 = 14,400 more per year or a rise of about 0.6%.

First thing: pardon me if I don't get too concerned about this

Second thing: this guy quotes his "results" to 2 significant figures: 1.3million, 22,000 etc. That alone tells me he is quantifying far beyond the accuracy that crime forecasting OR climatology is good for. Whether that is down to cluelessness, an economist's traditional sense of humour, or that he thinks it adds credibility - I couldn't say. But none of those possibilities are true (except maybe the "in joke" about the significant digits).

[1] ref: prweb.com "every 14.4 seconds, a home in the U.S. has been burglarized"

[dogged]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

> burglarized

Ew. I know you're quoting but that's horrible. What happened to "burgled"?

[frank ly]

@dogged Re: Time to get the calculator out

It's not nice but it's not as bad as being murdererfied.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @dogged Time to get the calculator out

Surely you mean Code 187? MurderDeathKill?

[Scroticus Canis]

Re: @dogged Time to get the calculator out

Sorry Andrew but a down vote for even mentioning such a 'crap-crap' film even in an oblique way.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

@dogged

I used to think "burgled" was correct, too. On investigation it turned out that it's a back-formation based on the incorrect assumption that "burglar" is just a funny way of spelling "burgler".

See http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/01/17/entanet_stepney/#c_959179.

[Pete 2]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

> What happened to "burgled"?

or the less contentious "robbed"?

[PhoenixRevealed]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

Burgled and robbed are not synonyms, although both involve theft.

Nobody was ever burgled at knifepoint.

[eldakka]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

Burglary and Robbery are 2 different offences.

Burglary is the intent to break into a building without consent with the intent of committing a crime inside (including theft).

Robbery requires both theft and a form of violence or threat of violence used to deprive someone of their property.

[Scroticus Canis]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

Shirley a much simpler explanation is that the crime rate total figures go up because the population has increased.

Not only will contemporary infants have matured to crime capable ages, but 90 years is 4-5 generations in the socio-economic groupings where these types of crime are more prevalent and more likely to increase instep with hardship.

Just linking the expected rise to climate change probably got the grant which would not have been the case for a report on the expanding population of the criminally inclined.

[Mike 137]

Re: Time to get the calculator out

"... and don't call me Shirley..."

(Airplane)

[John Smith 19]

I know this one.

It's the old CSI thing.

Temperature rises ---> violent crimes rise as people get more short tempered and aggressive.

All temperatures everywhere rising --> Permanent rise in crimes.

Beware simple explanations for complex problems.

I think my icon says it all.

[Vociferous]

Re: I know this one.

> It's the old CSI thing.

Yes.

> Beware simple explanations for complex problems.

Yes. And also remember that correlation is the weakest evidence there is.

[Squander Two]

Re: I know this one.

> correlation is the weakest evidence there is.

Not as weak as a total lack of correlation, surely?

[Mark Jan]

Re: I know this one.

Not wishing to state the sort of obvious, but if it's warmer, won't more people just leave their windows open and then forget they've done so...?

BTW I think the whole global warming thing is bollocks but it tends to get warmer in the summer which is when windows tend to be opened and thieves take advantage.

[Vociferous]

Re: I know this one.

> Not as weak as a total lack of correlation, surely?

That's absence of evidence, that dreaded "one time out of 20 the result will be statistically significant because of random chance" territory in which spurious results dwell.

[Charles Manning]

Re: I know this one.

"Not as weak as a total lack of correlation, surely?"

You have that wrong.

Correlation on its own will often set you off on completely the wrong path. That is often far worse than being left in the same place looking for more proper evidence.

FAs a flippant example, if you look at the cars in the KFC parking lot you will see a lot of real bangers. There is a high correlation (at least in NZ anyway) between eating KFC and having an unroadworthy car.

The immediate evidence suggests that eating fried chicken causes your car to become unroadworthy. We can then jump the gun and start acting on this evidence and end up with crazy govermnent policies (vouchers for tyre discounts with every bucket of chicken).

That is one of the problems with the really fancily names epidemiological studies - they only identify correlation and not causation. Often ideological biases of the researchers then make the leap to suggest causation.

[Dave Schofield]

Re: I know this one.

"Temperature rises ---> violent crimes rise as people get more short tempered and aggressive."

Only up to a certain temperature (~body temp IIRC) - above that point it falls again as people are too hot to do anything.

[Anonymous Coward 101]

Given that the causes of crime are so opaque, these are very bold predictions indeed. For example, there is only a very limited understanding for why the crime rate in the western world has fallen since the early to mid nineties.

[itzman]

causes of crime are so opaque?

Hradly.

if(opportnity(crime) && chanceOfGettingAwayWith(crime)>0.97)

commit(crime);

else

expressInnocenceAndLawAbidingNature(self);

[sisk]

Re: causes of crime are so opaque?

Correction:

chanceOfGettingAwayWith(crime) > riskThreshhold(self)

I've known some people for whom riskThreshhold is as low as 0.1 and others where the risk threshold is infinity. Just saying.

[Sander van der Wal]

If crime levels are falling, then it is because Global Warming is actually Global Cooling. Correlation is after all correlation.

[Dr Dan Holdsworth]

Lead pollution is the cause of quite a lot of crime, and we have the USA to thank for proving this. Lead in petrol (tetra ethyl lead as a fuel enhancer) was phased out by different states of the USA at different times, and at differing rates. Interestingly the rate of reduction of crime in the young male population fairly closely mirrors the decrease in exposure to lead very early in life.

It seems that men are much more sensitive to pollution than are women (or merely lack brain redundancy to cope with minor brain damage) and are also much, much more likely to turn criminal as a result of minor damage caused by pollution. Lead is the chief cause here, as it is a neurotoxin, and the damage seems to happen in the first year or so of life.

Now that we've phased out lead and are getting much, much more savvy about other environmental pollutants such as phthalates and the like, we can expect crime to reduce further. Every improvement has about a fifteen year lag between the improvement and the crime reduction, hence this correlation has hitherto been missed, but it is there and is measurable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Over-population increases stress, of course. Fairly sure the only way to counter the obvious consequences of cramming people beyond the critical density would be to tranquillize them.

[JP19]

"Lead pollution is the cause of quite a lot of crime, and we have the USA to thank for proving this."

You don't know that and it hasn't been proved.

Claiming correlation is causal with no evidence or pulling numbers out of your arse to make predictions like the subject of this article - don't know which is worse.

[sisk]

"Lead pollution is the cause of quite a lot of crime, and we have the USA to thank for proving this."

You don't know that and it hasn't been proved.

Playing devils advocate here.

There is more than a casual relationship between lead levels and violent crime. There is the correlation, which of course is weak, but it becomes much stronger when you pair it with the well known fact that one of the most prominent symptoms of lead poisoning is heightened aggression.

So, basically, you take the well known and documented fact that lead poisoning causes aggression, combine it with a chart that shows a strong correlation between violent crime rates and environmental lead, and you have a pretty strong case, even if it's not rock solid proof.

Correlation may be weak, but it's not something to be dismissed entirely, especially in the presence of other supporting evidence.

[John Smith 19]

@Dr Dan Holdsworth

" Lead in petrol (tetra ethyl lead as a fuel enhancer) was phased out by different states of the USA at different times, and at differing rates. Interestingly the rate of reduction of crime in the young male population fairly closely mirrors the decrease in exposure to lead very early in life."

Very much in the way that sprinkling pepper on my custard stops the risk finding a live pike in my bowl.

It's worked perfectly so far.

[Anonymous Coward]

"For example, there is only a very limited understanding for why the crime rate in the western world has fallen since the early to mid nineties."

According to the Freakononics guy it was Roe v. Wade.

His argument is pretty compelling and he has the numbers to back it up ...

[Chris G]

Crystal Balls

This guy having crystal balls can be the only answer as to how he arrived at these numbers, they are certainly not scientific and without being too sure of what qualifies a paper as academic I strongly doubt the paper is even that.

Maybe he has interests in a handcuff factory and needs to boost sales by getting more cops on the street.

[Richard Taylor 2]

Re: Crystal Balls

Well certainly balls........

[Vociferous]

Re: Crystal Balls

> how he arrived at these numbers

Well it's pretty much junk science, but he arrived at the numbers by correlating crime rates to temperature, and then extrapolating to projected future temperatures.

It literally is the CSI "people become irritable and commit more crimes during heat waves" thing.

[david 12]

London riots

When were the 2011 riots? Between 6 and 11 August 2011. Following the hot spell with a max of 30 on August 3rd.

[Khaptain]

Re: London riots

Ok, can you please explain Ukraine at the moment

[Roland6]

Re: London riots

Well in comparison to a typical January/February, the weather is positively mild...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see

…That a PhD from Harvard doesn't make you immune to confusing correlation and causation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Terrorists, etc.

They forgot to include terrorists and paedophiles. Amateurs!

[Anonymous Coward]

Shark attacks and ice cream

There is a direct correlation between ice cream sales and shark attacks. I think for safety we should limit ice cream sales. Think of the lives we could save.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Shark attacks and ice cream

Which is not junk science. There is a clear common cause between shark attacks and ice cream sales.

[Schick]

Re: Shark attacks and ice cream

Not to mention sun screen/block (yuckie cream) sales. And what about little plastic buckets and spades and beach-brolly rentals? And.. and ..and, holy mother!, what about sand heaped up into un-natural shapes?

Jumpin Jehosophat (who?) the list of things that enrage sharks is endless!

How do they (the sharks, not the climate change addicts) even know these things are happening (except those large sandcastles). ...ESP ??

Has this even been investigated? Shouldn't it be?

....Funding!!!

(Bugger burglaries and sea levels when your leg's being chewed off !)

[K]

Sorry to say I can't take part in all this Viking behaviour..

With the record snow fall, I'll be to busy frequenting the slopes... bye darlings, Davos is calling!

[TitterYeNot]

Environmental Research

I have produced a study (published in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Ecumenical Matters') that finds that due to the amount of bullshit spouted by environmental economists between the years 2010 and 2099 there will be:-

- 293,457 deaths due to drowning in aforesaid excrement

- 250,395 deaths due to asphyxiation by noxious odours

- 784,594 deaths due to acute boredom

- 325 cases of impersonating a clown

- 654,215 cases of farce in a public place

- 125,368 cases of 'Seriously, you're taking the piss now'

- The appearance of the 4 horsemen (or women) of the apocalypse

These conclusions were based upon prior research carried out for my PhD in Exotic Existential Environmentalism & Rubber Band Theory from The University of Hogpimples, Scotland. QED.

[Grikath]

Re: Environmental Research

While most of your results seem at first glance to be plausible, and obviously well-researched, I have to wonder at the extremely high rate of "impersonating of a clown" , since previous research by Blagsky and Bent has proven that this particular act of heinousness can only be performed by a true sadist with unresolved masochistic tendencies, at gunpoint. At least in public.

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Predicatable reaction

To that will be that the American citizens, of course, will need more guns with greater caliber, higher rate of fire and fewer background checks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Predicatable reaction

Consider it population control. Always good for the environment. :)

[James Boag]

If my memory of 90's indie pop is anything to go by.

92 deg F is the temperature that city dwellers riot

[Tim Worstal]

This paper is very simple indeed

It's true that crime goes up as temperatures in a given location do. More people outside running around for a start. Anyway, it's a well know correlation. However, from the paper itself:

"However, there is no obvious

cross-sectional relationship between the temperature zones and crime rates."

There is no relationship at all between generally higher temperatures in any location and the crime rate.

If climate change means that we get greater variance of temperature in each place then this guy's calculation could be right (please note "could"). But as the contention is that average temperatures will increase everywhere he's not. Because changes in average temp don't change crime rates, it's variance in temp that does.

[sisk]

This is what I mean when I start talking about insanity in the climate change debate.

[david 63]

We'd better start spending the money on adapting...

...instead of more modelling exercises.

40 years of action on global warming and the only effect has been raised taxation, more expensive fuel and a few people getting rich in the carbon credits market. CO2 continues to rise.

Renewables and energy storage still hasn't advanced in efficiency and looks to me like a busted flush.

Radical I know but if the science is settled and you must be mad to deny the catastrophe, and the absence of any way to mitigate world hydrocarbon use, further research into causes and effects is futile. 97%* of people who know about it are 95%** certain so let's take their funding and start building sea walls, irrigation/drainage schemes, desalination plants, nuclear power stations before it is too late.

Footnote: I have a couple of surefire investment opportunities. A citrus farm in Sussex and a vineyard in Lapland. DM me for my paypal details if you want to chip in...

*I know

**I know about this too

[sisk]

Re: We'd better start spending the money on adapting...

Radical I know but if the science is settled and you must be mad to deny the catastrophe

If the science is settled then you would never know it from scientific journalism, which is all most of us have to go from. Hate to say it but if there truly is a consensus in the scientific community the public at large has yet to see it. We're still seeing the constant back and forth between the "its natural and nothing to worry about" and the "we've doomed ourselves with fossil fuels" camps in articles like this one. One day, when I'm retired with no kids in the house and have all the time in the world and nothing better to do (about 30-35 years from now probably, and I suspect the debate will still be raging even if the oil reserves have run dry and the effects of climate change have become catastrophically obvious by then) I'll sit down and do the proper research and figure out the truth of the matter.

[Fluffy Bunny]

Re: We'd better start spending the money on adapting...

95% of people think that 97% of statistics are just made up on the spot.

More seriously, most of the states of Australia were convinced to build billion dollar water desalination plants because the drought was going on forever and it was never going to rain again. Funny thing - it rained. Now everybody has desalination plants they don't need. In other words, don't go out and do your adaptation before it's needed, it probably won't be.

[david 63]

Re: We'd better start spending the money on adapting...

I was being mischievous. I thought that might have been clear from the last couple of lines.

See this for my real views...

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2066837

[Goit]

Will it also increase racism?

I see his reasoning, after all, aren't all those types from the 'hotter countries' a bit more rapey than us civilised people?!

[david 63]

Re: Will it also increase racism?

Yep, by the time the Siberians, Lapps and Inuit have got fought through the layers, the feeling has worn off ;)

(Bring it on offendatrons)

[DJ]

Climate change alert!

OMG!

The temperature where I live has gone up almost 10 degrees (F) since I woke up this morning!

At this rate, it will be 200 degrees by tomorrow!

Some needs to do something - quick!

Paris because she knows about as much about the subject as anyone seems to.

[Anonymous Coward]

CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSES RAPE!

I guess if alarmists can't get the results they want, make the headlines more alarming!

[ItsNotMe]

" Matthew Ranson holds a B.A. in Environmental Science..."

Me thinks he is more BS...than BA.

[4d3fect]

Wrong side of the pond here

But why is twocking any different than any other kind of robbery?

[Fluffy Bunny]

At the risk of repeating myself:

If you offer 100$B for climate change research, expect 100$B worth of scientific fraud.

[bert_fe]

What a bunch of ignorant commentards

Give up your pathetic protestations Lewis. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. This evidence will not change the minds of the ignorati or denialati. They revel in their ignorance!

I really fear for humanities future when supposedly smart people spout absolute rubbish on this topic.

This includes nearly all the comments from the retardati here!. Bert

[Ted Treen]

I take it...

...that Mr Ranson resides in secure accommodation.

If not, why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

I must be having a flashback...

BING BING BING... WE HAVE A WINNER...

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2399650.htm

Experts warn of increase in climate change crime

PM - Thursday, 23 October , 2008 18:46:00

Reporter: Jayne Margetts

MARK COLVIN: Climate change and the measures taken to control it may have one unexpected result: a crime wave.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute pinpoints the risk of carbon market fraud, an increase in violent crime, and looting after natural disasters as just some of the challenges police may face as the globe warms.

The think tank is calling on the nation's police forces to start preparing.

Jayne Margetts reports.

JAYNE MARGETTS: In September last year the federal police commissioner Mick Keelty had this warning:

MICK KEELTY: The potential security issues are enormous and should not be underestimated. Climate change is going to be the security issue of the 21st century.

JAYNE MARGETTS: At the end of this year the Federal Government is expected, for the first time, to include climate change in its National Security Statement.

But a new report has found it's not even a blip on the radar for most senior police officers.

ANTHONY BERGIN: I think it's one of those issues that hasn't really been considered.

[Catweazle666]

Pity there hasn't been any warming for somewhere between 17 and 23 years, depending on which database you use, isn't it?

Desperation seems to be setting in.

[Mussie (Ed)]

Sigh.....

I cant wait for the day when i can turn to a greenie and tell them "You dickheads were wrong" as I kick them in the balls.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't That Be

Allbran and murder and rape?