Climate Change Affects Terrorist Activities in India, Forces Them to Migrate [Study]

Climate change is undeniable and it affects almost everything -- even terrorists' activities. The changing weather patterns reportedly force terrorists in India to relocate or migrate.

Climate Change Affects Terrorist Activities in India

Extremism expert Dr. Jared Dmello, from the University of Adelaide's School of Social Sciences, led an exploratory study and discovered that some climatological variables affected terrorist activity in India.

For the study, the team concentrates on the terrorist activities in India between 1998 and 2017, a period when 9096 terrorist incidents were reported. They focused on the site of attacks, but the data also implies that other extreme behaviors, such as training grounds, are probably changing in response to climate change.

Temperature, precipitation, and elevation are the three climatological variables that suitability analyses show are related to changing patterns of terrorist activity, according to the expert.

The population density of urban centers has increased, especially in areas with favorable climates. Some of the more isolated areas that extremists used to frequent have seen such dynamic climate changes that they are no longer suitable for human habitation, forcing these groups to relocate.

The terrorist activity was seasonal in nature and resulted from both the strength of these climatological variables and terrorists' relocation to other areas.

Per Dmello, over their 20-year study period, average temperatures in India reached record highs. This period of time provides a sufficiently wide range to illustrate the effects of climate change while also providing access to the most current, trustworthy data covering the aspects of extremism and climate change in the nation.

"This research shows that stopping the damaging effects of climate change is not just an environmental issue but one that is directly tied to national security and defense," he added.

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Effects of Climate Change

Climate change is a serious global concern. It affects the environment and people's health, as well as the evolution and population of some species.

For instance, one study discovered that one in five species of lizards in North America might begin to decline in population. By the end of this century, 84 percent of the nation's lizard population would be threatened by the consequences of climate change and deforestation.

Zoonotic diseases are expected to increase. Worse, it could turn humans into infected zombies like those featured in the series "The Last of Us" by causing a rare event of hybridization.

Globalization, temperature-related changes in ecosystem conditions, and human activities such as the extensive use of fungicides and antibiotics in agriculture might all lead to a rise in the prevalence of hybrids.

The lead researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Dr. Toni Gabaldón, says that the team has been attempting to determine why certain species in our microbiome are toxic to humans while others are not. Their results show that the process of hybridization, which has received little attention up to this point, facilitates the rapid acquisition of traits that allow human infection. Therefore, a fungal mechanism like this could be a rapid approach to enslave a species that is comparable to ours.

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Check out more news and information on Climate Change in Science Times.