Thanks to the sluggish global economy, rising terrorist attacks and the refugee crisis in Europe, the world has all but forgotten about the effects of climate change. But a new study shows it is precisely for these reasons that we should take seriously the deadly impacts of climate change. Heat waves, droughts, floods and other natural disasters are expected to increase because of climate change, which not surprisingly are also pushing countries and regions, especially those already split along ethnic, religious or sectarian lines, toward conflicts, says a new study by German scientists.

Climate scientists, including those in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have already warned that if temperatures increase significantly, large parts of the Earth could become uninhabitable, forcing millions of people to migrate to other places in search of food and livelihood, which will significantly increase the risk of conflicts breaking out. Now the new study by German academics has established a "statistical link" between the outbreak of large-scale violence and extreme weather conditions.

In 2007, some scientists and academics said the conflict in Darfur, then part of united Sudan, was nothing but a "climate war". UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon even said: "The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis arising at least in part from climate change". Although many academics dismissed the contention claiming rainfall had eased drought conditions before the start of the civil war in Sudan, the impact of climate change on conflicts in African and other countries is yet to be fully analyzed.