Climate Violence Measurement

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics

Abstract

A large and growing body of research explores the effects of a changing global climate on political violence. Yet, major cross-national political violence data sets are constructed largely or wholly from news media articles. We consider whether the news media's reporting on conflict systematically varies with weather conditions and natural disasters. Interviews with wartime correspondents and other media professionals clearly indicate that reporting is directly influenced by severe weather and natural disasters. We then draw from detailed records released by various government's security forces and test whether the media consistently under-report violence during periods of extreme weather and natural disasters. Results suggest that 1) existing empirical research on climate change and political violence/social unrest may be biased by the influence of severe weather and natural disasters on reporting activities and 2) that previously tested relationships that were never published because the findings were null may have been influenced by such biases. It is, therefore, that imperative that empirical researchers identify alternatives to media-based data as they seek to further examine the effects on a changing global climate on political violence and social unrest.

Authors

• Chika Doreen Kenneth, University of California, Merced

• Andrew Shaver, University of California, Merced