The question is no longer just whether climate change will kill us, but also whether climate change will make us kill one another. Almost 25% of armed conflicts in ethnically divided countries occur around the same time as climate-related disasters. This is the main conclusion of a new study that adds crucial data to a debate that's been simmering for several years: Is there evidence that ties war and civil unrest to the changing climate?Another finding directly applies to this and humanity's key climate change choke points: food and water.In the three decades ending in 2010, 9% of wars took place in the wake of heat waves or droughts.Shooting wars generally require a complex web of short- and long-term causes. Anecdotal fodder abounds pointing towards extreme climate events as one of them.Syria's civil war erupted amid the area's worst drought in 900 years, though consequences of the Arab Spring were its primary genesis.Further meteorological chaos could push Venezuela's economic implosion over the edge, but the oil glut and political chaos will probably play larger roles.As early as 2007 UN secretary- general Ban Ki-moon touted a link between climate change and the conflict in Darfur that's killed hundreds of thousands of people.The new study, by mostly German researchers, adds weight to the common-sense notion that, at the very least, climate-related catastrophes contribute to instability in places where neighbours already stand poised to shoot one another. ..