A new scientific research study has claimed that “climate change” is to blame for the surge in violent crime in many of America’s inner cities.
The findings of the study were published in the science journal Jama Network Op.
The researchers say they analyzed the gun crime rates in 100 U.S. cities and determined that the “climate crisis” is causing violence to increase in some cities.
“Our work suggests that climate change, which may elevate daily temperatures above normal ranges, may contribute to increased firearm violence,” the researchers said.
The study assessed police records on shootings from 2015 to 2020.
The scientists said that the number of shootings increases when the temperature gets hotter.
They concluded that this means climate change is to blame for urban gun violence.
“We saw a really consistent overall relationship between temperature and a higher risk of shootings,” said Dr. Vivian Lyons, at the University of Washington, Seattle, who led the research.
“When we are aware that firearm violence is more likely to happen on hotter days, regardless of the season, it can help inform violence prevention efforts.
“There is a concern I have, after the study, that firearm-related violence will rise as climate change continues.”
Dr. Jonathan Jay, at Boston University’s school of public health and part of the study team, suggested a push for “environmental justice” would tackle violent crime.
“So further research could zoom in on ways that climate mitigation and environmental justice can intersect with gun violence prevention, in terms of investing in communities to make neighborhoods more livable, and cooler and safer for the people,” Jay said.
Dr. Laurence Wainwright, at Oxford University, and not part of the research team, celebrated the study for linking “human-induced climate change” to more of society’s problems.
“These findings significantly strengthen the hypothesis that temperature rises brought about due to human-induced climate change will have a connection with increased firearm violence in the US, and other countries, in the years ahead,” Wainwright gushed.
However, Professor Seena Fazel, a forensic psychiatrist at Oxford University, argues that blaming “climate change” will cause more obvious issues to be ignored.
Access to “healthcare services for substance misuse” and “other approaches” are more “likely to make a much greater contribution” to reducing crime “from a violence prevention perspective,” Fazel noted.
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