Social Conditions Increase Vulnerability to Climate Disasters

An exhaustive new study has shown that societies with a high vulnerability to food shortages are more susceptible to climate induced disasters. This susceptibility can manifest itself in social changes, as well as environmental hazards. 

Put simply, the study finds that the prehistoric and historic peoples under investigation endured more dramatic consequences from instances of climate induced disasters when their societies had created conditions making them more vulnerable to food short falls. The impact of climate based disasters was made worse by human made conditions.

The conclusions of the research teams composed of archaeologists at Arizona State University and historians, archaeologists and geographers working in the subarctic islands of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroes, have the potential to be hugely significant to modern debates concerning disaster management policy.