The Global Chaos Map

There is a growing trend to map the economic and social consequences of global heating on humans. Earlier this week ABC News mapped out how climate change in Australia is likely to make many homes uninsurable and will cause huge rises in insurance premiums for most other homes. A rise in insurance premiums is likely to be among one of the more benign effects of global heating. Dwindling food supplies, increasing social unrest and more frequent natural disasters are likely to have a much more adverse effect on our lives as the planet warms.

That is why the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University has released The Global Chaos Map Project. The Global Chaos Map Project is an interactive map which has plotted events of unrest around the world which were related to limited access to natural resources during the years 2005–2017. By plotting past deaths and events of unrest arising from access to resources the Institute hopes to be able to better understand the patterns of unrest which are resulting from a heating planet.

On the interactive Chaos Map countries which have been affected by social unrest or deaths are highlighted with different colors. These colors indicate the number of recorded deaths. The map includes a timeline which allows you to view episodes of unrest around the world for any year from 2005 to 2017. If you select a colored country on the map you can view whether the recorded event was caused by food, water or fuel scarcity. You can also view details on the type of reported unrest and the number of resulting deaths.

Alongside the interactive map The Global Chaos Map Project is also providing more detailed commentaries. These commentaries explore in more depth some of the events in the project database. These case studies include (among others) an analysis of how the collapse in the price of oil in 2016 led to food riots in Venezuela and how increases in food prices in Tunisia contributed to the Jasmine Revolution.