The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East

Details The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East

2011-08-11

arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455v1

Physics

Physics and Society

15 pages, 2 figures

Scientific paper

Social unrest may reflect a variety of factors such as poverty, unemployment, and social injustice. Despite the many possible contributing factors, the timing of violent protests in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 as well as earlier riots in 2008 coincides with large peaks in global food prices. We identify a specific food price threshold above which protests become likely. These observations suggest that protests may reflect not only long-standing political failings of governments, but also the sudden desperate straits of vulnerable populations. If food prices remain high, there is likely to be persistent and increasing global social disruption. Underlying the food price peaks we also find an ongoing trend of increasing prices. We extrapolate these trends and identify a crossing point to the domain of high impacts, even without price peaks, in 2012-2013. This implies that avoiding global food crises and associated social unrest requires rapid and concerted action.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-276546