Climate change arrives in a world primed for political, economic and environmental crisis. In countries like Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Somalia, droughts and floods linked to climate change have already exacerbated existing civil conflicts and provoked ethnic rioting. 

In an interview with MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, The Nation‘s Christian Parenti discusses his new book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence and the violent consequences of global climate change. For more on global warming’s side effects, read Parenti’s article in this week’s issue, Pakistan: One Year After the Floods.

—Kevin Donohoe