What About the Weather?

Economists can do some pretty interesting things. A couple recently have studied the effect of weather on various human activities and found some startling "facts." For instance, droughts in Africa are positively correlated (read "cause") with civil wars. Here's another: rain has a strong negative effect on riots. (Makes sense: who wants to riot in the rain?) And finally, the kicker: global warming is predicted to cause mortality rates in the US to rise, at a cost of some $31 billion per year. Some states will do better than others (uhoh). Fun stuff.