Russian barley and weat and Collapse of civilizations

I'm not quite sure why I though of Jared Diamond's "Collapse" when I read the FT today. May be it was the fact that these three news appeared right after each other:

"Drought doubles price of barley in six weeks"

"Russian farmers on brink of bankruptcy"

"Air Pollution levels soar in Moskow"

"Flash floods hit central Europe"

... I'm not sure. It seemed to me as though some of these bad news might have had something to do with global warming... It probably had something to do with the fact that they say it is the warmest summer in Russia for 100 years, or something like that.

I really hope we are not Middle Age Icelanders or that stupid frog in the pan of boiling water...