From 2012: Syria: Climate Change, Drought and Social Unrest

[G_j]

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/03/437051/syria-climate-change-drought-social-unrest/

Syria: Climate Change, Drought and Social Unrest
BY CLIMATE GUEST BLOGGER ON MARCH 3, 2012 AT 12:30 PM

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NOAA concluded in 2011 that “human-caused climate change [is now] a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts.” Reds and oranges highlight lands around the Mediterranean that experienced significantly drier winters during 1971-2010 than the comparison period of 1902-2010.

by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell, in a Center for Climate & Security repost

Syria’s current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia early last year. However, that’s not the whole story. The past few years have seen a number of significant social, economic, environmental and climatic changes in Syria that have eroded the social contract between citizen and government in the country, have strengthened the case for the opposition movement, and irreparably damaged the legitimacy of the al-Assad regime. If the international community, and future policy-makers in Syria, are to address and resolve the drivers of unrest in the country, these changes will have to be better explored and exposed.

Out of the blue?

International pundits characterized the Syrian uprising as an “out of the blue” case in the Middle East - one that they didn’t see coming. Many analysts, right up to a few days prior to the first protests, predicted that Syria under al-Assad was “immune to the Arab Spring.” However, the seeds of social unrest were right there under the surface, if one looked closely. And not only were they there, they had been reported on, but largely ignored, in a number of forms.

Water shortages, crop-failure and displacement

From 2006-2011, up to 60% of Syria’s land experienced, in the terms of one expert, “the worst long-term drought and most severe set of crop failures since agricultural civilizations began in the Fertile Crescent many millennia ago.” According to a special case study from last year’s Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) of the most vulnerable Syrians dependent on agriculture, particularly in the northeast governorate of Hassakeh (but also in the south), “nearly 75 percent … suffered total crop failure.” Herders in the northeast lost around 85% of their livestock, affecting 1.3 million people.

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[Politicalboi]

1. This where we can help too

By making friends instead of enemies. Wind turbines that create electricity and water instead of bombs, Green houses to feed their people. It would costs millions less and we would have a million more friends. I know it sounds all rainbows and lollipops, but people need to eat, and need water. What good is the UN if they can't push humanitarian rights to people oppressed by their government.

[G_j]

2. all good ideas

our current leaders seem to be devoid of creativity, imagination, and sigh... vision.

[G_j]

3. K

[joshcryer]

4. Climate change is going to make the worlds civil conflicts look like nothing.