Climate Change Helped Spark Syrian War, Study Says

[KamaAina]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150302-syria-war-climate-change-drought/

A severe drought, worsened by a warming climate, drove Syrian farmers to abandon their crops and flock to cities, helping trigger a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, according to a new study published Monday.

The research provides the most detailed look yet at how climate change may already be helping spark violent political unrest.

"Up until now we've understood and established that changes in climate may affect human conflict in the future. But everything until now has stopped short of saying climate change is already having an effect," says Solomon Hsiang, a University of California, Berkeley professor who has studied the role of climate change in violence. He did not participate in the new study....

But their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compiled statistics showing that water shortages in the Fertile Crescent in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey killed livestock, drove up food prices, sickened children, and forced 1.5 million rural residents to the outskirts of Syria's jam-packed cities—just as that country was exploding with immigrants from the Iraq war. (Related: "Half of Syrians Displaced: 5 Takeaways From New UN Report.&quot

[joeybee12]

1. This is just the beginning...unfortunately...nt

[hunter]

4. Yep, and coming soon to the U.S.A. as region turns against region.

I can easily imagine U.S. Americans in places that have become unlivable because of drought, heat, or rising oceans, being turned away by their fellow citizens.

It's already happened before.



You see these sorts of views expressed on DU today.

[joeybee12]

5. And there were cops at the state line making sure you

didn't get in...LA cops made the trek...talk about a lack of jurisdiction!

[KamaAina]

6. Unless El Niño gets here, the situation could well be reversed.

[Matariki]

9. Ironic. I'd like to see a billboard like this in Washington State

to keep Californians out.

[KamaAina]

15. There was one in Oregon some years ago.

Can't find the pic, but here's a bumper sticker expressing a similar sentiment.

[frylock]

16. I just started reading 'The Grapes of Wrath' this past weekend.

[GummyBearz]

27. Its an interesting read

The way they talk cracked me up. My grandparents are true Okies that came to california in the dust bowl. They talk the same way, I had just never seen it written in book form. I have relatives in most of the california towns the Joads' mention. I was raised in I think their final destination (Bakersfield)

[ryan_cats]

29. Spoiler alert

Spoiler alert.
Rosebud is a sled.

[deutsey]

7. The DoD is planning for civil unrest brought on by climate change

http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/612710

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2015 — Global climate change will aggravate problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries, according to a report the Defense Department sent to Congress yesterday.


You'd think one of their GOP friends in Congress would tell them to relax...it's all just a hoax...right?

[jwirr]

8. I would like to see what they have planned for us here in

the USA? We already have areas in the south that are facing some of the consequences and on our southern border and on islands around us many are facing the problems associated with global warming.

Unfortunately the CIA and the MIC often only think in terms of military intervention and IMO I do not see how that is going to help anything in a good way.

I guess I am thankful that FDR came up with some real help in the age of the Great Depression and the dust bowl. I want us to be grown ups not children in dealing with a world wide problem.

[Hekate]

30. They think that way because it's their job to do so. Politicians and Presidents are supposed to....

...be doing their quite different jobs and directing the Pentagon. Instead we have assclowns tossing a snowball across the Senate to show there's no global warming.

Back during the BushCheney administration, while Gore was desperately trying to spread the word about climate change and being mocked to death by the deniers, I was fascinated to read that the Pentagon was operating in Reality Land on its own. The Pentagon had its own people producing papers on how to handle the inevitable upheavals consequent to severe climate change.

However, as you and I know, their mission is to look at things from a military logistical perspective. That is neither bad nor good, it just is.

The horrible thing is that, as Gore has pointed out, we lack the political will. It's our politicians (GOP controlled Congress, etc.) who are failing us at every turn. They are the ones who are supposed to supply policy directions and the funds to carry them through -- and they are resolutely refusing to do so.

[Gregorian]

2. Your personal behavior does effect the world.

I came to this forum enraging people when I spoke about how our luxurious lifestyle (ie, if you have electricity/hot water/cars) is responsible for the wars. Those wars subsidize our lifestyle.

And now we have actual proof that our lifestyles have also contributed to the displacement of people due to climate change.

[daleanime]

3. kick, kick, kick....

[AlbertCat]

10. Part of the take-away of a scientific world view is.....

..... everything effects everything else... in criss-crossed, subtle, outrageously coincidental ways you cannot fathom or imagine. That is a real, 3-D, concrete lesson of science.


When I was in school in the late 60's Cosmology (the study of the very big) and Particle Physics (the study of the very small) were different things.
Today they are not.

The action of a quark effects more than the proton it's making up.

This is what I'm talking about.

Science should never be ignored.

[AZ Progressive]

11. This will be the most immediate ramifications: war and social breakdown over dwindling resources

This is merely a preview of what's to come in the future.

[zalinda]

12. Didn't Bernie say something

about this in the last debate?

Z

[bullwinkle428]

26. YES he did - and some here had the gall to mock him for it.

[tecelote]

13. Does Murdoch know about this?

Such sad news:

Rupert Murdoch just bought National Geographic. Here’s the problem everybody should be talking about.

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/10/rupert_murdoch_just_bought_national_geographic_heres_the_problem_everybody_should_be_talking_about/

---

Maybe the staff did this to push a truth they will no longer be able to report.

[restorefreedom]

14. i know people hate hearing this

but PLEASE consider making changes to your diet. animal ag is a UUGE (channeling trump) contributor to pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, natural resource consumption (esp water) and antibiotic resistant disease. most people in developed countries eat 2-4 meals per day. it is the single most effective thing you can do over your lifetime to help this problem.

the power is on your plate, truly. plant based diets are better for you AND the planet.

for more,

New Study: plant based diet may save planet

http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=6858&catId=1

[arcane1]

17. Using scarce land and water to grow food for our food, which also needs its own land and water.

Nothing unsustainable about that!

[restorefreedom]

18. nope, not at all. nt

[arcane1]

20. Glad we agree. Now give me a hand moving this Easter Island statue n/t

[restorefreedom]

21. cows gotta graze..

i saw a globe trekker episode about easter island. it was very cool.

[Yorktown]

19. GW Helped Spark Syrian War more than climate change

The million of Iraqi refugees in Syria, the creation of ISIS due to the break up of Iraq,

all this contributed much more directly to the Syrian War.

Mission accomplished.

[restorefreedom]

22. arrrgh i hate seeing his smarmy sniveling face!

what a vile cretinous puppet.

grrrrrre

ok time to go to my happy place.....

[Yorktown]

23. It's true just seeing his face is irritating

But there's worse.

Hearing him saying the CIA 'misled' him.

Cretin.

[restorefreedom]

24. ugh. do me a favor,

if you plan on posting a cheney photo up tonight, hint it in the title

i am trying to avoid a stroke

him i loathe with the strength of a thousand suns

[Yorktown]

25. I have a treat for you

TRICKED

[restorefreedom]

28. thwonk!

that was me passing out......

oh crap that is an even scarier picture of him than most....you can see the undercurrent of demonic essence in his eyes and face..

arrrghghghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


gonna need to stare at butterflies for a while to cleanse my eyes...




ok, getting better now....

you sneak! halloween was two weeks ago!

[Yorktown]

32. My apologies

The undying prankster in me, I fear.


There, a token of peace:

[restorefreedom]

33. no worries...you never know when

the devil will show up here on du

lovely photo!

all is good

and by devil of course i mean cheney

[Yorktown]

34. Why are defaming the good name of the devil?

If there was a devil, which I doubt, it is expected to be clever and efficient.

Invading Iraq? Not so clever.

[restorefreedom]

35. good point. however, even in devilland,

somebody has to be at the other end of the intelligence bell curve

[Yorktown]

36. You show no respect for people with intellectual development

Little Dick Cheney is just 'different'.

[restorefreedom]

37. you're right. i have no respect for him whatsoever :)

[pampango]

31. From Juan Cole last year: How Repression and Climate Change Drove the Syrian Civil War

However, in a nation where the mukhabarat (secret police informants/intelligence agents) have long infiltrated all segments of society and institutions, a general aura of fear, suspicion, and paranoia persisted well into Bashar’s reign. I witnessed this first-hand when I visited and stayed in Dera’a for a few days with family friends several years before the uprising and recall the kind of vexing stares I received from some of those whom I attempted to raise the issue of Syrian politics with. I was a bit naïve and so I, more than anything, wanted to know if the stories I had heard about Syrian fears of the regime were legit. They were.

During the same year Bashar Al-Assad took power, ninety-nine Syrian intellectuals, writers, and critics crafted and signed the “Statement of 99” calling for an end to emergency rule/martial law that had been in place since 1963, for the state to pardon political dissidents detained, imprisoned, deported, or exiled by his father’s regime, formal recognition and implementation of freedom of assembly, press, and expression, as well as an end to the surveillance of its citizens by the secret police and security forces. The movement behind the statement was composed of both anti-regime hardliners as well as moderates who collectively sought political reform. The result of long-festering political and economic dissent among Syrians, the “Statement of 99” was a brow-raising announcement that, at minimum, made the regime slightly uncomfortable. The formation of various think-tanks, organizations, and social and political ‘parties’ coincided with Bashar’s takeover of Syria- all of which were critical of the regime’s political and economic monopolies on the country caused the regime to crack down on dissenters. The following year, in 2001, one thousand academics, critics, and activists launched the “Statement of 1,000” which expanded on the previous statement’s tenets and called for a multi-party democracy to supplant the one-party Baa’thist state. This was met with another, albeit harsher, government crackdown.

All of these grievances began to fester when anti-regime protests began in early 2011. While initially limited to small demonstrations calling on the lifting of the Emergency Laws and better economic policies, the government was able to contain them with relative ease. When they grew as they did in Dera’a in March of that year, the government’s crackdowns intensified and greater numbers of Syrians became disillusioned by the regime’s insincerity in addressing and implementing political, social, and economic reforms. The zero-tolerance policies of the Assad regime only sought to radicalize some already, economically and politically disenfranchised segments of the Syrian population, some of which had been subdued by his father in previous years and had since been boiling with discontent.

Moreover, the regime’s disastrous mismanagement of water resources during a drought between 2006 and 2010 compounded Syrian economic woes and led to increased gaps between socioeconomic classes in Syria as farmers were unable to make a living due to the desertification of their agricultural lands. Agriculture made up 22% of Syria’s economy before the uprising and subsequent war, and therefore had a wide-reaching impact on the country as a whole when farms began to vanish . This led to frustration with the regime, who then initiated the cancellation of important subsidies which facilitated farming as well as social unrest for the inhabitants of rural communities who had to leave and find work elsewhere primarily in cities in which demonstrations erupted in 2011, according to Dutch environmentalist Francesca de Châtel . 1.5 million Syrians (mainly from farming families) were forced to find work, at times, far away from home . While the drought was obviously not the fault of the regime, its past policies and lack of foresight contributed to the crumbling of one of its most viable economic sectors which led to major financial stress for millions of Syrians.

http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/maelstrom-repression-climate.html

[wagepeace]

38. Climate change helped spark Syrian war

Bernie Sanders made this very point in last weeks Democratic debate. As usual Mr. Sanders is spot-on with his facts.

[libdem4life]

39. I have read for years...the Final War...call it what you will...will be over water.

And where is it the most scarce? What does one do when their children are dying from thirst? It's a fact of geography and life.

Climate change might just be hurrying the process.