An epic Middle East heat wave could be global warming’s hellish curtain-raiser

[DonViejo]

BAGHDAD — Record-shattering temperatures this summer have scorched countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and beyond, as climate experts warn that the severe weather could be a harbinger of worse to come.

In coming decades, U.N. officials and climate scientists predict that the region’s mushrooming populations will face extreme water scarcity, temperatures almost too hot for human survival and other consequences of global warming.

If that happens, conflicts and refugee crises far greater than those now underway are probable, said Adel Abdellatif, a senior adviser at the U.N. Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Arab States who has worked on studies about the effect of climate change on the region.

“This incredible weather shows that climate change is already taking a toll now and that it is — by far — one of the biggest challenges ever faced by this region,” he said. These countries have grappled with remarkably warm summers in recent years, but this year has been particularly brutal.

-snip-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/an-epic-middle-east-heat-wave-could-be-global-warmings-hellish-curtain-raiser/2016/08/09/c8c717d4-5992-11e6-8b48-0cb344221131_story.html?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

[LisaM]

1. The connection between global warming and terrorism

really needs to be more fully explored.

[babylonsister]

3. I never knew there was a connection. Do you

mean the results of global warming on terrorism and how it can be used?

[OneGrassRoot]

4. I think she means...

that the effects of global warming are one factor in what leads to terrorism. Despair.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/11/30/syria-yemen-libya-one-factor-unites-these-failed-states-and-it-isnt-religion/

Syria, Yemen, Libya — one factor unites these failed states, and it isn’t religion

The rise of IS was a direct result of the failure of the Syrian regime, as it was beset by urban uprisings in 2011. Yet those uprisings did not come out of nowhere, and were not merely inspired by protests in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Syria was an increasingly prosperous country in the 1990s, with its various ethnic and religious groups working together in cities.

Yet between 2006 and 2009, Syria was crippled by its worst drought in modern history. A recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that this drought was not natural. Rather, hotter temperatures and the weakening of winds that bring moisture from the Mediterranean were likely the region’s reflection of rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to computer simulations.

Combined with poor water management and government neglect of farm conditions, the drought caused a collapse of farming in northeastern Syria. Seventy-five percent of farmers suffered total crop failure, and 80 percent of livestock died. Around 1.5 million farming families migrated to cities to look for work and food, joining millions of refugees from Palestine and Iraq. The added burden these refugees placed on Syria’s cities, and the distress of the farmers who lost their lands due to the drought, helped fuel the spread of rebellion against the Assad regime.

To be sure, climate change is never the single most important cause of conflict; it is what academics call a “structural threat.” Governments that can respond to such threats — because they have popular and elite support, have resources to respond to challenges, are willing to deploy those resources to distribute food and aid to the needy, and have diversified economies that can produce jobs — are not going to be shaken because of global warming. If we lived in a world where all regions were led by such governments, then climate change might be an economic burden and force changes in our lifestyle, but it would not bring the threat of state breakdown and civil war.

[LisaM]

10. Exactly, thank you, I should have sourced it.

I was thinking, in particular, about Syria, but there's some massive drought in Africa right now, too.

[babylonsister]

11. Thanks for the article. Really

sad. Despair is the perfect word.

[Joisey Boy]

14. Skip to 17:22

[orwell]

2. It's okay...

...Don the Con and his band of merry men have assured me that this is all a liberal plot to kill the American economy.

El Rushbo adds that climate change will actually help agriculture.

Don't worry, be happy...

[tenderfoot]

5. Global warming is a hoax. ISIS is a way more serious issue - what to do about them?

Priorities!

[Hortensis]

6. This is just the latest in what has become inevitable.

I thought of the years to come with every day the big refugee crisis was in the news. Extremely grim prognosis, and heat and disappearing fresh water are only two of the huge crises facing the region. Religious/cultural strife and disappearing oil profits for the oil nations are another couple.

President Obama has been trying to unlink our interests and wellbeing from the Middle East in part because no matter how much we contribute and no matter what the nations of the world do now it is very unlikely to be enough.

Dreadful.

[jpak]

7. Trump digs Coal - this is why

yup

[riderinthestorm]

8. Environmental and climate change catastrophes will snowball

Our window of opportunity to effect some change will close within the nexr 5 years unless there is a massive, fundamental shift in our approach to climate change.

I weep for my children and rage at the lack of real action.

On edit, my thought was tbis OP would drop like a stone. I hate that it's truth.

[AngryAmish]

9. A hot summer in the middle East is wholly unknown.

[Calculating]

12. Meanwhile

Trumpster wants to revitalize the coal industry. Dig baby dig. Burn baby burn.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. A drought triggered (not caused) Syria's civil war. . . . nt