WAR IN SYRIA LINKED TO CLIMATE

Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change

Henry Fountain, March 2, 2015 (NY Times)

“Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said…an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011…The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in [Climate change in the Fertile Crescent], the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than on natural climate variability…[It] appeared to be due to two factors: a weakening of winds that bring moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean and hotter temperatures that cause more evaporation…

"...[Researchers] found that while Syria and the rest of the region known as the Fertile Crescent were normally subject to periodic dry periods, ‘a drought this severe was two to three times more likely’ because of the increasing aridity in the region…What began as civil war has since escalated into a multifaceted conflict, with at least 200,000 deaths. The United Nations estimates that half of the country’s 22 million people have been affected, with more than six million having been internally displaced…” click here for more

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