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Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts) Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:05 AM Jun 2014

Global Warming's Role in the Syrian and Iraqi Conflicts.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618?page=4

Syria is one of the countries that has been in the bull's-eye of climate change. From 2006 to 2010, a historic drought destroyed 60 percent of the country's farms and 80 percent of its livestock – driving a million refugees from rural agricultural areas into cities already crowded with the million refugees who had taken shelter there from the Iraq War. As early as 2008, U.S. State Department cables quoted Syrian government officials warning that the social and economic impacts of the drought are "beyond our capacity as a country to deal with." Though the hellish and ongoing civil war in Syria has multiple causes – including the perfidy of the Assad government and the brutality on all sides – their climate-related drought may have been the biggest underlying trigger for the horror.

The U.S. military has taken notice of the strategic dangers inherent in the climate crisis. Last March, a Pentagon advisory committee described the climate crisis as a "catalyst for conflict" that may well cause failures of governance and societal collapse. "In the past, the thinking was that climate change multiplied the significance of a situation," said retired Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald. "Now we're saying it's going to be a direct cause of instability."

Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright told the press, "For DOD, this is a mission reality, not a political debate. The scientific forecast is for more Arctic ice melt, more sea-level rise, more intense storms, more flooding from storm surge and more drought." And in yet another forecast difficult for congressional climate denialists to rebut, climate experts advising the military have also warned that the world's largest naval base, in Norfolk, Virginia, is likely to be inundated by rising sea levels in the future.

And how did the Republican-dominated House of Representatives respond to these grim warnings? By passing legislation seeking to prohibit the Department of Defense from taking any action to prepare for the effects of climate disruption.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618page=4#ixzz359WeHUYU
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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Global Warming's Role in the Syrian and Iraqi Conflicts. (Original Post) Uncle Joe Jun 2014 OP

I just saw a documentary on this, Uncle Joe. It was mind boggling to be honest. Thank you sabrina 1 Jun 2014 #1

Thanks for the thanks, sabrina. Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #2

No problem Uncle Joe. I think this is pretty new information regarding Syria so not likely to get a sabrina 1 Jun 2014 #3

I also believe this will become more of an issue, they can't hide or ignore it forever. Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #5

Not sure about this, TBH. AverageJoe90 Jun 2014 #4

What does TBH mean and how do you "know" so? Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #6

OW! My leg got a cramp in it today InfoWingerWatch Jun 2014 #7

Welcome to D.U. InfoWingerWatch. Tell that to 97% of the world's climate scientists, NASA Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #8

No no no no don't twist my words. I clearly said the Rolling Stones article is foolishness. InfoWingerWatch Jun 2014 #9

What is foolish about the article? Which facts do you dispute? n/t Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #10

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)

1. I just saw a documentary on this, Uncle Joe. It was mind boggling to be honest. Thank you

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:08 AM

Jun 2014

for this OP, it is a very important issue re Syria. I had no idea about this until I watched that documentary.

Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts)

2. Thanks for the thanks, sabrina.

Reply to sabrina 1 (Reply #1)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:11 AM

Jun 2014

Peace to you.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)

3. No problem Uncle Joe. I think this is pretty new information regarding Syria so not likely to get a

Reply to Uncle Joe (Reply #2)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:18 AM

Jun 2014

lot of attention, YET. But it will, imo. I don't remember where I saw the documentary on this. But it was eye opening wrt to our involvement there.

I will try to find the doc. and will post it if I find it.

This is likely to become way more of an issue in the future as more people learn more about the issue.

Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts)

5. I also believe this will become more of an issue, they can't hide or ignore it forever.

Reply to sabrina 1 (Reply #3)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:38 AM

Jun 2014

Besides, there is a simple difference between linear cause and effect and systemic cause and effect. As one of the world's most-respected atmospheric scientists, Kevin Trenberth, has said, "The environment in which all storms form has changed owing to human activities."

For example, when Supertyphoon Haiyan crossed the Pacific toward the Philippines last fall, the storm gained strength across seas that were 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they used to be because of greenhousegas pollution. As a result, Haiyan went from being merely strong to being the most powerful and destructive ocean-based storm on record to make landfall. Four million people were displaced (more than twice as many as by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 10 years ago), and there are still more than 2 million Haiyan refugees desperately trying to rebuild their lives.

When Superstorm Sandy traversed the areas of the Atlantic Ocean windward of New York and New Jersey in 2012, the water temperature was nine degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal. The extra convection energy in those waters fed the storm and made the winds stronger than they would otherwise have been. Moreover, the sea level was higher than it used to be, elevated by the melting of ice in the frozen regions of the Earth and the expanded volume of warmer ocean waters.

Five years earlier, denialists accused me of demagogic exaggeration in an animated scene in my documentary An Inconvenient Truth that showed the waters of the Atlantic Ocean flooding into the 9/11 Ground Zero Memorial site. But in Sandy's wake, the Atlantic did in fact flood Ground Zero – many years before scientists had expected that to occur.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618page=3#ixzz359emtnE8
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

This will continue to spread bringing more regional and global instability in its' wake.

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)

4. Not sure about this, TBH.

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:30 AM

Jun 2014

Yeah, there's no doubt that global warming is a serious problem, but a direct cause for the instability in Iraq *and* Syria? TBH, I don't think so.....in fact, I know so. Yes, it may be true that at least in Syria, it *may* have played in indirect role in exacerbating such. That much is probably at least partly true. But the truth is, this doesn't take into account the troubles that were already brewing in both those countries even well before there was any drought. To restate the point, climate change may have been a factor in the Syria problem. But it was only one of several, and not even close to the biggest one by far, not in this case.

Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts)

6. What does TBH mean and how do you "know" so?

Reply to AverageJoe90 (Reply #4)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:44 AM

Jun 2014

Last edited Fri Jun 20, 2014, 12:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Global warming will with increasing intensity exacerbate "troubled nations," by their very definition they are most susceptible to social upheaval and have the least margin of error in regards to extreme climate events.

Furthermore much of Syria's problems are spilling in to Iraq, this is becoming a regional conflict.

InfoWingerWatch

(78 posts)

7. OW! My leg got a cramp in it today

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:54 AM

Jun 2014

...Global Warming.

but it all seriousness I'd rather stick to the rising sea level and massive loss of ice as evidence of global warming. This rolling stones article is just foolishness.

Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts)

8. Welcome to D.U. InfoWingerWatch. Tell that to 97% of the world's climate scientists, NASA

Reply to InfoWingerWatch (Reply #7)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 01:59 AM

Jun 2014

and the Pentagon, that Global Warming is just "foolishness," I'm sure they will have a good laugh.

InfoWingerWatch

(78 posts)

9. No no no no don't twist my words. I clearly said the Rolling Stones article is foolishness.

Reply to Uncle Joe (Reply #8)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 02:11 AM

Jun 2014

I'd rather stick with science and reality on the subject of global warming.

Everyone can read exactly what I said.

Uncle Joe

(58,354 posts)

10. What is foolish about the article? Which facts do you dispute? n/t

Reply to InfoWingerWatch (Reply #9)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 02:13 AM

Jun 2014

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