Bill Moyers Show: Syrian Civil War Was Probably Caused by Global Warming

Mm-hm.

#SmartTake.

I think one of the cobs sent this yesterday. Or someone. Maybe it was in the comments. So here's Bill Moyers.

Or it's his website, "Bill Moyers & Company." Some doofus named John Light wrote it.

Drought Helped Spark Syria’s Civil War — Is it One of Many Climate Wars to Come? September 6, 2013 by John Light

Climate change is already hurting the world’s most vulnerable populations. Those who live in areas hit hard by drought, severe storms or rising seas and can’t relocate because of economic or social factors bear the brunt of our planet’s increasing volatility.

One way the changing climate has already made itself known is through a devastating drought — and ensuing food shortage — in Syria; it created a powder keg, and played a significant role in sparking the country’s civil war. We can expect to see similar scenarios unfold in the future.

Moyers & Company’s John Light spoke with Francesco Femia, co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security — a think tank with an advisory board consisting of retired military commanders and international affairs experts — about how climate change serves as a “threat multiplier” in volatile regions such as Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, and what America’s role should be in a world in which climate change increasingly exacerbates — and causes — international crises.

This expert goes on to say:

Francesco Femia: Essentially, a massive, five-and-a-half-year drought. From 2006 to 2011, 60 percent of Syria’s land experienced, in the words 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. That, on top of natural resource mismanagement by the Assad regime — subsidizing water-intensive wheat and cotton farming and unsustainable irrigation techniques — led to a large amount of devastation.

Eh. If you missed it yesterday, Andy sounded the Alarm Bells over global warming's insidious role in increasing Arctic ice cover by 60%.

posted by Ace at 04:41 PM

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