Is This The First Climate War
Is This The World’s First Climate War
With a headline like that, this article on News.com.au was bound to grab my attention.
And it did too.
It claims that a NASA study shows worst drought in 900 years may be behind the present Middle East upheaval.
The drought started in 1998, and has affected Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey as well as Syria, Iraq and other nations in the region.
Now the world’s climate may be changing, and depending on your viewpoint, it may be caused by mankind, or it may be part of a natural cycle.
Or, it may be a combination of the two!
But causing the present upheavals in the Middle East?
We could blame the British and French for the way they divided up the Middle East with the Sykes–Picot Agreement, leading to the eventual establishment of Israelin 1948.
Or just maybe the invasion of Iraq in 2003 had something to do with it as well?
Not to mention of course the beginning of hostilities in Syria in 2012 with Western nations arming rebels there shortly after the Iraqi war, or 2nd Gulf War, “ended” in 2011.
I’m not taking sides here, and I’m not even claiming that climate science has got it wrong.
But for an observer like me, thousands of miles from the region, and keeping up with the news of war and violence on a regular basis, it would seem that the drought is only adding more misery to what the bombs started!
Yep, There are lots of contributions to the misery and suffering. The worst drought in 900 years (Natural or Mankind induced) would certainly create a short fuse in peoples temperament and hard to cope with any of the other issues you mentioned.
Life gets miserable enough here in Oz in the midst of an extended drought, so having a war in the middle of that would be a double whammy. Little wonder that there is a refugee crisis!