Terrorism and climate change are directly related

First Bernie Sanders said “climate change was directly related to the growth of terrorism.” Then Prince Charles said drought was the root cause of the Syrian conflict and current refugee crisis. Pundits everywhere leaped at the opportunity to say both claims were wrong. Who is right?

We have been studying the possible link between climate and violence for years, and we'd like to clarify what the most up-to-date science can and cannot say on this topic.

“We can't predict that a particular conflict will or will not happen. Instead, we can assess the risk that violence might occur in response to changes in the climate.”

In general, conflicts are complex events — the result of many instigating factors, not just one. When we notice that violence occurs at the same time as a major climatic event, like the war in Syria erupting at the same time as a drought, we don't ask, “Was the climactic event the cause of the conflict?” Rather, we ask “Was the climatic event a cause of the conflict?” It might be that you need both ethnic rivalries and a drought to create a conflict, and missing either key ingredient might lead to a more peaceful outcome.

Read the Los Angeles Times opinion piece - “Climate change is indeed a cause of social conflict.”

Droughts will benefit the legal fraternity

T

he legal fraternity is set to profit handsomely through global warming.

Disputes over water in California are increasing as the drought worsens ensuring, if nothing else that the legal industry will remain in the black.

The Los Angeles Times reports that lawsuits will hit the courts within days of the state mailing notices to some Central Valley irrigation districts: They were to stop diverting from rivers and streams because there wasn't enough water to go around.

Read the LA Times story - “Lawsuits over California water rights are a fight a century in the making”.

Eastern lows and snowfalls disguise difficulties in California

Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California's winter was as well.

An Op-Ed by Jay Famiglietti published in the Los Angeles Times warns that California’s water supplies are drying up.

He writes, “As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions.

“January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows.

“We're not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we're losing the creek too,” he says.

His story - “California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now?” – says, “Statewide, we've been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley.”

Climate and weather "colliding"

Climate and weather have long been considered different entities.

That position is, however, changing.

Those who understand both, now see them as colluding with one causing the other.

In a Los Angeles Times story headed: “Some climate scientists, in a shift,link weather to global warming” some predict something of a break with mainstream scientific thought.

Those climate scientists, including NASA climatologist, James Hansen, say the world is now seeing a “signature change” within our climate that can be seen in recent weather trends.