Syrian violence a legacy of climate change

Syria's civil war has left 250,000 people dead, according to the latest UN count, and millions more are either displaced within the country's borders or have sought refuge abroad. And, while the proximate causes were largely political — primarily grievances with President Bashar al Assad, new scientific research adds support to the argument that climate change helped to trigger Syria's descent into violence.

Researchers from NASA and the University of Arizona studied tree rings — a reliable proxy for measuring precipitation — going back several centuries and found that the recent Syrian drought was likely the worst in at least the past 900 years and almost definitely the worst in 500 years.

Read the Vice News story -“The Drought That Preceded Syria's Civil War Was Likely the Worst in 900 Years.”

Another negative, depressing, disempowering global warming story

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egative, depressing and disempowering stories discussing the implications and complications of global warming are manifest.

Another tells of tells how that if the world community fails to act and act quickly we head toward a chaotic situation in which it will be man against man, rather than man with and for man.

VICE News is an international news organization created by and for a connected generation.

It claims to provide unvarnished look at some of the most important events of our time, highlight under-reported stories from around the globe, and get to the heart of the matter from reporters who call it like they see it.

Maybe so and maybe they are doing as it’s claimed, “calling it like they see it”, and maybe it is news we need to hear, but it is news such as this which neuters us and add little, or nothing to helping us see some sort of conclusion; a conclusion on which humanity can build for tomorrow.

However, the VICE story - “A G7 Report Says Climate Change Can Fuel Political Upheaval Like Civil Wars” – is loaded with grim news; news that dumps the responsibility for global warming, consciously or otherwise at our feet.

'Stopping the boats' is one thing, stopping the weather is another

Tony Abbott’s pre-election promise to “stop the boats” and his rather disparaging view of climate change is a perverse conflict.

Most of the boats he refers to carry people looking for escape conflict and so they are refugees from war, but now Australia’s borders will be under increasing pressure from those escaping extreme weather.

Vice News reports that: “Extreme Weather Displaces Far More People Than War — And It's GettingWorse”.

It reports: “Experts warned on Thursday that governments need to prepare themselves for a growing and often overwhelming influx of migrants. The displaced won't be fleeing the horrors of the battlefield, they said, but environmental disasters, made more frequent and severe by climate change.”