to think that climate change is partly to blame for refugee situation?

[sleepyelectricsheep]

I read this and I thought it made a lot of sense.

Trying to follow what's going on in Syria - this comic will get you there in 5 minutes

I reckon we're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing in years to come IMO.

Climate change isn't about our normal lives simply continuing but with things getting gradually hotter. It'll also be about wars: directly for resources - or indirectly, sparked in part by terrible conditions such as drought. It'll mean more displaced people, more refugees & migrants, more suffering.

I want to take my DS to the demo on the 12th, as I think he needs to start thinking about these issues as soon as he can process them, as I am worried that refugee crises will be frequent in the world we have given our DCs.

[VenusRising]

I think so too. In fact most revolutions have been caused by bad harvests and high prices of bread and other staples.

In our case the climate is changing and areas once habitable, have become too dry/ wet/ hot and people have to move.

Couple this is with conflict over resources and there you have it. The Arab spring it's thought was caused by a shortage of bread and a young demographic. Syria is all about water and the lack of it.

There are new climate justice charities set up to empower those most affected by climate change.
I like this one Mary Robinson foundation for climate justice
The Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice (MRFCJ) is a centre for thought leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change who are usually forgotten - the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised across the world.


Mary Robinson was the first woman president of Ireland, and the UN commissioner for human rights when the Rwanda genocide occurred- she highlighted the massacres internationally, and got the UN peacekeepers on the ground.

There is plenty do do, and climate change is still worth fighting. Pressurise your MP to act in the best interests of everyone living on this planet.

[AngelicaDelight]

Good cartoon but no, not climate change.

[RoseDeGambrinus]

As I understand it the original uprising in Syria was 'caused by climate change' in that there was a severe drought that wasn't a one-off but part of a trend; people migrated from rural areas to cities and ended up in slums, angry at the government. Climate change isn't the reason for the secular uprising turning into ISIS, that's politics.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hastened-the-syrian-war/

There's no doubt there will be many more humanitarian disasters as a result of climate change. Not many will end up on our doorstep though - mostly people suffer where they are or move within their country or to next-door countries.

[sleepyelectricsheep]

AngelicaDelight

1. Did you actually look at my link?
   

1. Care to elaborate?

[sleepyelectricsheep]

RoseDeGambrinus

I said that climate change was partly not wholly responsible. Of course politics is a major factor, how could it not be?!

Did you maybe misread my OP? I am you seem to be disagreeing with it while actually agreeing with it at the same time!

Thanks for the excellent link. I notice it says

"the entire Middle East “faces a drier, hotter climate due to climate change. This will stress water resources and agriculture, and will likely further increase risk of conflict ...

A number of research efforts in recent years have suggested that warmer temperatures and drought increase the risk of violent conflict around the world. A 2009 study found that over the past 30 years in sub-Saharan Africa, temperature rise correlated with an increase in the likelihood of civil war. A 2011 study implicated climate change in pushing up food prices in Egypt, fueling revolution there."

[AngelicaDelight]

Of course I looked at it, how can I have said it was a good cartoon otherwise?

I just think it's really bizarre how the human race thinks it knows more than mother nature itself. The planet has been through cold periods and hot periods, and will continue to do so. It knows what it's doing. "Proof" of climate change has been made up or invalidated. It's a load of rubbish.

[RoseDeGambrinus]

I was agreeing with you, OP - maybe I should have started YANBU!

'Proof of climate change has been made up'. Oh dear, where do we start with that one...

[goawayalready]

climate change is constant we have to deal with it or move planets

its not an excuse for genocide homicide war conflicts or a punch up down the pub

[fearandloathinginambridge]

I assume Angelica means proof of "anthropogenic" climate change?

[sleepyelectricsheep]

RoseDeGanbrinus sorry!

I should probably make sure I have woken up properly before posting.

[RoseDeGambrinus]

Angelica - sure the climate's changed before. And now we're changing it - way faster than any natural processes.

Before the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, global average CO2 was about 280 ppm (parts per million. Since the industrial revolution we've pushed it up to 400ppm by burning fossil fuels and the increase is accelerating. We've gone off the scale.

For comparison, during the last 800,000 years, CO2 ranged between about 180 ppm during ice ages and 280 ppm during interglacial warm periods. Today’s rate of increase is more than 100 times faster than the increase that occurred when the last ice age ended.

[Fannyfannakerpants]

It's not an excuse,no. But it is and will happen. Countries will become un-inhabitable, resources will become scarce abs it is human nature to fight to survive.

[sleepyelectricsheep]

AngelicaDelight ah I see, you're an ostrich a climate change denier, despite the huge body of evidence and the vast majority of respected scientists these days accepting it's real and man-made.

Good luck with that

[Osolea]

I'm not sure it's climate change in the way that I normally think of climate change - as in something that the human race has inflicted on the environment.

There have always been times of drought in that part of the world, I think back to Joseph and his dream coat story from the Old Testament that talks of drought (hundereds of ?) years BC.

That link is interesting though, I saw it on FB and thought it was a good basic explanation.

[RoseDeGambrinus]

No worries sleepy

[CheesecakeDreams]

Interesting the head, thank you. I liked the link, it out the Syria crisis in a way I hadn't thought of.

[AngelicaDelight]

How patronising sleepy - just because I disagree means I'm an ostrich? Name-calling? That's your argument? Trust me I know one end of a research paper from another but if PA is your only tool of persuasion then I'm out...

[meditrina]

I think that the rise of ISIS, and the brutality of regimes in the area, are wholly unconnected with climate change. As is the rise of its allied groups, like Boko Harsm, or its enemies like AQ.

I don't rule out the possibility of climate wars in future.

But it ain't a cause of this.

Just like it didn't feature for Bin Laden.

The Afghan refugees were just as desperate, but not so central in the news.

[sleepyelectricsheep]

goawayalready did you look at the link I posted?

It explains how climate change is a contributory factor in pushing people into conflict. It's not an "excuse".

[RoseDeGambrinus]

There have always been droughts, of course, what we are doing with climate change is changing a. what the average temperature/rainfall is in many parts of the world and b. also in many areas (don't know about the Middle East) increasing the variability around that new norm. So you are more likely to get extreme weather of all sorts, droughts, floods, heatwaves... The best way of thinking of it is that we are increasingly loading the dice so events which were once rare become more frequent.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Its an interesting way to view things and I think climate change could be one contributer to destablising the region. Which is pretty scary given the way our climate is going.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Well said Rose.

[snakesandbastards]

It seems to me the Syrian crisis and the crisis in the Middle East started with the illegal invasion of Iraq.

That started a domino effect of wars and revolutions which has culminated in the present situation.