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Tom Friedman: Environmental, Population and Climate Factors in the Arab Awakening
Thomas Friedman at the New York Times penned a great piece for the Sunday paper titled “The Other Arab Spring.” In it, he sheds light on some of the oft-ignored “environmental, population, and climate stresses” that have contributed to unrest in the Arab world, along with the political and economic factors we have all heard about. When he turns to the issue of tensions over land, water and food, Friedman cites our recent article in Climate Progress and AlertNet (“Syria: Climate Change, Drought and Social Unrest), highlighting the humanitarian crisis precipitated by one of the worst droughts in the country’s history, which NOAA has partly attributed to climate change. (more…)
Syria: Climate Change, Drought and Social Unrest
This article was also posted on AlertNet
by Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell
Syria’s current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia early last year. However, that’s not the whole story. The past few years have seen a number of significant social, economic, environmental and climatic changes in Syria that have eroded the social contract between citizen and government in the country, have strengthened the case for the opposition movement, and irreparably damaged the legitimacy of the al-Assad regime. If the international community, and future policy-makers in Syria, are to address and resolve the drivers of unrest in the country, these changes will have to be better explored and exposed. (more…)