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…)