Photo by @edkashi/@viiphoto, "Syria, 2008". Excerpt from a March 3, 2015 article on Quartz (qz.com/354063) about the impact of climate change on the #conflict in #Syria: “The drought that began in 2006 was the worst on record and was “more than twice as likely as a consequence of human interference in the climate system,” shows the report, which was published today in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The country was not prepared for such extreme conditions…Syrians were “vulnerably tied to the land,” says Shahrzad Mohtadi, author of the socio-political component of the study.” Decades-long bad agricultural policies exacerbated the effects of the dry period. In the 1970s, president Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, pushed for the country’s agricultural self-sufficiency rather than sustainability, says Mohtadi. Syria depended on wheat and cotton, both crops which require a lot rain. The quotas for agricultural production were high, which led to the digging of countless, unregulated water wells. The severe, three-year drought depleted the country’s unchecked water resources and caused “widespread crop failure,” the report says.” @everydayclimatechange #climatechange #drought #syria #conflict #irrigation #crops
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