4.6 Reading: Climate change in the Fertile Crescent

 How do the authors link climate change with the Syrian conflict?

The authors first and foremost considered Syria vulnerability to climate change as the effect poor governance, unstable agriculture, poor environmental policy, high crime rate and high rate of unemployment. They linked the Syria’ government’s weak and poor enforcement of environmental policy as a catalytic factor that increased human action that induced climate change and described the 3 years’ drought as the speedy effect to political instability.

What problems might occur in making these connections?

It is obvious that making these connections would create political insights that may lead to conflict. The government initiatives to increase farming activities, allocate more land and subsidized fuel all threatened the availability of water, the ground water will be more exploited and risk to more drought and water conflict.

Who was most affected by the Syrian drought, and in what ways?

The greater fertile crescent experienced the most drought in Syria. Farming communities were most affected and especially those that largely depend on rain fed agriculture.   The northeast farmer who are the breadbasket of Syria, says the writers were the most to suffer during 2006/7 drought. Children in the norther easterners suffered malnutrition and experience high rate of school dropout due to migration