Climate Changes In Syrian Civil War

Similar to past catastrophic events, Syria’s civil war began as a chain of significant circumstances which lead to eventual turmoil. Although the Arab Springs, a series of uprisings against dictators in northern Africa and southwest Asia, was a monumental reason for the Syrian civil war, climate change induced drought may have been a heavy contribution to the uprising. Water is essential to human life aiding in agriculture production and livestock care as well as basic human nourishment. Without this life supporting element, rural people flooded to the cities in droves seeking their basic human needs. Along with millions of rural Syrians, Iraq refugees were also flocking to the Syrian cities for comfort and aid. With overcrowded cities, minimal

This comic will get you there in 5 minutes” written by Alisha Huber which explains the important role of the worst drought in Syria’s recorded history and its effect on the current crisis. This article guides readers from an environmental issue which caused lack of necessary water resources and how the environmental issue generated urban populations to increase rapidly which eventually led to overcrowded cities with shrinking resources and civilian political protests which created civil war. Additionally, supporting documents were needed to thoroughly examine this theory. Scientifically written and peer reviewed, “Climate Change in the Fertile Crescent and Implications of the Recent Syrian Drought” by Colin Kelley legitimizes the severe drought and its implications. Furthermore, “Five things you never knew about Syria before the war,” by Sara Saleh was used to describe Syria before the current civil

Although a vast majority of rainfall happens within the months of November to April in Syria, the winter of 2007-2008 was the driest ever recorded. Even though Syria is no stranger to multiyear dry spells, and this most recent drought was longer and harsher, other reasons contributed to the resulted disparity unseen in past droughts. Demand for resources were much higher than previous droughts since Syria’s population rose from 4 million in the 1950s, to more than 22 million in recent years. Additionally, the modern Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad demanded agricultural growth within his country using up groundwater resources more rapidly than previous years. Thus, the supply of groundwater significantly decreased with increased extraction and no replenishment from rainfall. Furthermore, this recent drought quickly followed a drought in the 1990s preventing sufficient replenishment before the recent drought in 2006-2011. In fact, scientists discovered Syria’s rainfall fell below normal amounts in the past fifteen years, even when the country was not technically in a drought period. Turkey’s eastern Taurus Mountain range supplies water to Syria and much of the Middle East through the Euphrates and Tigris River and their numerous tributaries. However, Turkey controls water flow through upstream dams. In light