I wonder that it took Mr Friedman so long to figure any of this out. Actually, we can solve our energy needs, now, with megawatts to spare for everyone. We could make it a huge worldwide work and improvement scheme. Make money and lives out of wiring for Solar collection and construction of numerous(thousands) of 2nd generation nuke plants. Only nuclear and solar avoid greenhouse pollution in our air and seas. Do it now, because when warmed/acidified water gets into the southern ocean it will melt under glacial blockages to inland ice sheets, they're a mile+ of ice, thousands of miles wide and long. This will slide into the ocean in a few years, causing NYC to have only apartments above the 10th floor available. Billions will die from starvation and lack of clean water and disease. Military governments will control the few lucky places.
Unless an enforcement policy to end all hydrocarbon combustion, by force, is established , we'll die ugly. Make such burning a capitol offense. Violaters executed or sentenced to work gangs. We might begin to get a hold on the temperature curve by the time Friedman's kids wanted grandkids, but I doubt it.
When I see Soros, Buffett and the "tech stock billionaire" club stop flushing money on Mars, LEO flights, educating a generation in Africa that may not grow up, and spend ALL their wealth ending/replacing hydrocarbons. Hope may exist.Just recall: we live on sphere-so,if ME gets hot, so will every other place, eventually.
Unless an enforcement policy to end all hydrocarbon combustion, by force, is established , we'll die ugly. Make such burning a capitol offense. Violaters executed or sentenced to work gangs. We might begin to get a hold on the temperature curve by the time Friedman's kids wanted grandkids, but I doubt it.
When I see Soros, Buffett and the "tech stock billionaire" club stop flushing money on Mars, LEO flights, educating a generation in Africa that may not grow up, and spend ALL their wealth ending/replacing hydrocarbons. Hope may exist.Just recall: we live on sphere-so,if ME gets hot, so will every other place, eventually.
20
New York Times December 12, 2010 WASHINGTON —"….a new field of systematic study is opening within research centers, the Pentagon and intelligence institutions. It assumes that the 21st century will be shaped not just by competitive economic growth, but also by potentially disruptive scarcities — depletion of minerals; desertification of land; pollution or overuse of water; weather changes that kill fish and farms."
The planet is beginning to see mass human migrations out of war-torn, uninhabitable regions toward locations that are more livable. I expect we will see an acceleration of this process as conditions continue to deteriorate in vast areas of overpopulation, conflict and environment devastation.
(CNN 8/13/15): "Europe's migrant crisis came into ugly focus this week on an idyllic Greek island as reports emerged of thousands of men, women and children corralled in a stadium for days in blazing heat with little food, water or shelter. The small island of Kos is just one of the places where an unprecedented wave of migrants, many fleeing war, have landed after making a perilous journey across the Mediterranean."
For those of us who have been lucky enough to dodge the direct impact of climate change, the sudden arrival of desperate immigrants on our doorstep just might be the wake-up call we needed. Of course, this assumes that our political discourse becomes a bit more sophisticated that what Mr Trump is currently delivering.
The planet is beginning to see mass human migrations out of war-torn, uninhabitable regions toward locations that are more livable. I expect we will see an acceleration of this process as conditions continue to deteriorate in vast areas of overpopulation, conflict and environment devastation.
(CNN 8/13/15): "Europe's migrant crisis came into ugly focus this week on an idyllic Greek island as reports emerged of thousands of men, women and children corralled in a stadium for days in blazing heat with little food, water or shelter. The small island of Kos is just one of the places where an unprecedented wave of migrants, many fleeing war, have landed after making a perilous journey across the Mediterranean."
For those of us who have been lucky enough to dodge the direct impact of climate change, the sudden arrival of desperate immigrants on our doorstep just might be the wake-up call we needed. Of course, this assumes that our political discourse becomes a bit more sophisticated that what Mr Trump is currently delivering.
18
I live in the San Francisco Bay area. I am 60 years old. My beautiful Monterey Pine (60' tall) is dying from lack of water. I am told by foresters it is over 100 years old. We aren't allowed to water it more than twice a week for 15 minutes due to the need to preserve water for humans... it needs more water than that. For each beautiful tree that dies we have less shade and less carbon dioxide uptake. Why do I sense that we are on a precipice? The naysayers are simply fools.
54
Sometimes you have to wonder what this planet would look like with the people gone. Nature would rebalance. The ozone would heal. The oceans would still be rife with plastic; a reminder of why Mother Nature finally got rid of the destructive parasites that just couldn't learn.
30
Are you volunteering to take a hit for the team?
7
I agree, Tom. I've often wondered how the people in those places can find the energy for such conflict. I'd imagine just keeping body and soul together would be the prime concern, even for combatants. Maybe climate is the true reason for all those fleeing migrants. Let's see, where would I prefer to live? Persian Gulf or Netherlands? Central America, or Minnesota?
8
Ejzim: Certainly not California.
1
Given the current state of governments in the Middle East, warning about what will happen if they are not responsive to the effects of climate change seems moot. They will not respond. And when their populations realize they are in the midst of an ecological disaster, they will leave. The United State's immigration problems will pale in comparison to what Europe will face.
I expect it won't be too long before Mr. Friedman pens a column about the inability of the governments in Asia to cope with rising sea levels in their coastal cities and the devastation faced my the hundreds of millions of people who live there. Wonder where they will all go and what chaos and misery will flow from that.
The ecological disasters caused by climate change are the first shoe to drop. The political chaos and conflicts that follow will be the second. It will affect everybody, world-wide, including the idiot politicians in this country who serve the fossil fuel industries. No one will get a pass.
We've never before had a threat to our species as a whole. For most of our history, humans didn't even know there was a whole species or had the technology to communicate with one another.
There's no telling what will happen. So, I'll throw my lot in with the optimists who try to work toward a fix, even if it's a fools errand and the chances of success are very slim. In the face of this impending disaster, being a hopeful fool working toward a solution seems the more sane option.
I expect it won't be too long before Mr. Friedman pens a column about the inability of the governments in Asia to cope with rising sea levels in their coastal cities and the devastation faced my the hundreds of millions of people who live there. Wonder where they will all go and what chaos and misery will flow from that.
The ecological disasters caused by climate change are the first shoe to drop. The political chaos and conflicts that follow will be the second. It will affect everybody, world-wide, including the idiot politicians in this country who serve the fossil fuel industries. No one will get a pass.
We've never before had a threat to our species as a whole. For most of our history, humans didn't even know there was a whole species or had the technology to communicate with one another.
There's no telling what will happen. So, I'll throw my lot in with the optimists who try to work toward a fix, even if it's a fools errand and the chances of success are very slim. In the face of this impending disaster, being a hopeful fool working toward a solution seems the more sane option.
21
Middle East:
Plenty of solar power for air conditioning and whatever else, but they are not tapping it to any meaningful extent.
As long as oil is important people will fight, suffer and die over it.
Plenty of solar power for air conditioning and whatever else, but they are not tapping it to any meaningful extent.
As long as oil is important people will fight, suffer and die over it.
17
Mr. Friedman, I appreciate your reasoning, but I'm surprised it took a highly intelligent person like yourself so long to arrive at this conclusion. I've been raving about this for over five years now in commentary on the Mideast, and everyone has been pretty much tuning me out until just recently. And of course, most people, particularly in the affected area, are still in full denial about the onrushing doom.
So yes, climate change and dehydration, exacerbated by overpopulation, are going to render the entire Mideast, Afghanistan, Pakistan, much of India, the borders of the Sahara, and other places, unlivable for humans. This will result in a refugee crisis that will make the current migration look like a few tourists. But when it comes, the places the refugees will flee to will realize they can't take them in, and instead of fishing them out of the Mediterranean, they'll sink the ships on sight.
I look to the silver lining though, which is that these fundamentalist areas, steeped in medieval religion, misogynistic, warlike, useless to humanity, will have their culture expunged from humanity. We will lose nothing when we lose these societies, and will gain from their absence. Something will evolve to thrive in the desert they leave behind, and eventually things will settle down again. Could be a huge help to humanity if the dehydration bearing down on us wipes out half of our numbers, so there's plenty of hope for the future.
So yes, climate change and dehydration, exacerbated by overpopulation, are going to render the entire Mideast, Afghanistan, Pakistan, much of India, the borders of the Sahara, and other places, unlivable for humans. This will result in a refugee crisis that will make the current migration look like a few tourists. But when it comes, the places the refugees will flee to will realize they can't take them in, and instead of fishing them out of the Mediterranean, they'll sink the ships on sight.
I look to the silver lining though, which is that these fundamentalist areas, steeped in medieval religion, misogynistic, warlike, useless to humanity, will have their culture expunged from humanity. We will lose nothing when we lose these societies, and will gain from their absence. Something will evolve to thrive in the desert they leave behind, and eventually things will settle down again. Could be a huge help to humanity if the dehydration bearing down on us wipes out half of our numbers, so there's plenty of hope for the future.
24
Put the nations' leaders (elected or not) in a space capsule orbiting the earth so they can see and be awed, as all astronauts have been, at the sight of this little sphere, where we all live, in the midst of this vast universe. That's it! That's our only home. So before coming back down come to agreement on preserving and enhancing it as one common object all of us depend on for survival. Short of that, don't come back!
11
Many have already signed up to take Richard Branson's rocket-ride to the edge of space.
2
Very well said Mr Friedman!
Given that those people of the Middle East that take religious discourse very seriously - at the expense of other discourse - identify "Mother Nature" with "the Will of God": may we hope that they will consider God very unhappy with the religious traditions of their area and reject - or reduce substantially - their adherence to them because of this unpleasant warming? Faith or religion - which will triumph? Oh - the cognitive dissonance!
Unfortunately the above is unlikely - I am clearly being facetious - but certainly the creation of God or Nature IS expressing disapproval of their flagrant disregard of the science that explains why their part of the world is becoming an even more unpleasant place to be in summer. Greater respect for the words of scientists about the creation, at the expense of the words of the esteemed prophets of their religions, is required - or religious observance (or any other human activity) will become non-viable in their part of the world. It couldn't happen to a better bunch of physical adults and mental children - could it? How unfair! The poor assouls!
"Muhammed was right. He was the last prophet. I am the next." - GRW
(The reader is advised I am being facetious again. I am just demonstrating how easily the reasoning of the man I consider to be easily the most evil humanperson to have ever existed can be subverted. I regard Islam and theism in general as abominations. Peace.)
Given that those people of the Middle East that take religious discourse very seriously - at the expense of other discourse - identify "Mother Nature" with "the Will of God": may we hope that they will consider God very unhappy with the religious traditions of their area and reject - or reduce substantially - their adherence to them because of this unpleasant warming? Faith or religion - which will triumph? Oh - the cognitive dissonance!
Unfortunately the above is unlikely - I am clearly being facetious - but certainly the creation of God or Nature IS expressing disapproval of their flagrant disregard of the science that explains why their part of the world is becoming an even more unpleasant place to be in summer. Greater respect for the words of scientists about the creation, at the expense of the words of the esteemed prophets of their religions, is required - or religious observance (or any other human activity) will become non-viable in their part of the world. It couldn't happen to a better bunch of physical adults and mental children - could it? How unfair! The poor assouls!
"Muhammed was right. He was the last prophet. I am the next." - GRW
(The reader is advised I am being facetious again. I am just demonstrating how easily the reasoning of the man I consider to be easily the most evil humanperson to have ever existed can be subverted. I regard Islam and theism in general as abominations. Peace.)
4
Conservative definition "not liking or accepting changes or new ideas". I don't understand why anyone would be proud of that.
It's not surprising that many US Conservatives fear change and keep choosing to be on the wrong side of history, science and demographics. I wonder how many of them have seen a glacier recede or have traveled overseas. The world has too many people and too little water already and it may get much worse. Water shortages will be even more problematic than oil shortages.
Many Arab Conservatives have a similar fear of change. We have enough challenges at home without meddling in other peoples' civil and religious wars. Hopefully, bad ideas will self-destruct like communism. I wonder what will happen when the mega-wells run dry and they find they have squandered their treasure.
It's not surprising that many US Conservatives fear change and keep choosing to be on the wrong side of history, science and demographics. I wonder how many of them have seen a glacier recede or have traveled overseas. The world has too many people and too little water already and it may get much worse. Water shortages will be even more problematic than oil shortages.
Many Arab Conservatives have a similar fear of change. We have enough challenges at home without meddling in other peoples' civil and religious wars. Hopefully, bad ideas will self-destruct like communism. I wonder what will happen when the mega-wells run dry and they find they have squandered their treasure.
8
Old news really. DOD has been on climate change for a while now. In short, they state
"In our defense strategy, we refer to climate change as a “threat multiplier” because it has the potential to exacerbate many of
the challenges we are dealing with today – from infectious disease to terrorism. We are already beginning to see some of these
impacts"
Where is the GOP? I thought they paid attention to defense, but apparently not.
"In our defense strategy, we refer to climate change as a “threat multiplier” because it has the potential to exacerbate many of
the challenges we are dealing with today – from infectious disease to terrorism. We are already beginning to see some of these
impacts"
Where is the GOP? I thought they paid attention to defense, but apparently not.
15
Thomas, you mentioned Israel at the beginning of the column, but failed to point out how is Israel is the only country in the area which is effectively managing the water and heat challenge. One obvious solution is for you to advocate that the suffering nations cooperate with Israel in this crucial area - soooo simple.
7
The irony is that, while he denounces sectarian conflict, it would be hard to find a better example than Friedman's column of how environmentalism today is a apocalyptic religion. Positing that "Mother Nature is going to destroy" humanity as retribution for our eco-sins puts him fully in the Oral-Roberts wing of the eco-orthodox.
Surely the globe has been warming, and surely human activity is responsible for some part of it. But equally obvious is that technology and adaptation—not penitent Luddism—will be our solution. Curbing economic growth is no solution to environmental woes; a quick look at the world shows that environmentalism is a concern only of the very richest groups in history.
And does Friedman not realize how foolish it is to bemoan that air conditioners can't run 24 hours a day, while claiming that the issue is warming due to overuse of energy? And for a guy who claims to defer to science, it's odd that he would cite one of the most obviously scientifically bogus metrics of all time: the "heat index".
Surely the globe has been warming, and surely human activity is responsible for some part of it. But equally obvious is that technology and adaptation—not penitent Luddism—will be our solution. Curbing economic growth is no solution to environmental woes; a quick look at the world shows that environmentalism is a concern only of the very richest groups in history.
And does Friedman not realize how foolish it is to bemoan that air conditioners can't run 24 hours a day, while claiming that the issue is warming due to overuse of energy? And for a guy who claims to defer to science, it's odd that he would cite one of the most obviously scientifically bogus metrics of all time: the "heat index".
3
Thomas,
I am ecstatic that today I am able to write something I thought I would never be able to write.
Thank you Thomas Friedman, I am delighted that your writing talents may serve the world well now that you are starting to get it.
Welcome to the world of real people where indoors ski hills are still science fiction.
I am ecstatic that today I am able to write something I thought I would never be able to write.
Thank you Thomas Friedman, I am delighted that your writing talents may serve the world well now that you are starting to get it.
Welcome to the world of real people where indoors ski hills are still science fiction.
9
Here's the thing. It is pointless debating the primary cause or the extent of climate change. It is here and at the very least affecting many segments of the Earth's geography.
But it is also critical to address realistic ways to to reverse the trend and effect meaningful response(s). Cutting carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases by some fractional percentage as an antidote is nothing more than delusional. No objective science has shown this to make any more than a very minor reversal unless the entire world would agree to a vast industrial slowdown. Not a chance. If we can find a massive means to clean the atmosphere then clean energy might serve serve to keep it stable.
Making futile gestures so that we all feel better completely deflects us from the search for meaningful responses (if there are any). Better to spend time, effort and money in adapting to the new reality. It'l be a long, long time before mercury light bulbs and clean burning engines fix the problem.
But it is also critical to address realistic ways to to reverse the trend and effect meaningful response(s). Cutting carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases by some fractional percentage as an antidote is nothing more than delusional. No objective science has shown this to make any more than a very minor reversal unless the entire world would agree to a vast industrial slowdown. Not a chance. If we can find a massive means to clean the atmosphere then clean energy might serve serve to keep it stable.
Making futile gestures so that we all feel better completely deflects us from the search for meaningful responses (if there are any). Better to spend time, effort and money in adapting to the new reality. It'l be a long, long time before mercury light bulbs and clean burning engines fix the problem.
6
No doubt the Republican response to rising unrest in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and eventually Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona, Florida etc. etc. as climate change wreaks its havoc will be "Send in the troops!"
5
August 19 2015
Blasphemy to deny the father almighty divine powers on earth - does not Thomas Friedman give purity and heart to greater perfection on Earth and its servants to the times everywhere and in all spots. More the Lady Macbeth out brief spot out, out.......out...
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
Blasphemy to deny the father almighty divine powers on earth - does not Thomas Friedman give purity and heart to greater perfection on Earth and its servants to the times everywhere and in all spots. More the Lady Macbeth out brief spot out, out.......out...
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
1
I had no idea any of this was going on. Why hasn't there been anything in the news?
5
Every economist knows the the thinking behind the tyranny of the commons, where clean air and water, access to public lands and similar natural resources need to be protected for the benefit of all.
Unfortunately, those with financial and political power have assumed the control and use/misuse of "the commons," at the expense of all others. The great evil of this is that those in power refuse to cede any of that control, even if their continued abuse of the commons results in the extinction of us all.
Unfortunately, those with financial and political power have assumed the control and use/misuse of "the commons," at the expense of all others. The great evil of this is that those in power refuse to cede any of that control, even if their continued abuse of the commons results in the extinction of us all.
6
Between overpopulation by double on earth, vehicle exhaust around the world, plant emissions, and the earth's tilting little by little in its orbit, things are not going to be in man's favor. We are all toast, flooded, frozen, one way or the other!
5
w/Regard to Syria's civil war, it's not a neat just cause because of neglected farmers stricken by drought.
-- many Iraqi refugees fled to Syria, including Baathists
This was due to the Iraq invasion (thanks to GW Bush and the Neocons) and the overthrow of Saddam. And it is not surprising that these experienced Sunni Baathist/ex-Baathist insurgents adopted a strategy of reorganization into a religiously fanatic group (ISIL) to gain recruits to grow their power base in Syria first, in order to retake portions of Iraq.
With regard to Global Warming, indeed finding economically viable mass alternatives to fossil fuels -- especially in regard to gasoline/transportation, is long overdue. Defunding radical Islam by defunding the global demand for its ultimate income stream -- Oil -- should be regarded as one of Israel's top long term strategic interests & goals. On this, the world's interests and Israel's interests would strongly align.
-- many Iraqi refugees fled to Syria, including Baathists
This was due to the Iraq invasion (thanks to GW Bush and the Neocons) and the overthrow of Saddam. And it is not surprising that these experienced Sunni Baathist/ex-Baathist insurgents adopted a strategy of reorganization into a religiously fanatic group (ISIL) to gain recruits to grow their power base in Syria first, in order to retake portions of Iraq.
With regard to Global Warming, indeed finding economically viable mass alternatives to fossil fuels -- especially in regard to gasoline/transportation, is long overdue. Defunding radical Islam by defunding the global demand for its ultimate income stream -- Oil -- should be regarded as one of Israel's top long term strategic interests & goals. On this, the world's interests and Israel's interests would strongly align.
6
Wasn't there a group of experts, scientists, anthropologists, etc. who got together in Rome in 1970 and decreed, through careful calculations, that if the earth did not reach a zero population growth within ten years, we, as a species, would, perhaps, be doomed? Their contention was that most raw materials would be depleted to carry on as we've had. Some countries, including the U.S., has, indeed, reached a net zero population increase, but, others, such as China, India, and sub-Saharan countries, continue to over populate. Hence, we may very well be over the threshold as is, and, as in the conundrum of the "lifeboat," some are too busy protecting their own seat to cooperate in expanding said lifeboat.
2
This is called Natural Selection for those of you out there that don't "believe" in science. You know, Survival of the Most Fit. Adapt to the environment or become extinct.
9
I hope the next GOP debate asks the contestants about climate change. When they respond by saying they are not scientists, ask them what most scientists think about the subject.
3
There will never be smoking gun proof, only a slow cooking like the frog in the pot. When most citizens don't understand statistics, they are immune to argument. Long term trends, averages, error bounds, confidence factors, six sigma's are all Greek to them and yet are as valid as Newton's laws. Our willful ignorance is coming home to roost.
10
Normal variation ring a bell? How about, what goes up, must come down (like the stock market always seems to do).
I dig Newton -- but stats are about probability, not certainty.
Six sigma -- what does that have to do with CC? Are you saying that the climate is akin to some industrial process? I think I missed the point.
I dig Newton -- but stats are about probability, not certainty.
Six sigma -- what does that have to do with CC? Are you saying that the climate is akin to some industrial process? I think I missed the point.
The point is statistics can measure and predict long term trends with high accuracy and confidence. It is telling us climate change is real, how much it has changed, how much it will change, and what's causing it. There is no longer any justification for denial. Just because gravity has not been reconciled with quantum mechanics doesn't keep you from believing Newton. Same here.
2
Mr. Freidman reveals here reveals the fruits of neglecting the environment coming home to roost. The U.S. military already is taking climate change very seriously for the good reason that the problems Freidman describes here create issues of international security. --- "The only “ism” that will save them is not Shiism or Islamism but “environmentalism” — understanding that there is no Shiite air or Sunni water, there is just “the commons,” their shared ecosystems, and unless they cooperate to manage and preserve them (and we all address climate change), vast eco-devastation awaits them all." --- Meanwhile, many myopic and dissembling US politicians continue to deny climate change for the simple reason that the all of the inside-track billionaires have not yet fully erected the money-making mechanisms to capitalize on belated remediation, once we commence doing so (which we will). I.e., the get-richer-quicker people aren't quite geared up yet. Until then, we all are being lied to about the serious reality of climate change, and we have been lied to for some time. If we had taken Jimmy Carter seriously when he put solar panels on the White House 40 years ago and urged America to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, we would have slowed the problem to perhaps manageable proportion. As it is, it may be to late. A big thank you to the footdraggers.
9
Muslim leaders are trying to address this situation. Hope its not too late.
http://grist.org/list/muslim-leaders-call-for-climate-action-in-new-decl...
http://grist.org/list/muslim-leaders-call-for-climate-action-in-new-decl...
3
Good of Mr. Freidman to point out the issues of international security, which the US military already takes seriously. But I wonder whether a Republican Commander-in-Chief would order the Joint Chiefs of Staff to remove from US defense planning any and all references to climate change, and to cease consideration of any planning factors related to climate effects on the modern battlefield. Already in Florida, state environmental officials have been ordered not to use the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in any government communications, emails, or reports. Jeb Bush equivocates about it. Ted Cruz denies the problem altogether, and so on. How can any Republican candidate continue denying climate change during their campaigns when the fact of the matter is that on day 1, a Republican president would find himself seriously at odds with his military generals?
7
Climate change? No way. Gotta be something else. Our (Republican) congress wouldn't lie to us. Nor would (Republican) presidential candidates.
Would they?
Would they?
9
Fine column, we need not let sure periods pass unremarked.
2
It is blindingly ironic that one of the greatest points of violent contention today is over who should have succeeded the Prophet in the 7th Century AD, while all around them the land is in flames.
9
Reading peoples' comments today can help us gain needed insights on what has gone wrong in the Middle East. I noted the remark: "I find it much more likely the desperation to cope with these climate issues will only escalate conflicts between middle eastern factions." Drooly405 Minneapolis
Yes, it tends perhaps to escalate conflicts between factions. Isn't that exactly why they need strong, even so-called autocratic, leaders to manage their nations and the kinds of people who won't act 'nicely' unless there is some 'iron fist' in charge. And isn't this exactly how the U.S. and other Western nations went wrong with the meddling. No, they don't need us to make them 'nice'. Our democracy won't work there quite yet at all. Haven't we seen why already? Shame on us.
We made terrible mistakes, starting with G.W. Bush's war on Iraq.
Before that we even meddled and helped him in an unnecessary war with Iran. Over 1 million died and the U.S. didn't apparently mind.
We were supplying poison gas (made for example in a factory in Baltimore) to Saddam before we cheated and tricked him (April Glaspie was the ambassador then.)
Time to make peace with Pres. Assad before it's really TOO LATE to help the Middle East at all.
Yes, it tends perhaps to escalate conflicts between factions. Isn't that exactly why they need strong, even so-called autocratic, leaders to manage their nations and the kinds of people who won't act 'nicely' unless there is some 'iron fist' in charge. And isn't this exactly how the U.S. and other Western nations went wrong with the meddling. No, they don't need us to make them 'nice'. Our democracy won't work there quite yet at all. Haven't we seen why already? Shame on us.
We made terrible mistakes, starting with G.W. Bush's war on Iraq.
Before that we even meddled and helped him in an unnecessary war with Iran. Over 1 million died and the U.S. didn't apparently mind.
We were supplying poison gas (made for example in a factory in Baltimore) to Saddam before we cheated and tricked him (April Glaspie was the ambassador then.)
Time to make peace with Pres. Assad before it's really TOO LATE to help the Middle East at all.
1
Yes. Let's leave the Middle East. The citizens of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- despite being given opportunity -- have failed to set aside religious and cultural differences for a common rule of law and modern political system. Let them drink their oil and eat their sand and suffer the heat until they decide to move into the modern world and work with other people for progress.
3
After 911, When the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq I was dumbfounded. How could a cabinet maker from New Jersey know with little doubt Iraq did not have, never had or in any imaginable scenario would have in the near or distant future credible weapons of destruction. 7 billion people, an atmosphere clogged with the runaway results of mass industrialization and we may actually elect a president that "doesn't believe in" global climate change. Long before the last drop of potable water is consumed in the Middle East the fight, flight and death of millions of desperate people will unfold, no need for ice sheets or rising seas, our own self inflicted desperation will destroy us. How is this so clear to a cabinet maker and so imperceptible to so many national leaders?
6
The simplest answer is the one that's not being discussed.
Cabinet makers and the rest of us value the common good of the citizens in our country, because we're in it together. The interests & well being of the "masses" align with the common good. The "national leaders" who made these destructive decisions aren't stupid or incompetent; rather, they don't prioritize the common good of its citizens above their more narrow self interests and that of their backers.
Cheney wasn't taken by surprise by the disastrous results in Iraq. When he was Sec. Def. under HW Bush, he knew of the dangers of getting bogged down if trying to take over Iraq (therefore G HW Bush, rightly withdrew).
And those who get rich by polluting and damaging the future well being of the "masses" will be rich/powerful enough to avoid the downsides, but they do have much to gain. War dodgers like GW Bush and Cheney did not have to risk their lives or their kin in Iraq, and they and their key backers profited. Such politicians are very competent at appearing to care about the common good, but evidently they don't and have other agendas. It's not about what they say and their "appeal"; it should be about logic, what they do, and their results. Some politicians decieve & appeal to ignorance, to achieve goals that are unsaid. Some people are sociopaths, and some of these seek positions of power and influence. The simplest answer is often the correct one.
Cabinet makers and the rest of us value the common good of the citizens in our country, because we're in it together. The interests & well being of the "masses" align with the common good. The "national leaders" who made these destructive decisions aren't stupid or incompetent; rather, they don't prioritize the common good of its citizens above their more narrow self interests and that of their backers.
Cheney wasn't taken by surprise by the disastrous results in Iraq. When he was Sec. Def. under HW Bush, he knew of the dangers of getting bogged down if trying to take over Iraq (therefore G HW Bush, rightly withdrew).
And those who get rich by polluting and damaging the future well being of the "masses" will be rich/powerful enough to avoid the downsides, but they do have much to gain. War dodgers like GW Bush and Cheney did not have to risk their lives or their kin in Iraq, and they and their key backers profited. Such politicians are very competent at appearing to care about the common good, but evidently they don't and have other agendas. It's not about what they say and their "appeal"; it should be about logic, what they do, and their results. Some politicians decieve & appeal to ignorance, to achieve goals that are unsaid. Some people are sociopaths, and some of these seek positions of power and influence. The simplest answer is often the correct one.
So what's the point of this article?
If it is that the Middle East should act to prevent climate change it misses the reality that they won't make much of a difference--their climate destiny will be determined by what the Chinese, Indians, and to a lesser extent, Americans do.
It sounds like Mr. Friedman's real message is that the Middle Eastern countries should stop fighting each other, cooperate and direct their energies towards fighting the coming climate threats. If so, it is just a naïve, futile plea to the Islamic extremists, Haredim and others to set aside their religious imperatives for their own sake and all of mankind.
If it is that the Middle East should act to prevent climate change it misses the reality that they won't make much of a difference--their climate destiny will be determined by what the Chinese, Indians, and to a lesser extent, Americans do.
It sounds like Mr. Friedman's real message is that the Middle Eastern countries should stop fighting each other, cooperate and direct their energies towards fighting the coming climate threats. If so, it is just a naïve, futile plea to the Islamic extremists, Haredim and others to set aside their religious imperatives for their own sake and all of mankind.
3
Very well said., couldn't agree more. I believe that is a serious international problem which will have repercussions beyond the ME. So we shouldn't just put the blame on them. The middle east has become the main playground for US, China, Russia, ... to expand their sphere of influence and it is becoming uglier day by day. I wish there will be a new generation of world leaders who can change that to a more constructive competition. On the other hand, all the fight that is going on in the region has been carried out with very modern and expensive weapons and they are all paid for. Either Iraqis/Saudis/Iranians or US tax payers paid for them. I can't see how an ongoing conflict is not in the interest of powerful defense industry around the world.
2
I cannot imagine why the following hasn't received more coverage. On July 23, the US Department of Defense sent a report to the Senate Appropriations Committee on the security impacts of climate change. From the description:
"The report reinforces the fact that global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national security interests over the foreseeable future because it will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions that threaten domestic stability in a number of countries."
The first sentence of the conclusion goes on to state that climate change is a "present security risk". Got that? A PRESENT security risk.
And remember...Mother Nature gets the final say.
"The report reinforces the fact that global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national security interests over the foreseeable future because it will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions that threaten domestic stability in a number of countries."
The first sentence of the conclusion goes on to state that climate change is a "present security risk". Got that? A PRESENT security risk.
And remember...Mother Nature gets the final say.
10
This whole article neglects to mention another fact of nature one can tranform salty water into drinkable water using energy. The middle easthas no lack of either therefore the middle east can manufacture the water it needs.
The fact that a country like Iraq ,that's allways been hot by the way, can't produce electricity or drinkable water , even though it has aboundent energy resources, is a social govermental failure not a natural disaster.
Nice try Mr. Friedman, but the middle east problems are human and socially based. Climate change won't devestate the middle, its corrupt leaders and brutal non compromising culture will.
The fact that a country like Iraq ,that's allways been hot by the way, can't produce electricity or drinkable water , even though it has aboundent energy resources, is a social govermental failure not a natural disaster.
Nice try Mr. Friedman, but the middle east problems are human and socially based. Climate change won't devestate the middle, its corrupt leaders and brutal non compromising culture will.
2
The development of air conditioning itself in the last 50 years is a major contributor to global warming, and not much discussed. People have always heated their houses, though houses in the western world tended to be far smaller than today, but cooling them---unless you happened to be rich enough to have slaves or servants waving fans----is quite new.
I also recall reading an article by Gore Vidal years ago about Washington in the 1930s and the difference that the absence of air conditioning then made to life in the city and even the functioning of government, and the role of air conditioning in making later imperial government feasible.
I also recall reading an article by Gore Vidal years ago about Washington in the 1930s and the difference that the absence of air conditioning then made to life in the city and even the functioning of government, and the role of air conditioning in making later imperial government feasible.
7
Mr. Friedman is in a patronizing mood today. He seems to be blaming the countries of the Middle East for endlessly bickering while their region is being severely punished by Mother Nature. He should know better. Let us put the blame where blame belongs. The global warming so severely felt in the region is not caused by the bickering "isms", be it between Sunnis, Shias, Kurds etc., but by the industrial north that has been dumping billions of tons of its poisonous trash into the global atmosphere causing the present signs of impending disaster. Effective action to prevent further harm is obviously beyond the capabilities of the regional parties. It is time for the industrial countries to cease their endless finger pointing at each other and start taking responsibility for the damage they have caused, otherwise the disastrous effects of global warming will not spare them. No country can escape the anger of Mother Nature.
8
The issue is very real and as Mr. Friedman pointed out already resulted in bloody wars, revolution, and government changes.
This is likely to escalate as the competition for resources will make things progressively worse.
What we should learn from this is that military intervention in the region is futile. As one of the worst global environmental offender we should be leading by using non-polluting energy sources. That will be our best way to [eventually] contribute to peace in the middle east.
This is likely to escalate as the competition for resources will make things progressively worse.
What we should learn from this is that military intervention in the region is futile. As one of the worst global environmental offender we should be leading by using non-polluting energy sources. That will be our best way to [eventually] contribute to peace in the middle east.
5
What the author, and afraid of be accused of being racist environmentalists will not say, is the underlying truth - the fact that semi arid ecosystems in the Middle East (and in the American Southwest too) have very low carrying capacity for humans and most other species to include domestic grazing animals. The too high populations in the Middle East have in fact been destroying the environment there (turning productive land into desert wasteland) for millennia. And these too many people competing for scarce resources have been the primary cause of the cultures of continual blood thirsty conflict there. The fact that humans competing for limited resources make up all manner of moral sounding religious excuses to justify killing, stealing land and houses, raping and selling their neighbors into slavery does not somehow change the reality that 'at base' what the conflicts are about is desperation for limited resources which creates these war of all against all societies. Societiees in which as we have seen the only job many can get is to belong to a sheik's "militia" that attacks and takes property and life from those who are momentarily weaker or looking the other way - when they are stabbed or shot in the back - in some transparently fake Jihad or as "punishment" when they commit some invented Inquisition-like heresy.
4
According to both the RSS (NASA) and the UAH satellite data sets, there has been no lower troposphere warming for 18 years and 7 months (RSS) and 18 years 5 months (UAH), over half the entire record
According to tide gauges, there has been no acceleration in sea level rise for over 100 years (Church and White 2011). Claims of acceleration depend on switching data sets to satellite information which does not comport with other satellite information or the tide gauges. The lower troposphere satellites check each other and are checked in turn by radionosodes and balloons and all agree.
All global weather extremes have lessened over the past many years, including those fed by heat or water vapor, as have wildfires. World cyclonic events are lessening, all weather extremes were greater, including those believed to be fed by heat or water vapor, during the colder global LIA. Drought is much lesser now than over the last hundred years, and in any larger time frame.
The PDO and AMO (oceanic oscillations) are in or entering cold-phases (though we are going to have a warming el nino year upcoming, this a part of natural variation). The sun is acting in a 'quiet' way. Resultantly, the climate may cool as much as 1.0 C between now and mid century.
Climate change is not the issue in the Middle East, as nothing has changed.
HadCRUT4 shows cooling since 2001 globally.
No data set shows statistically significant warming for at least 17+ years to as long as 23+ years.
According to tide gauges, there has been no acceleration in sea level rise for over 100 years (Church and White 2011). Claims of acceleration depend on switching data sets to satellite information which does not comport with other satellite information or the tide gauges. The lower troposphere satellites check each other and are checked in turn by radionosodes and balloons and all agree.
All global weather extremes have lessened over the past many years, including those fed by heat or water vapor, as have wildfires. World cyclonic events are lessening, all weather extremes were greater, including those believed to be fed by heat or water vapor, during the colder global LIA. Drought is much lesser now than over the last hundred years, and in any larger time frame.
The PDO and AMO (oceanic oscillations) are in or entering cold-phases (though we are going to have a warming el nino year upcoming, this a part of natural variation). The sun is acting in a 'quiet' way. Resultantly, the climate may cool as much as 1.0 C between now and mid century.
Climate change is not the issue in the Middle East, as nothing has changed.
HadCRUT4 shows cooling since 2001 globally.
No data set shows statistically significant warming for at least 17+ years to as long as 23+ years.
3
The 'no warming since 1998' canard has been disproved and it is disingenuous at best. The last year (2014) was the warmest on record. The persistence of this lie is only matched by the claiming of Kenyan birth for President Obama despite release of Hawaii birth certificate. The certitude in which wmar claims 'no warming' merely shows his ( or her) profound ignorance.
3
No canard Tom Cuddy. His science is correct. The only cannard is the manner in which NOAA changed the way it adjusts raw surface temperature data last winter, causing recent years to register as warmer than previously reported by NOAA. . Satellite and raw surface temperature measurements shows no significant warming in 18 years, and also shows that 2014 was not the warmest year on record. Look it up. Obama has even politicized NOAA. You are right in one aspect, President Obama was born in Hawaii.
1
Cooperation in the middle east? Sort of like saying that athletes never use performance enhancing drugs. Not sort of, more to the point impossible.
Yes, according to Mr. Friedman, much has been going wrong in the Middle East besides the most unnecessary and uncalled-for wars persisting there.
And some claim most optimistically that all they need to do is apply modern technology, like Israel has done most successfully, to use things like desalinated water, new energy sources, and other 'blessings' of modern science! But that takes money. Instead of providing any money for any nations like Syria, when it most unfortunately began coming under economic and social pressures because of lack of enough water, back well before any outbreaks of protests there ... the U.S. and other nations saw opportunity to obtain overthrow of a government that had actually been exactly what the country really has supported, and for years. And they did try to improve it, but not enough yet. That still doesn't justify the U.S. sabotaging the continued efforts even toward getting a CEASE-FIRE there.
And some claim most optimistically that all they need to do is apply modern technology, like Israel has done most successfully, to use things like desalinated water, new energy sources, and other 'blessings' of modern science! But that takes money. Instead of providing any money for any nations like Syria, when it most unfortunately began coming under economic and social pressures because of lack of enough water, back well before any outbreaks of protests there ... the U.S. and other nations saw opportunity to obtain overthrow of a government that had actually been exactly what the country really has supported, and for years. And they did try to improve it, but not enough yet. That still doesn't justify the U.S. sabotaging the continued efforts even toward getting a CEASE-FIRE there.
1
Continuing Susan’s comment: Remember Tom the joke about a Priest, an Imam, and a Rabbi being told that the world will be flooded in three days and they must tell their followers to prepare for the end of the world. The Priest and the Imam went to their congregations and exhorted them to pray and purify themselves before they face their creator. The Rabbi rushed to his congregation and asked all to let go of their usual pursuits to figure out how to survive under water before the three days are out.
You, Tom Friedman, give your people that live in Israel no credit for having polished the art of survival to a point where they are always a step ahead of imminent danger. They even figure sometimes that an imminent danger is not as crucial as an approaching one, and they postpone developing a solution for the first to tackle the second. E.g., Israel decided to continue developing the anti-missile missiles, a feat American scientists thought was unrealistic when proposed by President Reagan, rather than develop anti-tunnel technology. At present Israel is better positioned than anyone else in the region to deal with the drought and heat, as desalination has become an affordable pursuit. Maybe instead of pronouncing apocalyptic predictions for all of us in the Middle East, you might urge the people of the region to stop demonizing Israel and form a pan-Mideast scientific collaboration to learn to live "under water" while the punishing heat continues.
You, Tom Friedman, give your people that live in Israel no credit for having polished the art of survival to a point where they are always a step ahead of imminent danger. They even figure sometimes that an imminent danger is not as crucial as an approaching one, and they postpone developing a solution for the first to tackle the second. E.g., Israel decided to continue developing the anti-missile missiles, a feat American scientists thought was unrealistic when proposed by President Reagan, rather than develop anti-tunnel technology. At present Israel is better positioned than anyone else in the region to deal with the drought and heat, as desalination has become an affordable pursuit. Maybe instead of pronouncing apocalyptic predictions for all of us in the Middle East, you might urge the people of the region to stop demonizing Israel and form a pan-Mideast scientific collaboration to learn to live "under water" while the punishing heat continues.
6
"Mother Nature is not sitting idle. She doesn’t do politics — only physics, biology and chemistry."
Great article. But Mother Nature also does not know of frontiers. Winds, ocean acidity, ocean currents and resulting lack or torrential amounts of rain are global and connected.
It is the industrial world who (unknowingly for only the first 100+ years) has brought the change to the world climate. The Near East has hardly contributed to it. So it is not up to the Near East, but to the whole world to solve this crisis. Alas, of the industrialized countries, only the highest per capita polluter, the USA is still stone-walling and "doing politics" .
I dare to be optimistic for Paris, and hope 100s of jet-setting politicians in air-conditioned rooms will not propose to start acting in 20 years.
We need a rapid transition to fossil-free energy and a 100% stop on all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Most of all, we need the solidarity and combined political will of all parties.
Great article. But Mother Nature also does not know of frontiers. Winds, ocean acidity, ocean currents and resulting lack or torrential amounts of rain are global and connected.
It is the industrial world who (unknowingly for only the first 100+ years) has brought the change to the world climate. The Near East has hardly contributed to it. So it is not up to the Near East, but to the whole world to solve this crisis. Alas, of the industrialized countries, only the highest per capita polluter, the USA is still stone-walling and "doing politics" .
I dare to be optimistic for Paris, and hope 100s of jet-setting politicians in air-conditioned rooms will not propose to start acting in 20 years.
We need a rapid transition to fossil-free energy and a 100% stop on all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Most of all, we need the solidarity and combined political will of all parties.
6
As much as we'd like to think people can think logically and rationally, I see little evidence of it in the ME and I see little evidence of it here in the US Congress who has also failed to address climate change.
The ME might think that the disasters of climate change is the will of Allah and they will be martyrs to whatever cause they are imagining.
The GOP controlled Congress is also very religious as is their base so they may think this is the end times predicted in the bible- so that might be ok for them as well. Of course the real reason the Congress does nothing is because they're paid not to do the people business but the business of the Koch Bros. and their other billionaire overlords- and of course, they do the opposite of what Obama wants regardless of the consequences to the country.
I don't have a rosy future outlook for this planet because there are too many ignorant and short sighted people who are blinded by religion and hatred and cannot see the planet crumbling before their eyes. Things may eventually change but not before a good portion of the planet is under water and on fire...already happening.
The ME might think that the disasters of climate change is the will of Allah and they will be martyrs to whatever cause they are imagining.
The GOP controlled Congress is also very religious as is their base so they may think this is the end times predicted in the bible- so that might be ok for them as well. Of course the real reason the Congress does nothing is because they're paid not to do the people business but the business of the Koch Bros. and their other billionaire overlords- and of course, they do the opposite of what Obama wants regardless of the consequences to the country.
I don't have a rosy future outlook for this planet because there are too many ignorant and short sighted people who are blinded by religion and hatred and cannot see the planet crumbling before their eyes. Things may eventually change but not before a good portion of the planet is under water and on fire...already happening.
11
Should the west not invest heavily in energy projects in these countries. Just imagine if they invest half the money that they find for arms the rewards will be double fold. After all it does not matter where the environmental catastrophes take place it has an impact on the planet as a whole.
3
So perilous climate phenomena are going to incite... cooperation? How many wars have been fought over natural resources and water? I find it much more likely the desperation to cope with these climate issues will only escalate conflicts between middle eastern factions. My heart goes out to all the people struggling to survive in such a brutal corner of the earth.
4
Yes, it tends perhaps to escalate conflicts between factions. Isn't that exactly why they need stron, even so-called autocratic leaders to manage their nations and the kinds of people who won't be 'nice' unless there is some 'iron fist' in charge. And isn't this exactly how the U.S. and other Western nations went wrong with thier meddling. No, they don't need us to make them 'nice'. Our democracy won't work them. We made terrible mistake starting with G.W. Bush's war on Iraq. Before that we even meddled and helped him in an unnecassary war with Iran. Over 1 million died and the U.S. didn't apparently mind. Time to make peace with Pres. Assad before it's really TOO LATE to help the Middle East at all.
with so much variation in year-over-year temperature changes, is it statistically possible to ascribe short-term (< a few hundred years) temperature changes to global warming? the science of climatology seems to be quite shot through and contaminated by politics.
1
Sure, keep your head in the sand. 99.6 percent of the climate scientists are wrong.
1
The problems Mr. Friedman notes today that have come about in the Middle East, are simply a sample of what's to come across the whole globe.
There may exist a threshold population limit. Population far exceeds what could have been supported before mass agriculture methods that can produce more food from the land and oceans. But even worse than climate change has been the resulting degradation of the biosphere itself. The environment, the ecology, are all being worsened by the minute. Humanity as such depends also on all the other species, that are not only under constant pressure for their very survival, thousands of species are rendered extinct each year. Humanity itself, with its many cultures, has those cultures constantly under attack by globalization, by over 'colonization'. Thousands of languages have ceased to be used. Countless religions under attack by new atheistic doctrines being spread. Energy , mineral, and land resources, in particular the rain forests, even the topsoil is continually wasted also. There is far more worse, than the 'global warming' and 'climate change'.
There may exist a threshold population limit. Population far exceeds what could have been supported before mass agriculture methods that can produce more food from the land and oceans. But even worse than climate change has been the resulting degradation of the biosphere itself. The environment, the ecology, are all being worsened by the minute. Humanity as such depends also on all the other species, that are not only under constant pressure for their very survival, thousands of species are rendered extinct each year. Humanity itself, with its many cultures, has those cultures constantly under attack by globalization, by over 'colonization'. Thousands of languages have ceased to be used. Countless religions under attack by new atheistic doctrines being spread. Energy , mineral, and land resources, in particular the rain forests, even the topsoil is continually wasted also. There is far more worse, than the 'global warming' and 'climate change'.
1
Fossil fuels sustain intensive agriculture.
Funny how when discussing fighting climate change and the consequences of not doing it aggressively enough only one side of the equation is ever presented. If we implemented radical environmentalism and ceased using all fossils fuels over the next ten years to save the planet from climate change... What would happen to the economies of the Middle East that are almost entirely built on the production of oil? If the daily highs in the Middle East was 110 instead of 115, and the lakes in the desert filled back up, and the heat index never topped 140, but the governments lost over 50% of their economic output and income, would the average citizen be better off or worse? Would the governments be in a better position to provide electricity, or air conditioning, or education, or employment? Because if we replaced every carbon fuel source with solar panels and windmills tomorrow the daily weather in the Middle East would not become like Seattle's. It's a hot, arid desert, always was, always will be, whether you or I drive an SUV or not.
38
Very uplifting and inspiring Rupert. Too hard , don't try. Yes it is a hot arid desert, has been for some time. But it had been a fertile land thousands of years ago but climate change and wasteful shortsighted agricultural practices have made it what it is today. All the more reason to do something now.
1
You raise legitimate points that need addressing, but they are secondary to issues directly affecting the survival of life on our planet. Having a job is meaningless if there's no water to drink or you're suffering from heat exposure.
Yeah, it's a hot, arid desert, but it's getter hotter, it's getter more arid, and, whether you and I drive an SUV or not, its political and religious structures are likely to be toast. A new application for the phrase, "Burn, baby, burn!"
1
Amen, to that Mr. Friedman. We will all fight to death for some man-made artificial barriers while the adult - Mother Nature puts an end to her progeny's hate-filled, suicidal squabbles. All the tyrant's evils and arms and all the countries' climate-deniers and hate-filled people will never be able to put back Our Planet together again.
2
This was a thought-provoking editorial by Friedman about the possible connection between climate change & various kinds of strife which seem on the surface to be only about politics or religion or social issues. I see this issue in broader, more philosophical terms. On economics I’m actually moderately conservative, but reality has a way of intruding into EVERYONE’s politics. About 10 years ago, I became a Humanist, realizing that if humanity does not come to the realization soon that the COMMON plight of all humanity is more important than anyone’s particular patriotic allegiances or religious “faith” or economic ideology, we will all suffer, all of us with our different countries and religions and politics. Humanity has to stop expending its lives & resources over tribalism & irrationalities of various kinds. We can’t afford conventional wars anymore & if they become nuclear, we’ve all had it, even countries far removed from the location of the conflict.
In the ten years I’ve been a Humanist, I have not for one minute doubted my decision about becoming one. Every day I see more confirmation that I made the right choice.
In the ten years I’ve been a Humanist, I have not for one minute doubted my decision about becoming one. Every day I see more confirmation that I made the right choice.
7
Ms. Masoumeh Ebtekar, the head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization (and a Vice President) warned about the dangers of climate change, saying that climate change would impact not only Iran and the Middle East region but the world, calling climate change “a serious threat for life on Earth.”
But I'm sure this view, coming from a female leader in Iran, would only convince Republicans that climate change is hoax created by liberals and radical Islamic fundamentalists!
But I'm sure this view, coming from a female leader in Iran, would only convince Republicans that climate change is hoax created by liberals and radical Islamic fundamentalists!
5
Another very thoughtful column. Many thanks.
1
There is one Middle Eastern country that has made considerable strides in dealing with one of the Middle East's severest problems, shortage of water. Israel has built five desalination plants which now supply a good share of the country's water.
Were the countries of this region wise enough to befriend Israel and cooperate with it they would be able to better deal with some of their most pressing problems.
Were the countries of this region wise enough to befriend Israel and cooperate with it they would be able to better deal with some of their most pressing problems.
5
I suggest to enjoy whatever abundance we currently have. It may be that in a few years there will be quite less. Nothing will be done to prevent a climatic disaster, so enjoy it while you can.
1
Thomas Freidman deserves a Pulitzer for a most prescient writings on the Middle East.Simply outstanding.
Simply stated,Nature is a great balancer.
Simply stated,Nature is a great balancer.
1
How has war and bombing effected the climate?
1
This is a topic you could spend the rest of your career on and it would do the world a great service. This is the only reality that matters. We cannot live on an uninhabitable planet. None of us. No matter what name we call our God.
5
I have lived for seven decades, and if all goes well have a couple more to go. Climate change will not much affect that. So for me it's après moi le déluge. But for the progeny, the deluge seems a virtual certainty now. It is inconceivable that any current government (outside a handful in the EU) can conceive and implement an effective program to join with others and ameliorate the consequences that have become unavoidable. If the chance were at all finite, I would say that inconceivability goes double for the Middle East. We have our Donald Trump yahoos; they have hundreds of them. We have financially oriented elections; they don't have elections, and their finances constitute their be all and end all. We have Obama and, with luck, a Democrat to succeed him; they have Netanyahus.
2
I would not be so sure. If the fishing collapses people will get hungry in a hurry
Great points made here. America should take note. As our southwest evaporates any right/left divide that keeps our government stagnate will also need to evaporate so we may confront pressing issues of drinking water. As the population increases, drinking water reservoir decreases (read the article on Folsom in the Times today). We have no time for silly bickering for campaign dollars while our country steams and burns.
45
The Pentagon has been warning about precisely this -- that climate change could be one of our most critical security threats because of global instability. You'd think Republicans would at least listen to the group they love to fund.
https://news.vice.com/article/pentagon-warns-of-immediate-national-secur...
https://news.vice.com/article/pentagon-warns-of-immediate-national-secur...
3
Interesting that Friedman sticks Israel in there with the rest without noting how it has dealt with drought (presumably brought in through climate change) via desalinization and other means to assure municipal and irrigation water supply. It's almost as if Israel has a responsive government that takes care of its people.
2
This article shows in a one region of the world what climate change is likely to do on a global scale. Today in an over populated world with resources being stressed, the outcome will result in war, mass migrations and the breakdown of civilizations and societies.
3
so we should wait for mother nature to solve this problem ?
why not a pro active solution ?
why not a pro active solution ?
1
Worrying about Iran's nuclear ambitions and "doing something" about it makes a lot of people rich. Solving the population and concomitant climate crisis that leads to the issue does not.
Imagine a mullah backing family planning? Or an oil man acquiescing that we need to use less oil? The naysayers about the population bomb thought that once we tackled hunger we had tricked Malthusian theory. They just didn't realize that to feed all those masses you need land, air and water too, particularly for their refuse of, CO2, human biological waste and simply trash. All which are quickly running out and for which there are no simple technological solutions.
Climate change is a direct and inevitable part of OVERPOPULATION. If you want to tackle climate change you must also include population control.
Imagine a mullah backing family planning? Or an oil man acquiescing that we need to use less oil? The naysayers about the population bomb thought that once we tackled hunger we had tricked Malthusian theory. They just didn't realize that to feed all those masses you need land, air and water too, particularly for their refuse of, CO2, human biological waste and simply trash. All which are quickly running out and for which there are no simple technological solutions.
Climate change is a direct and inevitable part of OVERPOPULATION. If you want to tackle climate change you must also include population control.
5
A curious omission in this article is any discussion of how much water is distributed to the Arab/Jewish populations in Israel/Palestine.
The average Israeli consumption of water is 300 liter per person per day, which is more than 4 times that of the Palestinian use of 72 liters per day. Some Palestinian village communities live on even less water than the average Palestinian consumption, in some cases no more than 20 liters per person per day.[50] According to the World Bank, water extractions per capita for West Bank Palestinians are about one quarter of those for Israelis, and have declined over the last decade. In 1999, Palestinians in the West Bank used only 190 lpcd from the West Bank resources, the settlers 870 lpcd, and the Israelis used even 1,000 lpcd. Israeli settlers in the West Bank thus used about 4.5 times the amount of water available to the Palestinians.
Perhaps Mr. Friedman will discuss this issue at a later date.
The average Israeli consumption of water is 300 liter per person per day, which is more than 4 times that of the Palestinian use of 72 liters per day. Some Palestinian village communities live on even less water than the average Palestinian consumption, in some cases no more than 20 liters per person per day.[50] According to the World Bank, water extractions per capita for West Bank Palestinians are about one quarter of those for Israelis, and have declined over the last decade. In 1999, Palestinians in the West Bank used only 190 lpcd from the West Bank resources, the settlers 870 lpcd, and the Israelis used even 1,000 lpcd. Israeli settlers in the West Bank thus used about 4.5 times the amount of water available to the Palestinians.
Perhaps Mr. Friedman will discuss this issue at a later date.
2
If the vast Arab world (99+% of the land in the middle east) and the growing Iranian empire (adding Iraq, Syria & Yemen) want to survive the next 50+ years, they need to follow Israel's example. According to the NYTimes, 'Israel treats 86 percent of its domestic wastewater and recycles it for agricultural use — about 55 percent of the total water used for agriculture. Spain is second to Israel, recycling 17 percent of its effluent, while the United States recycles just 1 percent.'
Of course, as they have shown us many times in the past century, the Arab world and the Iranian empire would rather watch their people die than make peace with tiny Israel. They might get their wish.
Of course, as they have shown us many times in the past century, the Arab world and the Iranian empire would rather watch their people die than make peace with tiny Israel. They might get their wish.
4
...and it is Ironic that Israel which has been able to accomplish so much in connection with the environment, including Water Desalination and agriculture would be able to help the other countries in the Middle East. ... if only it were allowed...
If my reading of Mr. Friedmans' column is correct, I view it as excoriating “the people in this region … for “fighting over,” among other things “to whom God really gave the holy land.”
If so, I must commend Mr. Friedman for seeming to strive to get God out of the Palestinian Israeli conflict and for recognizing the anachronism inherent in a state based on religion anywhere, especially ”in the holy land.”
I commend him for seeming to advocate bonding Jews and Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, by their humanity, rather than only by their religious faith, so that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims can live equally together, can call the holy land their own together, can prosper together, can save their shared environment together and by their example can bring the message of brotherhood and peace to the whole region together.
Perhaps Mr. Friedman did not intend to go this far. Perhaps he continues to believe in "a Jewish and democratic state."
Yet I could not help but detect a genuine and sincere impatience within his column in the role religion often plays in separating humans from their humanity.
For this Mr. Friedman deserves gratitude.
If so, I must commend Mr. Friedman for seeming to strive to get God out of the Palestinian Israeli conflict and for recognizing the anachronism inherent in a state based on religion anywhere, especially ”in the holy land.”
I commend him for seeming to advocate bonding Jews and Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, by their humanity, rather than only by their religious faith, so that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims can live equally together, can call the holy land their own together, can prosper together, can save their shared environment together and by their example can bring the message of brotherhood and peace to the whole region together.
Perhaps Mr. Friedman did not intend to go this far. Perhaps he continues to believe in "a Jewish and democratic state."
Yet I could not help but detect a genuine and sincere impatience within his column in the role religion often plays in separating humans from their humanity.
For this Mr. Friedman deserves gratitude.
126
agree,
1
The migrations which we see now....due to war and havoc in the Middle East
and Northern Africa will simply increase....and go to habitable places ...
and
perhaps form a United States of their own diverse peoples...and this is
of course only a pipe dream...but ...I think this might eventually occur...
I think of Africa as a place for peaceful solutions....it's certainly time for
Africa to evolve.....perhaps starting with Botswana.
and Northern Africa will simply increase....and go to habitable places ...
and
perhaps form a United States of their own diverse peoples...and this is
of course only a pipe dream...but ...I think this might eventually occur...
I think of Africa as a place for peaceful solutions....it's certainly time for
Africa to evolve.....perhaps starting with Botswana.
2
Every person posting on this site needs to stop waiting for the government to do something about climate change.................buy the smallest car you can get(think smart), buy un-packaged food, stop using electricity, share rides, stop using air conditioning, don't mow your lawns........ ................
1
And quit eating beans!
1
Three thousands years ago, many Israelites from Near and Middle East sought cooler air in Egypt.
God must be unhappy, and if he is an old testament God watch out!
1
Imagine if Iran had put as much effort into desalination plans as it did into developing nuclear material.
Mr Friedman helps us understand why ISIS will never materialize into a sustainable state, because its ideology will never address the realities of the material world.
Mr Friedman helps us understand why ISIS will never materialize into a sustainable state, because its ideology will never address the realities of the material world.
2
Here's my bet.
Climate change and global warming affect the entire planet and must be addressed by all nations together, ignoring their individual economies. But there is a more pressing problem which Mr. Friedman did not mention.
The common enemy is ISIS.
Sunni, Shiite, Arab, Turkish, Kurdish and Israeli must work together, forming limited partnerships, to defeat ISIS. I propose that the United States and its allies form a limited pact with Iran. Yes, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The primary objective is the destruction of ISIS, which is destabilizing Iraq, Syria and Jordan. ISIS is essentially Sunni. But it will threaten the Saudis. And as it acquires more of Iraqi territory it will certainly attack Iran, leading to another Iraq-Iran War.
Climate change and global warming affect the entire planet and must be addressed by all nations together, ignoring their individual economies. But there is a more pressing problem which Mr. Friedman did not mention.
The common enemy is ISIS.
Sunni, Shiite, Arab, Turkish, Kurdish and Israeli must work together, forming limited partnerships, to defeat ISIS. I propose that the United States and its allies form a limited pact with Iran. Yes, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The primary objective is the destruction of ISIS, which is destabilizing Iraq, Syria and Jordan. ISIS is essentially Sunni. But it will threaten the Saudis. And as it acquires more of Iraqi territory it will certainly attack Iran, leading to another Iraq-Iran War.
2
Mother Nature rules all. Water is the biggest risk to humanity. Part of the water crisis is due to climate change (GLOBAL WARMING), but the other part of the water crisis is due to increased humanity and increased standards of living around the globe. Israel gets a significant percentage of its water from the West Bank. A Two State solution is unlikely. It's all about water.
3
The Weizmann Institute in Israel has the brain power to counter global warming, and Israelis would rather spend money funding it than being in battle with their Arab neighbors who seem to love war.
1
Mr Friedman, there is hope for better future of the Middle East!
See the NYT article 'Aided by the sea...' from May 29, 2015. It sates that "...Israel has, in the meantime, become the world leader in recycling and reusing wastewater for agriculture. It treats 86 percent of its domestic wastewater and recycles it for agricultural use — about 55 percent of the total water used for agriculture. Spain is second to Israel, recycling 17 percent of its effluent, while the United States recycles just 1 percent, according to Water Authority data."
Long Live, Israel!
See the NYT article 'Aided by the sea...' from May 29, 2015. It sates that "...Israel has, in the meantime, become the world leader in recycling and reusing wastewater for agriculture. It treats 86 percent of its domestic wastewater and recycles it for agricultural use — about 55 percent of the total water used for agriculture. Spain is second to Israel, recycling 17 percent of its effluent, while the United States recycles just 1 percent, according to Water Authority data."
Long Live, Israel!
3
This column is way off the mark.
The biggest problem in Arab lands is the leadership has a complete disregard for its citizens well being. The masses are undereducated and do not choose their leaders.
You never hear of Israelis complaining of electricity shortages, water shortages, etc. and they live in exactly the same climate.
The biggest problem in Arab lands is the leadership has a complete disregard for its citizens well being. The masses are undereducated and do not choose their leaders.
You never hear of Israelis complaining of electricity shortages, water shortages, etc. and they live in exactly the same climate.
2
This is not just a Middle East problem.
Unless CO2 and Methane release into the Biosphere is stopped immediately, within the next fifty years global temperatures could rise to 150 degrees Fahrenheit on vast areas of the planet and ocean waters could rise by four to eight feet, inundating land mass now inhabited by over a quarter of the world’s population
We all have to face a painful fact; the industrial civilization that grew out of the industrial revolution, on which carbon based energy today justifies its operation, now finds its “raison d’etre” shaking under its own weight. The cold hard fact is that carbon based energy has not only seen its day; like an insidious disease it is working against human survival.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
Unless CO2 and Methane release into the Biosphere is stopped immediately, within the next fifty years global temperatures could rise to 150 degrees Fahrenheit on vast areas of the planet and ocean waters could rise by four to eight feet, inundating land mass now inhabited by over a quarter of the world’s population
We all have to face a painful fact; the industrial civilization that grew out of the industrial revolution, on which carbon based energy today justifies its operation, now finds its “raison d’etre” shaking under its own weight. The cold hard fact is that carbon based energy has not only seen its day; like an insidious disease it is working against human survival.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
8
The Shia, Sunnis, Arabs, and Turks may be destroyed by corruption and Mother Nature in the future, Tom.
But I have no doubt that the Kurds will still be around, along with the Israelis who will still have air conditioning in Tel Aviv.
But I have no doubt that the Kurds will still be around, along with the Israelis who will still have air conditioning in Tel Aviv.
4
"understanding that there is no Shiite air or Sunni water, " we must also recognize that there IS Israeli water and I wouldn't count on them sharing it any more than the Sunni or Shiites.
3
Only to blame themselves for corruption and mismanagement of this precious resource, I say, and say it loud and clear. Israel has prioritized this issue during the past fifteen years. Due to investments in desalination, waste water reclamation,teaching the farmers and conducting R&D concerning HOW to use the water more efficiently there has been created a surplus of available water for agriculture and civilian use.....no excuses Mr. Friedman -- say it like it is.........
6
The effects of climate change will be exponential, like compound interest, and not linear. Change begets change and a lot of people are probably going to be in for a rough ride over the coming years. Unfortunately, I don't think the damage will be limited to the Middle East.
Already, we are seeing nearly unprecedented (in modern times) migrations out of the Middle East and Africa. With explosive population growth in both regions, it can only get worse. Where will all of those refugees go?
Already, we are seeing nearly unprecedented (in modern times) migrations out of the Middle East and Africa. With explosive population growth in both regions, it can only get worse. Where will all of those refugees go?
8
For millennia we have had a surfeit of resources and a slowly changing environment, but that surfeit by virtue of our population growth has diminished and exploitation has rapidly changed the environment, perhaps irrevocably.
For the sake of humanity's future I hope we, the human inhabitants of earth, will admit our failure and institute the positive changes needed to sustain human life. No one reading this column and these remarks will be alive to see the final results of the damage we wreak, but this damage will be increasingly felt by our children and theirs in all the years that follow.
As mentioned Mother Nature is not sitting idle but it is not her doing nor those in the Middle East it is rather the industrialized west of the United States, Europe and the Far East. We are the exploiters and not those who formerly lived in thick walled homes and slept through the heat of midday.
Climate change does not respect wealth, religious beliefs or the future of humanity and those who are responsible for the destruction we are beginning to feel know this, but unless forced will not change
For the sake of humanity's future I hope we, the human inhabitants of earth, will admit our failure and institute the positive changes needed to sustain human life. No one reading this column and these remarks will be alive to see the final results of the damage we wreak, but this damage will be increasingly felt by our children and theirs in all the years that follow.
As mentioned Mother Nature is not sitting idle but it is not her doing nor those in the Middle East it is rather the industrialized west of the United States, Europe and the Far East. We are the exploiters and not those who formerly lived in thick walled homes and slept through the heat of midday.
Climate change does not respect wealth, religious beliefs or the future of humanity and those who are responsible for the destruction we are beginning to feel know this, but unless forced will not change
3
Mr. Friedman has sunk to new lows. While implicitly criticizing Israel for being more interested in ideology than water, environment etc, and lumping into the same category as its self destructing neighbors, he neglects to mention that Israel provides 40 % of it's water from desalination, invented drip technology for agriculture and is on the cusp of being as environmentally conscious as Europe and the US. If it's neighbors reached out in peace & friendship instead of perpetually trying to destroy Israel, the ME might not be in the dire environmental position Mr. Friedman bemoans.
12
So the new goddess in town is "Environmentalism?" And what has this she-dog ever done? Where was she when northern Africa's lush landscape was turned to endless sand dunes? Where was she when ice sheets blanketed North American? Why didn't she cork the endless volcanic eruptions these past 10,000 years? Why did she sleep when objects bombarded the earth's atmosphere from outer galaxies? And what was her excuse for not stifling the sun's affect on the earth's climate?
You, you go ahead and grovel at the feet of fantasy. In time, a truly Holy God will school you of your utter foolishness!
You, you go ahead and grovel at the feet of fantasy. In time, a truly Holy God will school you of your utter foolishness!
1
It sounds like you're saying that humans don't have the capability of affecting their environment. Just leave it all to the Holy God to determine everything? Man doesn't have any choices? Que sera, sera? You don't think it was the Holy God's intention to GIVE man the ability to affect his environment, to determine his own fate? The Holy God just intends for man to be forever weak, just a pawn in His cosmic chess game?
1
The heat wave in just temporary as there is no such thing as "Global Warming" if we believe the GOP!
5
No, you are wrong David. Most of us accept the idea of climate change. We just don't accept your hysterical predictions of Armageddon, your stubborn refusal to acknowledge offsetting benefits of continued warming, your complete ignorance of how artificially high energy costs will escalate world poverty and human suffering, and above all, we don't accept your unbelievably insipid solutions.
1
We can the same thing about his great country --- while we fight over building walls, deporting illegals, denying proper health care for abused women, and surrounding ISIS, the west is going up in smoke, the east/midwest is slipping into the ice age, and Florida, well, their electoral votes, let us say, will soon be under water.
9
Mr. Friedman, do you take this issue seriously enough to rank taking it so first among qualifications for the next American president? If so, absent Vice President Gore's entry into the race, don't you have to agree the obvious and only choice is Senator Sanders, who like you ranks this as humanity's greatest challenge?
7
Though Israel is included as one of the doomed, it can only be as a result of the actions of its neighbors. Friedman knows full well of the significant steps Israel has taken and continues to take on the environmental front, from reforesting to water conservation and reuse. It is a recognized world leader in drip irrigation, water desalination and much more.
Israel is already the lone democracy in the region. Is it destined to be an island of environmentalism as well? It's Muslim neighbors inability to adapt to the modern world may well prove to be its undoing.
The lesson Friedman should be teaching is simple: if Israel's regional neighbors spend their time, energy and money on emulating what is best about Israel - from its civil society to its economic and environmental policies - rather than seeking to undermine and destroy it, everyone (other than religious fanatics) would benefit.
Israel is already the lone democracy in the region. Is it destined to be an island of environmentalism as well? It's Muslim neighbors inability to adapt to the modern world may well prove to be its undoing.
The lesson Friedman should be teaching is simple: if Israel's regional neighbors spend their time, energy and money on emulating what is best about Israel - from its civil society to its economic and environmental policies - rather than seeking to undermine and destroy it, everyone (other than religious fanatics) would benefit.
6
While people argue and fight about which God's laws to enforce, God keeps enforcing natural laws that have been established since time began.
4
If God is controlling the environment then I guess he's doing it by having the Holy Spirit make us use so much oil. Isn't it mean to kill us all so slowly? Including the babies as well? I would prefer he just make Putin and Obama launch all their nukes and get it over with quickly.
In a perverse way, the dinosaurs were better off than we are. They couldn't see it coming so cannot be blamed for their own demise.
I wonder what whatever follow us humans will think as they unearth our ravgaed remains. Maybe something like: they came, they evolved, they were stupid, they broght on their own extinction and willingly so.
I wonder what whatever follow us humans will think as they unearth our ravgaed remains. Maybe something like: they came, they evolved, they were stupid, they broght on their own extinction and willingly so.
11
Tom, get out of your air-conditioned Manhattan office and visit the US west if you want to experience heat and severe drought conditions. Yes Mother Nature does not play politics but today politicians in the Republican party play politics with Mother Nature. I think she will win hands down.
158
Not just the Middle East, Thomas, the world, the entire world. This crisis means the end of borders and nations and flags and religions and things that separate us from one another, or it means the end of us. Our choice
5
'...there is just “the commons,” their shared ecosystems, and unless they cooperate to manage and preserve them...vast eco-devastation awaits them all...' Reality of dire modernity. Well said. Scary-true. We have been the wanton destructors ('developers' in our terminology) of both environment and social cohesion. So bad for so long.
Sad to see that we only really react to catastrophes, whether climatic or communal. But, regardless, they're both here.
One of the few bright spots is that future generations may benefit from out finally being forced to deal with climate change (man-made) and grotesque wealth inequalities (man-made). Pray we change for the better and become better people; more realistic, more giving, more connected to each other and this wonder planet we've been given. Love is greater than greed; we're starting to be forced to admit this.
Sad to see that we only really react to catastrophes, whether climatic or communal. But, regardless, they're both here.
One of the few bright spots is that future generations may benefit from out finally being forced to deal with climate change (man-made) and grotesque wealth inequalities (man-made). Pray we change for the better and become better people; more realistic, more giving, more connected to each other and this wonder planet we've been given. Love is greater than greed; we're starting to be forced to admit this.
3
Earth's climate has been changing since it was formed 4.5 Billion years ago. Most of earth's history was spent in ice ages stretching 100's of millions of years punctuated by interglacial warming periods of a few 1000 years. The entire human civilization and history as we know it is limited to the current warming period which started 10,000 years ago. To draw such sweeping conclusions from 2 weeks of warm weather in the gulf desert and 1 lake in Iran that went dry is the height of foolishness. The record snow in Boston and the snow pile that lingered into July is forgotten within a month because it does not fit into the narrative of 'warming' earth. If I had to fear something, I would fear the next ice age because that is what the earth's history tells us.
4
The earth's history tells us that the PACE of climate change has never been this rapid. That is the distinction to make, not climate change over thousands of years.
4
This is a fiction paragraph. Do editors "pick" comments like this just to see how quickly the replies pile up?
3
How many times do we have to clarify that it's not about "global warming" it's about global climate change? It's about increases in weather extremes, which are obvious all around the world. Please go read the science, it's easy to find: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=weather+extremes+climate+change
4
I realize it sounds extremely dark and curmudgeonly, but if climate change hastens the denouement of the current act in the Middle East, then I welcome it. That's my conclusion after watching this bloody circus for about 4 decades. The whole region is in tatters now and I don't see how any existing institutions or governing bodies will patch it back together. Even the seemingly stable ones (Saudis) exist on a precipice. Political moderates will soon be extinct, and the problems are so complex and on such a scale now as to be insoluble.
What comes next for the region? That's anyone's guess, but why wait?
What comes next for the region? That's anyone's guess, but why wait?
2
Friedman predicts more wars; the rapid perishing of vulnerable populations, the explosion in refugees, the senseless violence and killing. He predicts, quite correctly, the further diminishing of our collective consciousness and souls.
What I wish he would predict is how we (western governments and private interests), while pointing to Russia and China, will make a grab for resources (oil, metals, diamonds) by backing one regime over others, one faction over others, and diminishing our souls in greater haste. Far fetched? See Trump's plan to take over Iranian oil.
We will not care; because the prolonged drought in California and the rapid response by the people and the government has shown that a civic society can solve these problems without engaging in nihilism. This problem will mostly effect those without any civilized society (er, that would be the region Friedman is talking about).
Kalidan
What I wish he would predict is how we (western governments and private interests), while pointing to Russia and China, will make a grab for resources (oil, metals, diamonds) by backing one regime over others, one faction over others, and diminishing our souls in greater haste. Far fetched? See Trump's plan to take over Iranian oil.
We will not care; because the prolonged drought in California and the rapid response by the people and the government has shown that a civic society can solve these problems without engaging in nihilism. This problem will mostly effect those without any civilized society (er, that would be the region Friedman is talking about).
Kalidan
34
The climate change and drought conditions currently seen in CA are just the beginning. They are not in any way being "solved," but managed,for now, while losing environments and species, while temperatures increase. BigAg is still extracting water from the aquifers, solely for shipping food grown with our water, overseas for profit.
The aquifers, which took hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate, are drained to the point that the land is sinking, up to 10 feet in areas. The trees are dying by the millions.
We have not stopped increasing atmospheric pollution.I wish I could see some brighter future, but CA, like the middle east, is a desert.
The aquifers, which took hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate, are drained to the point that the land is sinking, up to 10 feet in areas. The trees are dying by the millions.
We have not stopped increasing atmospheric pollution.I wish I could see some brighter future, but CA, like the middle east, is a desert.
Friedman wrote an article which gets us to thinking, but I would think the effect of climate change on the Middle East would be a strengthening of the reactionary (terrorist, Jihadi, conservative, religious--call it what you will) argument in the Middle East and a deepening problem for the U.S. and Western powers.
In other words, if I were a terrorist I would only add now to my argument against the Western world and Israel that "they, our enemies, are trying to burn up our home with not only bombs but the weather itself which was controlled by God in the past and was wonderful, nice and cool even on hot days. Therefore our task now must be to target the oil refineries in the Middle East and all places of energy which are destroying our climate because we must return once again to the methods of the past, such as our good camels, which did not affect God's weather but lived in harmony with the word of God..."
In other words, perhaps as climate change gets worse terrorists will be at the forefront of the environmental movement to stop climate change--or to put it in another way, the ground seems ripe for a deadly mix and confusion between environmentalism and terrorism. Therefore rather than asking the Islamic world to become more environment minded it would seem the challenge is for the West and great powers in general to work on climate change and keep the environment argument as home as possible and divorced from any possibility of confusion with terrorist concerns.
In other words, if I were a terrorist I would only add now to my argument against the Western world and Israel that "they, our enemies, are trying to burn up our home with not only bombs but the weather itself which was controlled by God in the past and was wonderful, nice and cool even on hot days. Therefore our task now must be to target the oil refineries in the Middle East and all places of energy which are destroying our climate because we must return once again to the methods of the past, such as our good camels, which did not affect God's weather but lived in harmony with the word of God..."
In other words, perhaps as climate change gets worse terrorists will be at the forefront of the environmental movement to stop climate change--or to put it in another way, the ground seems ripe for a deadly mix and confusion between environmentalism and terrorism. Therefore rather than asking the Islamic world to become more environment minded it would seem the challenge is for the West and great powers in general to work on climate change and keep the environment argument as home as possible and divorced from any possibility of confusion with terrorist concerns.
1
Don't worry. Just bring the free market to the Middle East and all the problems will be resolved.
3
Hey Dave, Bush literally tried to do that in Iraq. As the country began to disintegrate after we invaded he literally had some fresh college grads sent over to establish a stock market and a network of ATMs. I'm not joking. Needless to say they found out the people there had other things to worry about, like staying alive.
Interesting that neither Mr. Friedman nor his readers mention the revolutionary water conservation and other green successes that Israel has contributed to the region, a country truly in the middle of the Middle East. Israel, which daily sells huge amounts of water to Jordan at low prices, today does not have a water problem due largely to country-wide water recycling as well as desalinization, drip irrigation and the creation of drought resistant plant species, using techniques that are all developed locally. Indeed, Israel can contribute greatly to the water and other resource conservation its Arab neighbors and Iran if only they would accept a Jewish state in their midst, or in the case of Egypt and Jordan, could more openly collaborate without fear of backlash by their reactionary Islamic institutions.
201
You do know that Israel has taken most of the water from Palestine for their own use, don't you? Palestinians are allotted 25% the amount of water allotted Israelis...while illegal settlers get over 15 times as much water as their Palestinian neighbors.
I'm not impressed with Israel's use of water because it's largely stolen water.
I'm not impressed with Israel's use of water because it's largely stolen water.
2
Yes, DS, Israel sells huge amounts of water to Jordan, in part because Israel took from the Arabs the land that has the most water, and forced the Arabs into the drier lands in the area, the Gaza Strip being one example among many.
A lesson from my days as a chemistry major .....
"Alcohol is the other by-product of fermentation. Alcohol remains in the liquid which is great for making an alcoholic beverage but not for the yeast cells, as the yeast dies when the alcohol exceeds its tolerance level."
Yeast cells die in their own waste! Some take pride in how much better and smarter we are than other animals but really we are no smarter that yeast and less useful.
"Alcohol is the other by-product of fermentation. Alcohol remains in the liquid which is great for making an alcoholic beverage but not for the yeast cells, as the yeast dies when the alcohol exceeds its tolerance level."
Yeast cells die in their own waste! Some take pride in how much better and smarter we are than other animals but really we are no smarter that yeast and less useful.
5
Perhaps Rick Perry could head over for a round of ecumenical prayers. That seems to be the Republican answer to climate change.
6
High temp has reached many countries around the globe. California and Australia are suffering high bush fires rate. Im sure God is cursing every nation because their mischevious behaviors.
But wait. The countries that you mention are not the ones most responsible for climate change. They're victims of larger, more industrial, and more consumerist nations.
13
Fortunately we have leadership in the US Senate that will address this problem. Sen. Inhofe will throw a snowball at Iran (and of course simultaneously vote no to the deal that will keep them from developing a nuclear bomb).
5
A very depressing article plus we and the rest of the world have no idea how to address environmental negative changes.
I find it interesting that Tom ignores the fact that Iran's population has gone grown more than 400% in 50 years. To all of these 3rd world countries - and liberals - that like to blame the West for the decimation of the planet - you need to get real. The core of the issue is explosion of population.
Without an outrcry from liberal elite about the damage having 10 kids by the time you are 25 is doing to our planet. This is the real damage to our planet. Fossil fuels use is symptom, not the cause.
Without an outrcry from liberal elite about the damage having 10 kids by the time you are 25 is doing to our planet. This is the real damage to our planet. Fossil fuels use is symptom, not the cause.
3
No one seems to include overpopulation in the discussion. The earth is a finite place. If we don't control the population, nature has ways culling the herd.
8
The imperialist mind is a frightening thing to watch in action.
No mention that the legacy of unreliable electrical power was brought to Iraq courtesy of the sanctioning, invasion and occupation of that country by the U.S./U.K..
No mention by the fans of Malthus that the largest proportional contributors to global warming are the developed countries of North America and Europe, together with their Middle Eastern oil exporting clients in the GCC.
For these you are to blame, and not the people of the Middle East.
No mention that the legacy of unreliable electrical power was brought to Iraq courtesy of the sanctioning, invasion and occupation of that country by the U.S./U.K..
No mention by the fans of Malthus that the largest proportional contributors to global warming are the developed countries of North America and Europe, together with their Middle Eastern oil exporting clients in the GCC.
For these you are to blame, and not the people of the Middle East.
2
Friedman pulls back, as do you, Matt, from looking directly at the cultural, really tribal, causes of the anarchy and relentless war the surrounds each tribe in the Middle East. Egypt, Syria, Libya, and Yemen all demonstrate, in their own way how dictatorship seems to be the primary answer in the region to anarchy caused by this tribalism. True, imperialism has indeed taken advantage of the tribalism in the Middle East, but it is not the root cause of not being able to provide electricity or water to the population. The root cause is cultural. Here in Israel there is no electricity shortage in this heat nor is there a water shortage. Though this too is a culture with great internal divisiveness and tribal fissures of many kinds, it is democratically unified enough to provide basic services and to thrive. You, perhaps, would attribute this to Israel's imperialism or serving as an outpost of imperialism. Those who live here know it is the result of building a society in which people can overcome their differences to cooperate on basic needs and to build for the future.
Projections based on climate and demographic realities are grim indeed. The coming decades will focus on warfare to secure dwindling resources, and western societies building firewalls to preserve their own comfort and safety - unless we find the will to divert the resources of the military-industrial complex towards the real threats to humanity.
2
The definitive sentence - just a subordinate clause really - is "(and we all address climate change)". The Mideast could be the most environmentally progressive area of the world and not make more than a dent in the problem that all of the industrialized world has brought about. And with one of the two major political parties in the most influential nation on earth dedicated to science denial, the problem becomes extremely difficult.
167
I have often observed that environmentalists seem to accuse industry and governments of failing to save the earth. Likewise, conservatives chide the greens for placing the earth above jobs.
The truth is that the earth will do just fine no matter what we do or don't do.
It is us who may not do so well.
We have managed to temper the normal population controls by our superior brain power. Medicine, food supplies, shelters and technological achievements have done wonders for our comfort, but at the cost of an exploding population, estimated to reach around 12 billion by 2100, and the resultant damage to our Eden.
Global warming or not, the strain on resources, particularly water distribution, might be enough to for mother nature to enact a major culling of our "herd", and not in a pleasant way.
Just imagine how much better off we, and our fellow inhabitants, would be if we only had about 10% the number of people in the world.
Now that is unrealistic perhaps, but if we don't attend to our ecosystem at the expense of power and ideological struggles, then I fear the reins of our superiority will be taken from us. And we won't get them back until our behavior improves.
The truth is that the earth will do just fine no matter what we do or don't do.
It is us who may not do so well.
We have managed to temper the normal population controls by our superior brain power. Medicine, food supplies, shelters and technological achievements have done wonders for our comfort, but at the cost of an exploding population, estimated to reach around 12 billion by 2100, and the resultant damage to our Eden.
Global warming or not, the strain on resources, particularly water distribution, might be enough to for mother nature to enact a major culling of our "herd", and not in a pleasant way.
Just imagine how much better off we, and our fellow inhabitants, would be if we only had about 10% the number of people in the world.
Now that is unrealistic perhaps, but if we don't attend to our ecosystem at the expense of power and ideological struggles, then I fear the reins of our superiority will be taken from us. And we won't get them back until our behavior improves.
6
The notion of a heat index, while perhaps more capable of reflecting the misery of a particularly miserable day than simply noting its temperature, is a recent phenomenon. It should not be used to compare today's weather with weather past because it wasn't generally calculated even half a century ago.
But what, I wonder, does Mr. Friedman think these governments can accomplish by substituting the catechism of environmentalism for Islam? There's nothing can be done by mankind to keep the Middle East from getting miserably hot for half the year, not even if the misery is now being compounded by greenhouse gases and climate change.
The modern era has seen an explosion in populations across the region, well before there was the development of infrastructure to support them in the air-conditioned comfort enjoyed by Westerners. About all can be done to promote healthier and less miserable living conditions is to pursue economic policies and political stability that will yield the riches necessary to allow places like Baghdad to be sufferable in the summertime.
But it should be pointed out that Iraq was well along its way to just that sort of development before the US invasion in 2003. Now it can't keep the electricity on. That's the US government's fault, not the Iraqi's, and the same could be said of so many other countries where the US can't resist meddling.
But what, I wonder, does Mr. Friedman think these governments can accomplish by substituting the catechism of environmentalism for Islam? There's nothing can be done by mankind to keep the Middle East from getting miserably hot for half the year, not even if the misery is now being compounded by greenhouse gases and climate change.
The modern era has seen an explosion in populations across the region, well before there was the development of infrastructure to support them in the air-conditioned comfort enjoyed by Westerners. About all can be done to promote healthier and less miserable living conditions is to pursue economic policies and political stability that will yield the riches necessary to allow places like Baghdad to be sufferable in the summertime.
But it should be pointed out that Iraq was well along its way to just that sort of development before the US invasion in 2003. Now it can't keep the electricity on. That's the US government's fault, not the Iraqi's, and the same could be said of so many other countries where the US can't resist meddling.
2
Friedman misses an opportunity to mention that Israel, subject to the same problems - large population increase, climate change, aridity - has solved all of its water problems through conservation and technology: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-revolution-in-i...
Perhaps the world needs to weigh the utility of destroying the country that has provided us with technologies such as drip-irrigation and desalinization not to mention innumerable medical breakthroughs in order to add a tiny percentage of territory to an Arab world engulfed in strife.
Perhaps the world needs to weigh the utility of destroying the country that has provided us with technologies such as drip-irrigation and desalinization not to mention innumerable medical breakthroughs in order to add a tiny percentage of territory to an Arab world engulfed in strife.
13
Susan, reasonable observations yet I wonder how much of the billions the US and other sypathetic entities have contributed to this Desert "oasis" have helped it to deal with the "desert problems"...and...yes the oil sheiks could have made the same priorities with their profits. Who is seriously weighing the destruction of Israel?
Tom,
Beautifully written, so it is difficult to suggest adding one word, to this essay, but given the situation that you describe, I would add to your pragmatic advice from humanity's common Mother, "She doesn’t do politics, OR RELIGION — only physics, biology and chemistry. And if they add up the wrong way, she will take them all down."
My thoughts are that the second order that must be obeyed is the order of money. I am surprised that the third order, government, has not organized a global focus on moving capital investment from military arms into photovoltaic solar electric power generation, maybe the dry Middle East doesn't have enough capital, but as I see it, their swords of war should be beaten into solar cells.
To generate sufficient political power, the arid areas of the World, including California and other arid western US should join in an international project to launch solar-electric power generating satellites to space orbit (the Sun always shines) to beam energy to fields of antennae on Earth. Space Launch can be cheap & very reliable by using Maglev to propel satellite components to orbit in vacuum launch tunnels that can allow vehicles to reach escape speed in short distances. There are gazillion electrons (photons) streaming from the Sun that can be put to efficient use to light, air-condition, make water & even synthetic fuels from the carbon dioxide in air and hydrogen in water. This is a much better capital investment than manufacturing arms.
Beautifully written, so it is difficult to suggest adding one word, to this essay, but given the situation that you describe, I would add to your pragmatic advice from humanity's common Mother, "She doesn’t do politics, OR RELIGION — only physics, biology and chemistry. And if they add up the wrong way, she will take them all down."
My thoughts are that the second order that must be obeyed is the order of money. I am surprised that the third order, government, has not organized a global focus on moving capital investment from military arms into photovoltaic solar electric power generation, maybe the dry Middle East doesn't have enough capital, but as I see it, their swords of war should be beaten into solar cells.
To generate sufficient political power, the arid areas of the World, including California and other arid western US should join in an international project to launch solar-electric power generating satellites to space orbit (the Sun always shines) to beam energy to fields of antennae on Earth. Space Launch can be cheap & very reliable by using Maglev to propel satellite components to orbit in vacuum launch tunnels that can allow vehicles to reach escape speed in short distances. There are gazillion electrons (photons) streaming from the Sun that can be put to efficient use to light, air-condition, make water & even synthetic fuels from the carbon dioxide in air and hydrogen in water. This is a much better capital investment than manufacturing arms.
7
I have a suggestion for Imhofe and his scientific friends. They will get smart and decide to believe in evolution which will someday permit humans to exist without water in 200 degree temperature. If that fails, the NRA will have a bonanza selling guns to everybody so the few who remain will have an abundance of food and water. Who needs science when we have the GOP?
13
Hello world. Meet the newest common enemy and terrorist: Mother Nature. She has it all in her grasp: temperature, water, and food. The building of nuclear weapons pales in her presence.
A first step for the wise is to purchase stock in desalinization manufactures and after that, hope that this obvious slap[ to the back of our heads is heeded.
A first step for the wise is to purchase stock in desalinization manufactures and after that, hope that this obvious slap[ to the back of our heads is heeded.
64
Unfortunately, I think this will play out like a nuclear disaster would play out--being prepared will probably not save you. Better to avert the disaster before it happens. And even if it does save you, will you really be happy in a world devastated by climate change?
She is neither enemy nor terrorist. She gave birth to us all, she has given us sustenance through the millennia, and if our world withers and dies, responsibility will not lay with her.
1
Terry, Be it you or me, the choices are not palatable.
As any climate change denier will gladly explain to them, it's all in their minds, so they should relax and enjoy the summer weather.
7
Climate change denier does not exist. Everyone knows the climare changes. Climate change denier is a straw man created by AGW proponents after they realized the models they used to predict the correlation between co2 and temperatures turned out to be horribly wrong over the past 20 years. Even IPCC has acknowledged the failure of these models.
The governments, CEO's and multi-national corporations that have billions of dollars invested in AGW can not afford to have these truths made public because they fear not getting a return on their investment. Thus the fear mongering continues.
The governments, CEO's and multi-national corporations that have billions of dollars invested in AGW can not afford to have these truths made public because they fear not getting a return on their investment. Thus the fear mongering continues.
1
..."vast eco-devastation awaits them all."
Makes it sound like someone else's distant problem. The picture conjured in our heads should be of the vast eco-devastation that awaits "us" all. We all everywhere share the same ecosystems.
Makes it sound like someone else's distant problem. The picture conjured in our heads should be of the vast eco-devastation that awaits "us" all. We all everywhere share the same ecosystems.
10
A wonderful article, Mr. Friedman, on connections between climate and political developments.
‘The lake is gone’. -- This is not unusual, it happened with the Aral Sea and some of the saline lakes in California.
The connection between recent changes in climate and political orientation of the regions' inhabitants might be extended to longer-term tectonic changes of the Earth's continents. For example, the political sentiments of the tectonically stable, not prone to earthquakes Upstate New York and those of California that is regarded by some as the source of all evil that affects this country.
‘The lake is gone’. -- This is not unusual, it happened with the Aral Sea and some of the saline lakes in California.
The connection between recent changes in climate and political orientation of the regions' inhabitants might be extended to longer-term tectonic changes of the Earth's continents. For example, the political sentiments of the tectonically stable, not prone to earthquakes Upstate New York and those of California that is regarded by some as the source of all evil that affects this country.
29
All true but we need to connect the dots. American west is burning, California is running out of water.China and India are awash with air and water pollution and we need to confront the oil/carbon industry.In this week where the Obama administration gave the go ahead to Shell to drill the Arctic, we too have to put pressure on our leaders to save our planet. It's not just a middle east problem, it's a clear and present danger in America.
21
Thank you! Absolutely. And Mr. Friedman need only check the water levels at Lake Mead and the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada to understand that, even if he doesn't already.
1
I have thought for some time that such conditions would lead to social upheaval and spreading chaos. I did not expect it to happen so soon, nor in a place already beset with instability (thank you, Cheney and Co.). I thought rather it would be in sub-Saharan Africa over the next 20 years or so.
It is not just heat or even rising sea levels that will cause trouble. It is the very rapid disruption of centuries-old patterns of farming and habitation that seems to be happening even now --- and Syria is a preview. And the ripples from seemingly distant events will be felt everywhere: the California drought will cause prices of fruit to spike all over the place --- add up enough of these dislocations and you will have social chaos everywhere.
It may well be too late.
It is not just heat or even rising sea levels that will cause trouble. It is the very rapid disruption of centuries-old patterns of farming and habitation that seems to be happening even now --- and Syria is a preview. And the ripples from seemingly distant events will be felt everywhere: the California drought will cause prices of fruit to spike all over the place --- add up enough of these dislocations and you will have social chaos everywhere.
It may well be too late.
6
Please God, will someone figure out a way for the munitions and oil dealers to make even more money in developing environmental protection practices and sustainable, safe energy sources?
12
I would start with the US Military (using a lot of fossil fuel with very little efficiency, see Irak, Afghanistan, Lybia and so on). Some numbers just to grasp : the Pentagon is the largest single consumer of energy in the World, consuming as much energy and emitting as much CO2 as Nigeria, with a population of more than 160 million.
Read yourself : http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/how-much-energy-does-the-u-s-military-c...
Read yourself : http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/how-much-energy-does-the-u-s-military-c...
8
Obviously, the only way to stop the inevitable migration of middle east Muslims into US and Europe is to ban it. But… the Euroleftists and the US liberals and politically correct will not allow that. Our politicians will focus on the relatively minor issues that appeal to their fringe constituents - abortion issues, women's and gay issues, the rights of big oil and free trade (if there ever was such a mysterious thing) in these countries, So, let's accept it - we are all cooked, environmentally and socially. The only hope is that it will take some time - beyond our lifetimes.
Yes, and more important than anything else in NYT today. But the author omitted 3 very important factors: 1) groundwater depletion, 2) population growth, and 3) lower staple crop yields with higher heat. Groundwater depletion in almost all the Near East countries is a highly threatening issue, especially in Iran, also in Pakistan and NW India. Add to that the tendency of Islamic countries to avoid contraception distribution-- Afghanistan, where I worked for years, has population growth of 2.4% a year so will double in 30-35 years-- while major crops such as wheat and corn and soybeans have strikingly reduced yields with heat as they originated as temperate zone crops. Good luck to my children in their lifetime!
11
If there was ever a better example than tobacco for the need for a "sin tax," this has got to be it. Tax carbon now, please. Not only will it further identify where in the petroleum market efficiency can be gained, it will "churn" the economy, by encouraging transfer of investment dollars to new players. If this is the "land of opportunity," there should be more of it. Especially, if we are going to have to decide how much money to spend on limiting the number of people in "our lifeboat."
5
Climate change, precipitated by human activities, is an incontrovertible truth; unless and until the powers to be become rational, and re-acquire common sense, and an appreciation of urgent measures for survival, our demise, sooner than later, is guaranteed. Expecting a reversal of our abuse of Mother Nature by doing nothing is absolutely 'looney', and kicking the can down the road an insult to our children's dignity and ability to thrive in an evermore hostile environment.
4
Overpopulation is slowly killing the planet. This issue should be ranked on the same order as climate change.
The birth rates of Middle Eastern countries is accelerating their environmental collapse. It is only a matter of time before competition for fundamental resources triggers global conflicts between the haves and the starving have nots.
Global warming and overpopulation are a slow motion train wreck. It is a pity that mankind, for all its intelligence, never treats critical issues proactively. In this case, reactive measures will fail. It will be too late to stop the crash.
The birth rates of Middle Eastern countries is accelerating their environmental collapse. It is only a matter of time before competition for fundamental resources triggers global conflicts between the haves and the starving have nots.
Global warming and overpopulation are a slow motion train wreck. It is a pity that mankind, for all its intelligence, never treats critical issues proactively. In this case, reactive measures will fail. It will be too late to stop the crash.
13
My fear is this: no matter how obvious climate change becomes, not matter how bad the damage is, it will always be rational for individuals to pursue wealth and lifestyle (or mere survival) now than to make sacrifices to mitigate climate change 30 years in the future.
Let's say it is 2030 and climate change is smack-you-in-the-face obvious. Still, will a poor farmer in Brazil or Africa plant trees while his family starves? Or will he slash-and-burn even harder to grow enough food for his children? In a U.S. wracked by storms, flooding, drought, and waves of desperate refugees, will people consume less and conserve more? Or will they chase the dollar even harder so they can afford a place for their family in one of the still-livable areas?
I fear in each case it will be the latter. That's the rational decision for each individual, even if the collective harm is undeniable.
Let's say it is 2030 and climate change is smack-you-in-the-face obvious. Still, will a poor farmer in Brazil or Africa plant trees while his family starves? Or will he slash-and-burn even harder to grow enough food for his children? In a U.S. wracked by storms, flooding, drought, and waves of desperate refugees, will people consume less and conserve more? Or will they chase the dollar even harder so they can afford a place for their family in one of the still-livable areas?
I fear in each case it will be the latter. That's the rational decision for each individual, even if the collective harm is undeniable.
4
Throughout the Middle East, progress and development always has been shaped by the harsh environment. Water, even in the last hundred years, has been more important than oil, to the inhabitants. Wars having nothing to do with religion or politics have been fought over water and arable real estate.
The entire profile of the Middle East has been affected adversely by anything which distracted people from dealing effectively with managing their environment, and the ascendancy of dictators has been one of those distractions. There is considerable blame on the West – including the United States -- for aiding and abetting the tyrants who have neglected their own people.
If the premise of Thomas Friedman is that an increasingly harsh climate will finally produce democratic change in the Middle East, one can only say … maybe.
The entire profile of the Middle East has been affected adversely by anything which distracted people from dealing effectively with managing their environment, and the ascendancy of dictators has been one of those distractions. There is considerable blame on the West – including the United States -- for aiding and abetting the tyrants who have neglected their own people.
If the premise of Thomas Friedman is that an increasingly harsh climate will finally produce democratic change in the Middle East, one can only say … maybe.
2
Climate has been changing for 3 billion years and will continue to change for the next 3 billion years. There will be periods much hotter than now and there will also be ice ages. Human populations need to adapt to these changing conditions.
There is, however, no proof anywhere that man made co2 has anything more than a minute affect on temperature. And please don't insult everyone by using the bogus 97% consensus nonsense. This figure came from a discredited study done by an Aussie named Cook and an e-mail blast "survey" that was sent to over 11,000 scientist where only 79 responded to the surveys biased questions. Neither of these studies could pass more than 5 minutes of scrutiny from a high school statistics class. It is a total sham that people, including our president use this 97% figure. AGW is a multi billion dollar industry and one only needs to follow the money, government, CEO's and corporations involved.
There is, however, no proof anywhere that man made co2 has anything more than a minute affect on temperature. And please don't insult everyone by using the bogus 97% consensus nonsense. This figure came from a discredited study done by an Aussie named Cook and an e-mail blast "survey" that was sent to over 11,000 scientist where only 79 responded to the surveys biased questions. Neither of these studies could pass more than 5 minutes of scrutiny from a high school statistics class. It is a total sham that people, including our president use this 97% figure. AGW is a multi billion dollar industry and one only needs to follow the money, government, CEO's and corporations involved.
2
In the past, going back thousands of years, changes in climate caused great migrations of people. They had to move or starve.
Now, humans are able to do a lot of adjustments using technology. Air conditioning is a big factor. There are still some limitations in factors that affect the food supply, but there are many more solutions that involve moving the food from places that can produce to places where changes in the climate creates need. The problem in all this is that national borders prevent migrations and politics affects the movement of food.
Climate is an "invisible hand" that's hard to control. In addition to taking steps to slow the impact of human beings on climate, we need to start thinking about what we can do politically and with social programs to ameliorate suffering. The shared ecosystems are international and encompass the world.
Now, humans are able to do a lot of adjustments using technology. Air conditioning is a big factor. There are still some limitations in factors that affect the food supply, but there are many more solutions that involve moving the food from places that can produce to places where changes in the climate creates need. The problem in all this is that national borders prevent migrations and politics affects the movement of food.
Climate is an "invisible hand" that's hard to control. In addition to taking steps to slow the impact of human beings on climate, we need to start thinking about what we can do politically and with social programs to ameliorate suffering. The shared ecosystems are international and encompass the world.
Mr. Friedman is correct. Climate change does not affect the planet equally. It's effects are concentrated in certain geographic areas. The temperature at the poles is rising much faster than elsewhere. As we see, the Middle East is suffering much more than mid-America and even California.
The fanatic theocracy that has swept the Arab/Persian lands will truly be their undoing. Beliefs do not solve problems, only solutions solve problems. Imposing religiosity does not one power plant make.
The region has enormous fossil power reserves, but they don't have the technology and societal infrastructure to do anything with it.
The Arab spring began because people didn't have enough food. They rose up and were crushed. This is worse. They don't have enough water and now can't even rise up.
The zeal to implement strict sharia law and reject modern secular education is stripping their societies of the tools they need to survive. They have rendered themselves helpless in the face of the greatest challenge to their survival which is lethal heat, drought and famine.
If your think Europe has a refugee crisis now, wait 5 years. The lack of food, water, and lethal heat will cause more instability than any of our interventions ever did.
We may very well be witnessing the beginning of the greatest humanitarian crises of modern times. It started with bombs but will end with empty glasses.
The fanatic theocracy that has swept the Arab/Persian lands will truly be their undoing. Beliefs do not solve problems, only solutions solve problems. Imposing religiosity does not one power plant make.
The region has enormous fossil power reserves, but they don't have the technology and societal infrastructure to do anything with it.
The Arab spring began because people didn't have enough food. They rose up and were crushed. This is worse. They don't have enough water and now can't even rise up.
The zeal to implement strict sharia law and reject modern secular education is stripping their societies of the tools they need to survive. They have rendered themselves helpless in the face of the greatest challenge to their survival which is lethal heat, drought and famine.
If your think Europe has a refugee crisis now, wait 5 years. The lack of food, water, and lethal heat will cause more instability than any of our interventions ever did.
We may very well be witnessing the beginning of the greatest humanitarian crises of modern times. It started with bombs but will end with empty glasses.
9
Just wait until it happens here in America. Our crumbling infrastructure is failing when it's cold, it's hot, it rains too much, it snows too much, or too many people use it. We have momentary power outages when it's hot or it's cold, or there are severe thunderstorms. We then have to reset everything that depends upon electricity, worry that our appliances can't handle the constant ebb and flow of power, wonder what will happen to us if we, by chance, live in high rise apartments.
But the GOP has not addressed any of these issues. The Democrats have tried but the GOP wants to play ostrich. Note to GOP, at some point even the ostrich's head will explode from the overheated sand.
But the GOP has not addressed any of these issues. The Democrats have tried but the GOP wants to play ostrich. Note to GOP, at some point even the ostrich's head will explode from the overheated sand.
14
"Lake Oroumieh, one of the biggest saltwater lakes on earth, has shrunk more than 80 percent"
Fresh water rivers flow into a salty basin, creating a salt water lake. In a dry region, of course they take the fresh water before it is ruined with salt.
The real story isn't the disappearance of a salt lake. It is the progressive shortage of fresh water for decades. The dry salt lake is just the symbol.
Air conditioning is the same. How did people live there before air conditioning? They lived there for millennia. It didn't just recently get hot.
It is the same story for fresh water and for heat. They abandoned prior cultural adaptations. Water management was at the core of hydraulic societies. Heat management too was cultural, they had cool thick-walled homes and slept in the heat of the day.
True they have had population growth. True it is a few degrees hotter. That just caused the long term problem to be a better story. It started before the recent heat.
The real story is that they abandoned their ways for Western ways. They are active in the heat. They use more water than they have, in Western ways they know full well cannot be sustained.
There are many ways to use less water. Ninety percent (90%) of water is used in agriculture. Water demands are driven by the crops grown and the techniques used. They didn't use crops that need less water, and they didn't use more economical techniques. They planted Western crops, in the Western way, and drained the rivers instead.
Fresh water rivers flow into a salty basin, creating a salt water lake. In a dry region, of course they take the fresh water before it is ruined with salt.
The real story isn't the disappearance of a salt lake. It is the progressive shortage of fresh water for decades. The dry salt lake is just the symbol.
Air conditioning is the same. How did people live there before air conditioning? They lived there for millennia. It didn't just recently get hot.
It is the same story for fresh water and for heat. They abandoned prior cultural adaptations. Water management was at the core of hydraulic societies. Heat management too was cultural, they had cool thick-walled homes and slept in the heat of the day.
True they have had population growth. True it is a few degrees hotter. That just caused the long term problem to be a better story. It started before the recent heat.
The real story is that they abandoned their ways for Western ways. They are active in the heat. They use more water than they have, in Western ways they know full well cannot be sustained.
There are many ways to use less water. Ninety percent (90%) of water is used in agriculture. Water demands are driven by the crops grown and the techniques used. They didn't use crops that need less water, and they didn't use more economical techniques. They planted Western crops, in the Western way, and drained the rivers instead.
57
Not so for Israel, which recycles most of its used water for agriculture. See NYT article 'Aided by the sea...' from May29. 2015.
@ giazrap: "gang of GOP candidates..."
Never underestimate the leftists' desire, here online, to deride the opposition party. Gridlock lives here.
Never underestimate the leftists' desire, here online, to deride the opposition party. Gridlock lives here.
5
Your comment is ridiculous....the article is about climate change and the survival of entire societies...and you are grousing about partisan politics? Wow
It's power obsession of the aspiring and the present rulers in the Middle East that trumps the environmental concerns, whatever be the consequences.
1
The core issue is population explosion. A panacea to simultaneously solve runaway resource consumption, rampant pollution and global strife would be much less human beings per square mile.
If we think the outlook is bleak now, wait till world head count converges on 10 billion. Like Tom said though, Nature is not concerned with such things. We are heading towards a major culling(s) of the herd. The likelihood of human population continuing exponential growth, or even growing at all, is small.
If we think the outlook is bleak now, wait till world head count converges on 10 billion. Like Tom said though, Nature is not concerned with such things. We are heading towards a major culling(s) of the herd. The likelihood of human population continuing exponential growth, or even growing at all, is small.
26
The population in the Middle East is rising and water supplies are threatened. It may portend more war because politicians will use it as a reason to grab neighbor's resources. Or it may cause the region to calm down. It will, however, cause continued migration with Europe the likely destination. The U.S. will not be immune from the push of people leaving, but the two oceans will make it more difficult.
13
Thanks so much for that insightful column.
And where do you think those people will migrate to when living conditions become unbearable? And bring their centuries long hostilites with them? Europe? The US? Lucky for those countries.
And where do you think those people will migrate to when living conditions become unbearable? And bring their centuries long hostilites with them? Europe? The US? Lucky for those countries.
8
"The only 'ism' that will save them is not Shiism or Islamism but 'environmentalism' — understanding that there is no Shiite air or Sunni water, there is just 'the commons,' their shared ecosystems, and unless they cooperate to manage and preserve them (and we all address climate change), vast eco-devastation awaits them all."
Yes, the Shiites and Sunnis need to accept the challenge of climate change, but so does the Republican party.
Yes, the Shiites and Sunnis need to accept the challenge of climate change, but so does the Republican party.
39
The biggest form of denial in The New York Times and elsewhere: not seeing that the major culprit for global warming is over-population.
71
Of course, it is, but you remember the criticism that fell upon China when it tried to reduce its population. Once upon a time, disease and hunger were the forces that reduced population growth. Now, we may be moving toward a dystopia where gang murders, terrorism, death by dehydration will do the job, while cruel and indiscriminate bombings punctuate theological controversies.
20
And what would you prefer to cut down on? People or cars? And how? We can regulate fossil fuel use and conserve resources easier than we can tell people how many kids they can have. What is the biggest difference between countries whose population isn't growing and countries where is is exploding? The education of women. Wherever we educate and free up women from male domination we get population control within a single generation. That's because women who aren't looked upon as mere breeders and sexual conveniences and get to use their minds to help their families and communities, tend to have many fewer children.
350
Would that include Republicans defunding planned parenthood?
22
What's discussed is the same story when it comes to our own country. We see water issues in California, Minnesota, as well as Long Island. Look at the condition of the roads, bridges, public transportation, the lack of adequate housing; all of these necessary for the health and welfare of our country; with jobs being the answer to correcting these infrastructure issues. But all of this, as illustrated in the Middle East, is leading us to a disaster beyond description - if we don't do something!
While all of this is happening our representatives in 'Club Government' pad their lair to sustain their fleeting power rather than governing for our well being. So - in comes Donald Trump and people wonder why he is popular. Our leaders have lost the integrity to combat his bombast, because they wrote the book. And the public, who have leased out governing to this club, continue to want quick answers. Trump is just that; the quick fix that will look good but fail. Just like Middle East politics, everywhere time marches on and waits for no one.
While all of this is happening our representatives in 'Club Government' pad their lair to sustain their fleeting power rather than governing for our well being. So - in comes Donald Trump and people wonder why he is popular. Our leaders have lost the integrity to combat his bombast, because they wrote the book. And the public, who have leased out governing to this club, continue to want quick answers. Trump is just that; the quick fix that will look good but fail. Just like Middle East politics, everywhere time marches on and waits for no one.
16
To bad you can't tell the difference between what ails the Middle East and what ails America.
America has the political, economic, social and civil infrastructure. Most of the Middle East doesn't. What America needs is to renew itself, which is quite different and is capable of doing. Most of the Middle East doesn't have the human capital or social networking to even get started on a road to sustainability. At least America has the knowhow to solve its problems. In the Middle East it's like they can’t even recognize or admit to a problem because cultural differences and tribalism keep getting in the way.
America has the political, economic, social and civil infrastructure. Most of the Middle East doesn't. What America needs is to renew itself, which is quite different and is capable of doing. Most of the Middle East doesn't have the human capital or social networking to even get started on a road to sustainability. At least America has the knowhow to solve its problems. In the Middle East it's like they can’t even recognize or admit to a problem because cultural differences and tribalism keep getting in the way.
Doesn't anyone else see the sad irony over the fact that these once proud, fierce desert warriors have been reduced to becoming pathetic wimps whining over a lack of air conditioning??? I guess the modern world with all the technology that's supposed to make our lives easier just doesn't work in some areas of the world.
2
We all know how this will play out. Nothing will change until a disaster of unimaginable proportions strikes us. Perhaps a major ice sheet slides off of Greenland or a major part of Antarctica comes loose, in either case causing an abrupt rise in sea with the result of massive flooding, death and devastation mostly in the poor regions of the Earth ... but also in southern Florida, Louisiana and other low lying areas of the US. Perhaps its a hurricane with sustained winds of 200 miles or more striking a major US city. Whatever it is, then ... and only then ... MAYBE we'll get serious about the threat humanity is to itself. The pressing question will then be ... as it is now ... is it already too late? Is there anything that can be done "to avert the severe decree"? As a scientifically trained person who has closely followed climate change for the past two decades, I fear there may not be. I know serious and informed scientists who would agree.
530
My only caveat in endorsing this point -- it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. People put off action because they think it won't do any good. Or, they won't recover an investment in renewable energy or an EV in their lifetime.
I whole-heartedly agree with you. But until people the world over understand that climate change-related catastrophes are human-caused and not the act on an angry God, we will get nowhere. It's always much easier to blame climate change-related problems on women who want to make their own healthcare decisions, laws allowing LGTB their rights, non-believers, the list goes on. (Remember when HIV was God's revenge on "the Gays"?) Personally, I do not know how to break through this bias. It literally is killing the Earth and all of us who rely on her.
1
Sorry, but it will not happen in Louisiana or Florida - you see, they don't believe in climate change, only American exceptionalism. So, no need to worry about the good old USA - we'll be fine - 17 GOP candidates tell us that!
1
It seems hard to imagine how Arab countries with no history of environmentalism and no formal education system for science and technology will be able to deal with the problems caused by climate change. We can't even get our act together in this country, and half of Congress thinks climate change is a hoax. Israel may have a fighting chance, but things look bleak for the rest of the Middle East.
17
Mother Nature to the world: You ain't seen nothing yet.
44
There is evidence that the French Revolution was triggered by drought, crop failure, and the inability of the monarchy to import food in time. "Let them eat cake" is not just an offhand callous remark but is linked to this underlying cause of social unrest that led to riots and overthrow of the monarchy.
10
Tom
Anecdotal evidence is the bane of reporting. Sure -- 113 is hot -- was that taken at the surface/in the shade --makes a big difference you know.
But the hottest temperature ever recorded -- was in Death Valley -- 134 degrees -- in 1934. And that temp was taken in the standard manner -- out of the direct sun, a meter and half above the ground. Lots of temp records above 113 in countries around the world. And of course, we really don't have comparable measures going back very far. So I'm not sure I'd attribute a heat wave and drought in one area of the world (that is known to be hot) to climate change.
And I thought CC was supposed to create massive storms -- how many hurricanes so far this season? How any monster killer tornados taking out major cities in the midwest and south? Hmmm.
Meanwhile, back on the east coast -- it's getting to be late august -- temps in the 80s (lows in the 60s). I assume this is evidence of CC as well as alarmists tend to label any weather event as being due to CC.
Alarmists lose credibility when they argue anecdotally you know. It begins to sound like a religion. You know, the visitation of the Hubs of Hell. The immaculate fire breathing.... well, you get the picture.
Anecdotal evidence is the bane of reporting. Sure -- 113 is hot -- was that taken at the surface/in the shade --makes a big difference you know.
But the hottest temperature ever recorded -- was in Death Valley -- 134 degrees -- in 1934. And that temp was taken in the standard manner -- out of the direct sun, a meter and half above the ground. Lots of temp records above 113 in countries around the world. And of course, we really don't have comparable measures going back very far. So I'm not sure I'd attribute a heat wave and drought in one area of the world (that is known to be hot) to climate change.
And I thought CC was supposed to create massive storms -- how many hurricanes so far this season? How any monster killer tornados taking out major cities in the midwest and south? Hmmm.
Meanwhile, back on the east coast -- it's getting to be late august -- temps in the 80s (lows in the 60s). I assume this is evidence of CC as well as alarmists tend to label any weather event as being due to CC.
Alarmists lose credibility when they argue anecdotally you know. It begins to sound like a religion. You know, the visitation of the Hubs of Hell. The immaculate fire breathing.... well, you get the picture.
5
There is a difference between climate and daily weather. Do some research.
2
So let's not do anything? Do you have grandkids?
I can't believe there are still people who simplistically believe the phrase "climate change" means nothing more than it gets hotter. Please educate yourself and others and understand it means EXTREME WEATHER becomes ever more the norm. Droughts longer and hotter, stronger tornadoes and hurricanes, rising sea levels, warming oceans, methane gas release from melting tundra, loss of habitat for life that can adapt, and therefore goes extinct, loss of arable land, rain that dumps all at once rather than over several weeks causing flooding, ice storms that are more frequent and last longer, heavier snowstorms than usual, raging fire seasons that last all year.....the list goes on. And this is exactly what is and has been happening. Tell you what: Just imagine your usual variable weather conditions and then imagine them more intense and frequent to the point where they cause mass migration, bankrupt governments, and war and starvation. Then you'll get the picture.
Fundamentalists of the Book are more likely to see catastrophic changes in the ecology as apocalyptic signs that could well lead to them to ever greater levels of irrationality. Fundamentalists view ecology as idolatry. God made this world and he will unmake it in time, so is it written! I don't see anything positive coming out of global warming in the Middle East--just more misery.
16
Climate determines all. Life only exists on this planet because of climate. Species rise and fall because of climate and so has it been for eons. It is all the more amazing that some think that the trillion or so metric tons of greenhouse gases dumped into the atmosphere over the past century would have no impact or that so many of us are so cavalier when it comes to climate knowing that small changes in climate can have devastating impacts, and anthropogenic climate change is by no means a small change.
As to Thomas Freidman's thesis he is right. All politics in the middle east will be rendered moot if the issue becomes one of survival because of no water or unbearable temperature. But perhaps the one sliver of a sliver of a silver lining of climate change's impact on the middle east is that the only way to deal with climate change is through cooperation and putting aside prejudices. I suppose that if they are able to cooperate on climate change in the middle east there is hope for the human race. I would not hold my breath waiting for that to happen however.
As to Thomas Freidman's thesis he is right. All politics in the middle east will be rendered moot if the issue becomes one of survival because of no water or unbearable temperature. But perhaps the one sliver of a sliver of a silver lining of climate change's impact on the middle east is that the only way to deal with climate change is through cooperation and putting aside prejudices. I suppose that if they are able to cooperate on climate change in the middle east there is hope for the human race. I would not hold my breath waiting for that to happen however.
219
Friedman's thesis should be expanded. Climate will effect GLOBAL POLITICS as well as local politics.
I believe in climate changr but I know we (world) cannot work together to control it. So let it run it's course and wipe out part of the problem.
Thanks. Finally someone is giving mention to the coming world-wide disaster that is climate change and how it is affecting us all. The deadly North African immigration panic, the same in Bangladesh and the Far East, so many countries living on the edge of ruin and spilling gallons of blood for what? So you and I don't have exactly the same God myth- no problem- what really matters is whether or not my window unit AC will cool the bedroom tonight and water will come out of the tap in the morning.
This is just the first sentence in the book, a big scary story, that is becoming a reality for us all. We are more fortunate here, for now, but this too is only temporary. It's time we Human Beings got focused on the really critical demands of the future- like water, food, medical care, immigration control- and start putting all that wasted armaments money to good use.
This is just the first sentence in the book, a big scary story, that is becoming a reality for us all. We are more fortunate here, for now, but this too is only temporary. It's time we Human Beings got focused on the really critical demands of the future- like water, food, medical care, immigration control- and start putting all that wasted armaments money to good use.
18
You think we should stop killing each other because the other guy's beliefs are wrong? Dream on!
Won't they all just move to Europe and take their religious conflicts with them? In fact, this is precisely what's happening.
22
Excellent review of how climate change will continue to become the greatest issue of our time. Yet our American citizens continue to list the economy, ISIS and our military strength as top concerns. And our environment is rarely mentioned by politicians. Why? Because the media focuses on Trump, Clintons' email and police brutality. Hopefully the Pope's visit in September will draw our attention to the disaster humanity faces and how we can focus on solutions. If you haven't watched the movie, MERCHANTS OF DOUBT, please do so. It explains how we have all been duped by the influence of the fossil fuel industry on our national priorities.
13
Tom, the Middle East is a desert region. Global warming and climate change are reaching the Middle East and ultimately will turn much of the Middle East into a Sahara before Dallas becomes a part of the Chihuahuan Desert. The real question is just what can Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey and ISIS actually do to arrest climate change. If Iraq quit selling oil, how long would the electric power to run the air conditioners, and the government in Baghdad, last? And just how long would governments in the Middle East last without oil revenue?
The Middle East cannot lead the world in a fight against climate change produced largely by burning fossil fuels. Only the United States, Europe, Japan and China can lead that fight.
The Middle East cannot lead the world in a fight against climate change produced largely by burning fossil fuels. Only the United States, Europe, Japan and China can lead that fight.
10
So what do WE do? Move to OK to get rid of Imhofe?
The fact of the matter is that if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, the globe would not cool down. If we reduce our emissions by 50%, it would take decades for the warming to stop.
The climate change Disaster is heading full steam ahead. The oceans have warmed, the ocean fish are disappearing, the great temperate zone forests of the North Hemisphere are burning and dying and disappearing.
We are in Stage 1 of predictable and certain disaster. Now, what should we do?
The fact of the matter is that if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, the globe would not cool down. If we reduce our emissions by 50%, it would take decades for the warming to stop.
The climate change Disaster is heading full steam ahead. The oceans have warmed, the ocean fish are disappearing, the great temperate zone forests of the North Hemisphere are burning and dying and disappearing.
We are in Stage 1 of predictable and certain disaster. Now, what should we do?
14
Fund Planned Parenthood, give out free birth control, and quit glorifying families like the Duggars. At least for starters!
In an arid region which, in living memory, was peopled by nomadic herders and itinerant merchants with a religion and culture rooted rigidly in the value of human fertility as a defense against the desert, a belief system as yet un-tempered by the developing and current reality, oil revenue and modern medicine have resulted in the following:
Population of
Iran 1956: 19 million; 2011: 75 million - increase of 4X
Iraq 1957: 6 million; 2009: 31 million - 5X
Pakistan 1947: 33 million; 2015: 192 million - 6X
Afghanistan 1979: 15 million; 2015: 31 million - 2X
Absent imports made possible by the sale of oil, the profits of which are controlled by a tiny oligarchy, a decent life is impossible in such a dry region with such a large population.
This is the story, and it cannot end happily. I wish I had an solution, but I do not, and fear that violence will only intensify during the remainder of my lifetime.
Population of
Iran 1956: 19 million; 2011: 75 million - increase of 4X
Iraq 1957: 6 million; 2009: 31 million - 5X
Pakistan 1947: 33 million; 2015: 192 million - 6X
Afghanistan 1979: 15 million; 2015: 31 million - 2X
Absent imports made possible by the sale of oil, the profits of which are controlled by a tiny oligarchy, a decent life is impossible in such a dry region with such a large population.
This is the story, and it cannot end happily. I wish I had an solution, but I do not, and fear that violence will only intensify during the remainder of my lifetime.
36
Fair comment, TF. Yet we still have clowns who advocate further shedding of American blood in that cauldron. As the worlds glaciers retreat, to an extent that suggests there may be war over the remaining water-supply they represent, our clowns deny the underlying climate shift and deny any human involvement in that shift.
So the glaciers of the Andes and of Peru are remote, but The River Jordan is in places, a mean, polluted little stream, thanks to the same mindlessness of humans. What does it take to wake the Inhofes of our Congress to wake up?
So the glaciers of the Andes and of Peru are remote, but The River Jordan is in places, a mean, polluted little stream, thanks to the same mindlessness of humans. What does it take to wake the Inhofes of our Congress to wake up?
4
Dear Des Johnson,
The current problem with the Jordan River is that Syrian refugees in Jordan are supplanting the water they receive from the UN via tanker trucks by sucking it out of the Jordan. I think Mr. F is on to something.
The current problem with the Jordan River is that Syrian refugees in Jordan are supplanting the water they receive from the UN via tanker trucks by sucking it out of the Jordan. I think Mr. F is on to something.
Hey! Look at Lake Mead! Look at the wildfires! It can happen here too!
9
I think, given the sheer volume of irrational hatred in the Middle East, that some muslims: Sunni, Shiite, Arab, Caucasian, what have you, would be fine with their own destruction, as long as it also leads to the destruction of Israel.
And isn't that probability what is at the heart of opposition to the easy-to-cheat- on nuclear weapons deal with Iran?
And isn't that probability what is at the heart of opposition to the easy-to-cheat- on nuclear weapons deal with Iran?
1
Mr. Friedman is right on, again.
If Islam put as much emphasis on the temporal world as it does on the spiritual it wouldn't have the disastrous environmental and culture problems it has today.
If Islam put as much emphasis on the temporal world as it does on the spiritual it wouldn't have the disastrous environmental and culture problems it has today.
3
There's an interesting "self-fulfilling prophecy" aspect to extremist religious ideology. It helps to speed along the "end of the world" prophecies and thus, the need for extremist religious ideologies.
1
This newspaper hasn't even got the good sense to point out that Congress is specifically denied the power to enact faith-based legislation in the first amendment to the US Constitution. We shouldn't have to put up with any of it.
Didn't the US congress propose denying the military the ability to plan for the effects of climate change? Politics may deny the sciences; the planet cannot. Religion, whether Islam, Christianity or Republican, may deny reality but mother nature will not.
12
When I was in high school in the early 70's my history teacher, as a side note to some other topic, mentioned that the next WWIII would be over water, not oil, and that it would start in the Middle East. I hope now, and hoped then, that she was not prescient.
11
So now people are essentially protesting Mother Nature - maybe the herd does need to be culled. Air conditioners require lots of energy - note the irony here. The earth is probably in a warming period, it's probably a major one, and it's probably enhanced by human activity through carbon dioxide emissions. Is there a solution? Probably not. But let's give government lots more power and lots more money just to be sure.
More stunning is that politicians would have us believe that these societies pose an imminent threat to our existence.
They can't get organized enough to have reliable air conditioning but they will soon be at our shores, and then our doorsteps, ready to 'take away our freedoms'.
What a boondoggle.
They can't get organized enough to have reliable air conditioning but they will soon be at our shores, and then our doorsteps, ready to 'take away our freedoms'.
What a boondoggle.
6
A fascinating fable of climate change and its imaginary impacts. I however am routed in facts, hard evidence and The Word of Republican leaders who proved just this year that climate change is a liberal Democratic Party fraud. Sen. Jim Inhofe introduced a snowball into the Senate record. A snowball is real! my god you could see it was cold! it began to melt and drip on the Senate floor! What more proof do people need that the earth is not heating up!
The supposed temperature data cited in this column were likely made up by liberal socialist operatives of Hillary.
The supposed temperature data cited in this column were likely made up by liberal socialist operatives of Hillary.
7
I'm not sure what it portends but it's getting hard to tell sarcasm and irony from reality in these pages.
1
There are those who think the science is still out on this subject. Some politicizing of the data by climatologists a few years ago did not help. Let us assume the scientific projections are indeed murky. I liken the situation to an insurance policy: The probability that my house will burn down is quite minuscule, and the money I have spent over the last 48 years insuring my several residences wasted. Nevertheless, who among us can take a chance on a disaster such as this to save money on an annual insurance premium? So it must be with global warming. The data may be inconclusive, but the consequences are cataclysmic and perhaps irreversible. Thus, governments beyond the mere Middle East must concentrate and coordinate their efforts on a permanent program over several decades. If the scientists are wrong, we'll still get a science and technology boost from drip irrigation to non-polluting fuels and other technologies of which I cannot think. If they are correct, we get to preserve the life giving nature of our planet for a few billion more years.
290
You are absolutely correct. Even if we're wrong, we'll still be creating technology (and jobs) that will keep us going, conserve our limited resources. What many lobbyists and politicians under the influence of those lobbyists have not learned or considered is that there is no such thing as a bottomless pit of anything be it water, oil, coal, land, etc. We need to manage our resources and population wisely so that we do not run out of room to live, breathe, and survive. In this case ignoring the warnings or refusing to plan may lead us to share the fate of the dinosaurs and other species that could not handle changes in the planet's climate.
We call ourselves Homo sapiens, wise man, but how wise are we when we refuse to do anything to keep our planet safe and habitable for the over 7 billion people and other species we share it with?
We call ourselves Homo sapiens, wise man, but how wise are we when we refuse to do anything to keep our planet safe and habitable for the over 7 billion people and other species we share it with?
1
This was a reasonable position about a decade or two ago. There is no murkiness in the scientific projections today. Indeed, there was little murkiness in the projections made 10 or so years ago. The referenced "politicization" of the data was the work of a number of climatologists far smaller than the number who are still denying climate change.
1
Your assumption is ridiculous...the science is firm and widely recognized...climate change is real...we don't have to cater to ignorant doubters with insurance metaphors...we need to act before our species is wiped from the face of the earth in the next couple hundred years
1
Meanwhile come reports that the US government has officially sanctioned Shell's Arctic drilling for more oil, and a scientific study reveals that the amount of methane released from natural gas wells is likely four times greater than official estimates. In other words, we're toast. Not "them", "us", all of us.
23
And we will all go down together if we don't start doing something now.
We won't be able to build a wall high enough to keep people from third world nations from coming here trying to escape unspeakable living conditions.
All the talk and bluster and pontificating from all the politicians will mean nothing until our nation---in concert with the global community---reaches a consensus on how to combat climate change before it's too late and the planet plunges into chaos.
I hope we have not already 'crossed the Rubicon'.
We won't be able to build a wall high enough to keep people from third world nations from coming here trying to escape unspeakable living conditions.
All the talk and bluster and pontificating from all the politicians will mean nothing until our nation---in concert with the global community---reaches a consensus on how to combat climate change before it's too late and the planet plunges into chaos.
I hope we have not already 'crossed the Rubicon'.
79
And the Rubicon consists of two small degrees in temperature.
Yes, resource shortages are behind nearly all the world conflicts that we are accustomed to view in religious (the Middle East), ethnic (subsaharan Africa) and political (Latin America) lights. But those are just the small, pre-existing fracture lines through which the actual stressors of shortages of food, water, and energy blow societies apart. People don't wake up one day with nothing to eat and starve to death. As the shortage gradually builds, those on the margins with the least resources turn against existing structures and ways (including the govt) and conflict with the "other" under whatever excuse the situation provides. We will see more and more of this as we simultaneously suck the resources out of our planet and grow the population. No amount of counciling on better relations with other religions, tribes and parties will ever fix this.
87
Sadly your assessment of the world reality is probably right on the mark. Mr. Friedman has written before on the role of climate change in bringing about the current and seemingly endless conflict in Syria and other parts of the region. There is not even a hint of the cooperation that would be needed to deal with such an enormous problem. Perhaps the turmoil in the region is just a hint of what to expect in other areas of the world as climate change continues unabated.
Ah, yes "she will take them (us) all down". Couldn't this article be directed as well to our own office holders and policy makers? Our own priorities for defense spending instead of energy conservation infrastructure are just as egregious, and likely just as damaging to our society, as those you cite in the Middle East.
158
Please note that there are "office holders" who are taking action now - and those who aren't or oppose any action. Then vote accordingly.
1
Did he say Sodom and Gomorrah are burning? How many sins does it take to get divine punishment: arrogance, aggression, anger, terrorism, greed, and blood lust? Too bad the common threat of natural destruction will likely not save the "cities of the plain." Too bad the three main "peaceful religions" born of the same father but bent on killing each other will perish together.
5
Maybe this is a blessing for the rest of the world. As their own country and city and home becomes unlivable they will have to spend their time and money to fix it instead of death to the west. Oil created this place, maybe the new technology created oil glut will kill it!!
7
Oil could at least keep the electricity on.
4
@ Thomas
You seem to confuse weather with climate change. These countries and cities named in the article are hardly the ones with the highest CO2 pollution of planet earth.
And, by the way, the US still wastes the largest amount of fossil fuel per capita of the whole world.
You seem to confuse weather with climate change. These countries and cities named in the article are hardly the ones with the highest CO2 pollution of planet earth.
And, by the way, the US still wastes the largest amount of fossil fuel per capita of the whole world.
5
Is this the best Tom Friedman has to offer?? Tom Friedman is now first discovering that the Middle East is --wait for it- - HOT!!! Stop the presses--this is truly earth shattering news worthy of a Pulitzer Prize nomination. I can't wait to read Friedman's upcoming column where he tells Times readers that the world is round, not flat.
6
For the 15 GOP candidates that might be news!
5
Weird reaction to a story highlighting the depth of the climate change issue in the middle east. I for one had no idea about the air conditioning / electricity protests nor the 160+ degree reading and probably assumed but hadn't read yet about the increasing scarcity of water there.
(You do know that Friedman wrote a book about the levelling of the global playing field called "the world is flat.")
(You do know that Friedman wrote a book about the levelling of the global playing field called "the world is flat.")
3
Didn't he write a book called "The world is flat?"
1
Oh my. I've read over and over again how the earth would be destroyed by fire - "a fervent heat", but I never dreamed it could be a long hot summer.
2
I am sure that the Honorable Republican Senator James Inhofe (the Senator from Oklahoma (or is he from ExxonMobil?) ) will simply travel over to Iran and just throw a snowball into Lake Oroumieh.
THAT will show the Iranians that this "Man-Made Climate Change Thing" is just a "Liberal Hoax".
THAT will show the Iranians that this "Man-Made Climate Change Thing" is just a "Liberal Hoax".
173
I sure hope they figure out soon the particulars of the 12th Imam and where he is now. I'm dying of suspense. So are they.
Meanwhile, as we note their foolishness, Jim Inhofe chairs Environment and Public Works in the Senate. This side show freak running a vital committee in the government of what we consider to be an educated country.
Of course, air conditioning has allowed humanity to prosper in unforgiving climates, and its proliferation is one big reason why we'll probably never do anything substantive to combat climate change.
I don't see any of this getting better any time soon.
Meanwhile, as we note their foolishness, Jim Inhofe chairs Environment and Public Works in the Senate. This side show freak running a vital committee in the government of what we consider to be an educated country.
Of course, air conditioning has allowed humanity to prosper in unforgiving climates, and its proliferation is one big reason why we'll probably never do anything substantive to combat climate change.
I don't see any of this getting better any time soon.
127
Jack Mahoney: Sorry, Jack. Educated country, NOT.
2
I live in Massachusetts. I grew up in NJ, without air conditioning. The Mass. summers we have currently have fewer days as hot and humid as we had in NJ while I was growing up. Where I live in Mass. we have lots of old houses designed with windows that facilitate good air flow, especially at night when the temperatures are cooler. And yet more and more houses in my area have central air conditioning installed in them. Perhaps home offices with computers have something to do with the proliferation, but my point would remain the same: we don't plan for the long run, we are skewed in our decision making, it seems to me, towards short-term convenience (and profit).
1
Let's look at Arizona, New Mexico and other southern states. The south did not steal northern industry until air conditioning was invented. Remember those southern women sipping their mint juleps?
And look at the raging forest fires. So maybe the same fate awaits areas in the USA
And look at the raging forest fires. So maybe the same fate awaits areas in the USA
Everyone stays inside where the air conditioning is. Sounds like a road to less conflict and violence.Wide spread availability of Ghetto Air conditioning certainly decreased murder in Americas inner cities in the last 3 decades.
3
Relax. Oklahoma Senator James Imhofe will lead us out of the wilderness. You think I'm being sarcastic? Maybe, but in the U. S. we are controlled by some of the stupidest people in the entire world. To Imhofe and many of the GOP presidential candidates, they will never see any human responsibility for climate warming. Why? Because it will mean they would lose votes and money. And nothing will separate the rich from their wealth. And why are they stupid? Because they don't give a damn and are willing to destroy the planet as it won't affect them in their wretched lifetime.
529
@Richard,
I appreciate your thoughtful comment. Yet, this description:
"The only two true existential threats to humanity are climate and an automation that is fast displacing all human labor."
omits the strategic, extremely well-funded, and effective political and propaganda campaigns which have attempted to discredit and defund climate science research and advocacy since newly elected President Ronald Reagan removed solar panels from the White House.
That campaign continues with efforts of petro-donor sycophants, such as Governor Scott Walker, to prevent the Wisconsin DNR from addressing climate change.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scott-walker-dismantled-wi...
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- Walt Kelly
I appreciate your thoughtful comment. Yet, this description:
"The only two true existential threats to humanity are climate and an automation that is fast displacing all human labor."
omits the strategic, extremely well-funded, and effective political and propaganda campaigns which have attempted to discredit and defund climate science research and advocacy since newly elected President Ronald Reagan removed solar panels from the White House.
That campaign continues with efforts of petro-donor sycophants, such as Governor Scott Walker, to prevent the Wisconsin DNR from addressing climate change.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scott-walker-dismantled-wi...
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- Walt Kelly
3
I would replace your word 'stupid' with 'evil' because it is more applicable. Stupid insinuates a lack of understanding that may be corrected by the knowledge of facts.
2
Since the article mentioned the religious squabbles in the region, let me point out that Sen. Inhofe is a radical Christian. He believes that God won't let humans harm the Earth. He is documented traveling to the Middle East to meet with religious groups interested in seeing the Apocalypse happen in his lifetime.
Attitudes on climate science and impacts will not change until this (also my) generation pass away and the Millennials take over. And that generation does not include Sen. Rubio.
Attitudes on climate science and impacts will not change until this (also my) generation pass away and the Millennials take over. And that generation does not include Sen. Rubio.
3
Let's hope the current gang of GOP candidates stop for a moment and read this editorial. I laugh every time I hear Rubio say he is the future not the past. Really Marco, then wake up and accept that climate change is real and will do more to destroy our future than any budget deficit or healthcare plan. Oh that's right, your not a scientist.
325
You have (I suspect inadvertently) hit on one of the cruel ironies of climate change - those that have done and will do the most to cause and those who have suffered and will suffer the most from it are vastly different people. The global middle and poor - like the chap with the tea shop or the residents of Bandar Mahshahr - are the ones suffering from the negative externalities of the global north's means of producing energy and meat.
You make it sound as if climate change is the fault of political and internecine strife in the Middle East - there are many things that one could blame on that but climate change is not one of them.
You make it sound as if climate change is the fault of political and internecine strife in the Middle East - there are many things that one could blame on that but climate change is not one of them.
28
Wrong. As Mr Friedman wrote, nature deals only in the fields of biology, chemistry, & physics. Politics & policy are relevant to the extent that human behavior en masse perturbs those fundamental processes.
1
"Politics & policy are relevant to the extent that human behavior en masse perturbs those fundamental processes."
Yes, but my point was that the behaviour of consumers and corporations in the global north is disproportionately responsible for climate change. From the article:
"If they don’t end their long-running conflicts, Mother Nature is going to destroy them all long before they destroy one another"
That makes it sound as though the consequences of climate change are "their" fault, when they're largely "our" fault!
Yes, but my point was that the behaviour of consumers and corporations in the global north is disproportionately responsible for climate change. From the article:
"If they don’t end their long-running conflicts, Mother Nature is going to destroy them all long before they destroy one another"
That makes it sound as though the consequences of climate change are "their" fault, when they're largely "our" fault!
I've always wondered why anyone would chose to live in a place where there is no green plant life and very little water. With the coming ecological catastrophe there we should pull out now. We can't afford to help them when the end begins. We will have own hands full moving the population of Miami to higher ground.
13
They didn't choose it. They were born there.
27
They are moving out. Hundreds of thousands are getting out even though its political too it's environmental in it's cause as well.
1
Upstream probably wonders why so many children choose to be born into poor/dysfunctional/single parent homes too.
10
So, if I understand you correctly Mr. Friedman, Iran's true intention in developing its nuclear
capability is to power electric fans and air conditioners to cool off its population. And that is why President Obama'a proposed the nuclear deal in the first place. Oh, O.K. then, I'm now in favor of the deal.
capability is to power electric fans and air conditioners to cool off its population. And that is why President Obama'a proposed the nuclear deal in the first place. Oh, O.K. then, I'm now in favor of the deal.
5
Maybe the best piece Thomas Friedman has ever written. He juxtaposes the news driven threat, terrorism, with the real threat, destruction of the common. It may not be sexy or what one wants to hear, but destruction of the common is what will bring us down. Here that GOP?
388
"Mother Nature is not sitting idle. She doesn’t do politics — only physics, biology and chemistry. And if they add up the wrong way, she will take them all down." Well said and let us realize that the effects of increasing global temperatures is not limited to one region of the planet. Today's fights over ideological beliefs is going to be replaced by more traditional fights over water and food, as well as mass migrations to wherever the food and water are in relative abundance.
Does the Divine Creator of the Universe really care about a species that is determined to destroy its own home? Maintaining the path we are on leads to humans becoming just another species that earth produced and then discarded.
Does the Divine Creator of the Universe really care about a species that is determined to destroy its own home? Maintaining the path we are on leads to humans becoming just another species that earth produced and then discarded.
102
If one looks at Lake Oroumieh using Google Maps, one sees Islamia 'Island', which is an area in what is now desert, with no water around it.
And yet the London Telegraph assures us that every official agency gathering temperatures adds one degree to all readings from all years after 1960 and subtracts one degree from all readings from years that were before 1960 to convince the gullible that the temperature is increasing. They even fooled the ice in the Northwest Passage! (I've been assured that the Northwest Passage has always been there, they just couldn't find it without GPS, which is why so many died trying from 1500 until they gave up.)
Measurements show no increase in solar energy reaching the earth, and also show cooling in the upper atmosphere, indicating that less heat is getting reflected by the earth, which, one might think proves that the current warming is anthropogenic.
And the response by the US? Oil production has increased by 1 million barrels per day per year since 2010 under our 'green' President Obama, so we're importing less, but using more.
And yet the London Telegraph assures us that every official agency gathering temperatures adds one degree to all readings from all years after 1960 and subtracts one degree from all readings from years that were before 1960 to convince the gullible that the temperature is increasing. They even fooled the ice in the Northwest Passage! (I've been assured that the Northwest Passage has always been there, they just couldn't find it without GPS, which is why so many died trying from 1500 until they gave up.)
Measurements show no increase in solar energy reaching the earth, and also show cooling in the upper atmosphere, indicating that less heat is getting reflected by the earth, which, one might think proves that the current warming is anthropogenic.
And the response by the US? Oil production has increased by 1 million barrels per day per year since 2010 under our 'green' President Obama, so we're importing less, but using more.
7
Uh upper atmosphere cooling is a _consequence_ of heat being trapped at lower levels. It's how greenhouses work.
2
And who, Michael, 'assured' you that the Northwest Passage has always been there? Amerigo Vespucci?
1
Dear Mr. Friedman:
Please maintain this level of relevance and wisdom in future columns. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert Eller
Please maintain this level of relevance and wisdom in future columns. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert Eller
66
A first, I actually agree with Mr. Friedman. In the sixties many noted scientists were warning us about the dangers of overpopulation when there were only three billion of us, so if we had heeded their advice and we were currently approaching four billion today instead of eight, Global Warming would be a distant blip on our radar, the Gulf Spill, fracking and the development of Canadian tar sands would not have happened because we would not be that hard up for oil yet, and the word Anthropocene would not have been coined to describe the manmade sixth great extinction event happening on this planet right now; the last extinction event was a comet that took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, mankind is the current ongoing extinction event’s comet.
153
Many of the wars, coups in Africa result from scarce resources in part caused by drought. Climate change creates so much political instability. Humans need water to drink and grow food. Aids and Ebola may thin the population in Africa but drought and starvation is far mor effective.
12
And right now, several states are trying to defund Planned Parenthood while USAID has been locked from providing birth control to other parts of the world that need it even more. Thanks GOP.
5
"She (=Mother Nature) doesn't do politics."
In the Middle East everything, everywhere, all the time, is politics. Everything is connected. Environmentalism, locally and regionally, is no exception to the rule. That may not be good, and indeed be bad, but that is reality. Not functioning within the reality of reality solves nothing.
Makes for a nice column though.
In the Middle East everything, everywhere, all the time, is politics. Everything is connected. Environmentalism, locally and regionally, is no exception to the rule. That may not be good, and indeed be bad, but that is reality. Not functioning within the reality of reality solves nothing.
Makes for a nice column though.
1
The other day I was watching a National Geographic documentary showing two male antelope locking horns in a bitter contest for mating privileges. The incident attracted a leopard who watched for a few minutes before approaching the combatants. The antelope smelled him as they paused and looked around before resuming their fight. Under normal circumstances, they would flee. But not this time. They had to attend to the (more important) matter at hand. The leopard literally walks over and grabs one of them by the throat......Every reality is defined by those who live it.
5
To Alfred Yul
The antelopes in the Middle East believe that the leopard of environmentalism is still far away and will take the other antelope in any case.
The antelopes in the Middle East believe that the leopard of environmentalism is still far away and will take the other antelope in any case.
1
One might conclude that at some point the insanity wrought by those who blow up every attempt to provide electric power,basic public services, and civic harmony would simply cease, if only because the final act of violence against innocents and infrastructure is so tragically absurd. I think that day will never arrive, in spite of the deadly heat and decades of tragic consequences. There are those among us who will continue to blow up mounds of broken concrete and arid sand and dust for causes that are totally devoid of reason and sanity.
29
Thanks for stepping back and providing this perspective. It's a useful illustration of the extent to which we do not and cannot control many things that ultimately matter in our lives, families and society. Collaboration rather than contention seems more likely to address many of the issues that matter most. Solutions to our most challenging problems reside near the center and are best approached through dialog rather than diatribe.
9
Tom offers an interesting solution to the world's woes as they center on the Greater Middle East, one that he's written on in the past. It could be, and soon, that the land can no longer support human life, that we'll need to send in robots to get out and distribute the oil, and that the Sunni-Shia struggle for supremacy may need to move to Spain, Italy and Britain.
And just when we needed a Benny Hill or a Robin Williams to highlight the absurdity of it all, we find we've lost them.
Iraq's problems are different from Iran's, which are different from those of other neighbors. But not many of us can live at a real-feel temperature of 163˚ F.
As I've been writing in this community for a long time, religion doesn't pose an existential threat to any region, must less to humanity. The only two true existential threats to humanity are climate and an automation that is fast displacing all human labor. The 21st Century will be largely about how we address both of them.
And just when we needed a Benny Hill or a Robin Williams to highlight the absurdity of it all, we find we've lost them.
Iraq's problems are different from Iran's, which are different from those of other neighbors. But not many of us can live at a real-feel temperature of 163˚ F.
As I've been writing in this community for a long time, religion doesn't pose an existential threat to any region, must less to humanity. The only two true existential threats to humanity are climate and an automation that is fast displacing all human labor. The 21st Century will be largely about how we address both of them.
61
But Richard you can't vote for Republicans if you want to combat climate change.
I was riding home on the LIRR yesterday reading a leftover Newsday. When I got to the weather page, I noticed the extreme temperatures in Baghdad, Tehran, and Riyadh.
Let's not even mention the train I was riding in was a leftover from the Nixon Era with doors experiencing late onset Parkinson's Disease as upgrading our infrastructure is another Republican no-no.
I was riding home on the LIRR yesterday reading a leftover Newsday. When I got to the weather page, I noticed the extreme temperatures in Baghdad, Tehran, and Riyadh.
Let's not even mention the train I was riding in was a leftover from the Nixon Era with doors experiencing late onset Parkinson's Disease as upgrading our infrastructure is another Republican no-no.
21
I would add a third existential threat to climate and automation, and that is population. While technology is pushing us to have fewer places in the economic system for people's livelihood, and climate is making it harder to support people in the more extreme regions of the planet, population growth adds to both problems.
2
To the contrary, religion is the #1 threat to humanity. It's religious fanaticism, and it's attendant ignorance, whether found in the Middle East or in the southern red states, that keeps us from collectively addressing climate change. These anti-science fanatics actively, and proudly, agitate against measures to address climate change as they consider anything that happens to the earth to be God's will and who are we mortals to interfere? Look at who in the US opposes climate change measures and why and tell me again that religion isn't a threat to us.
8
Well, Tom, I think as you well said "And if they add up the wrong way, she will take them all down.", the only thing that I would like to add up is perhaps Mother nature will take them all first, but what is more scared is if that happens really Mother nature doesn't differentiate between Africa, Europe or America. We will face damage too even though we seem far away from Middle East.
Thanks Tom again for your well done article.
Thanks Tom again for your well done article.
24
Yes, Thomas Friedman, you are right about playing with fire. It is not just the Middle East that needs to be saved by "environmentalism", but the entire planet. While "Rome burns", the fossil fuel industry has done its level best to disrupt any attempt to slow the consumption and burning of its products. It is time, as a species, we put a stop to the endless wars over fossil fuels and the burning of them, and put our minds and hearts to using the technology already available that makes them obsolete. It's not just economics and peace that are at stake, but the survival of the human race. Temperatures of 163 degrees is a harbinger of things to come if we don't.
222
Ahmed Gul who founded the Pakistani ISI died this week. He was adept at taking legitimate grievances among the various peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and turning them to violence in order to achieve his own ends. He made tribal war into a natural condition, which of course made the Army, manipulated by the ISI, the only force capable of ruling Pakistan.
He was particularly adept at playing the Muslims, who had left the violence directed at them in India, against the tribes, which were indigenous to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He recognized as did the Saudi Prince al Turki (Saudi Secret Service Chief) that religious extremists could always be counted upon to fight in the cause of the elites who armed them, and which manipulated them to commit murder, if the motive for violence could be presented as religious in nature.
Keeping the pot boiling in Kashmir was one of his priorities, and of course he and al Turki created the Taliban from the core of America's anti Russian mujahadeen. His only fear, just as it is the fear of the American Elite today, was that peace might occur contrary to all of his efforts.
The IPI gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan to India is called the peace pipeline, and the reason that it has not been finished is that the last thing all of the players want, including the US, is for peace to break out between India and Pakistan.
Now, think about what is happening today in the M.E. and it really does seem very similar. Shocking isn't it?
He was particularly adept at playing the Muslims, who had left the violence directed at them in India, against the tribes, which were indigenous to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He recognized as did the Saudi Prince al Turki (Saudi Secret Service Chief) that religious extremists could always be counted upon to fight in the cause of the elites who armed them, and which manipulated them to commit murder, if the motive for violence could be presented as religious in nature.
Keeping the pot boiling in Kashmir was one of his priorities, and of course he and al Turki created the Taliban from the core of America's anti Russian mujahadeen. His only fear, just as it is the fear of the American Elite today, was that peace might occur contrary to all of his efforts.
The IPI gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan to India is called the peace pipeline, and the reason that it has not been finished is that the last thing all of the players want, including the US, is for peace to break out between India and Pakistan.
Now, think about what is happening today in the M.E. and it really does seem very similar. Shocking isn't it?
3
Mostly I agree, but survival of the human race is the real problem- we survive all to well at the expense of every other living thing on the planet. Pogo had it right.
2
Ms. Egeli,
You're right, but with a blind spot. The energy technofix has two main problems: it doesn't scale up to run the present petroleum-oriented infrastructure for the population size, and, secondly, it serves to put off what's necessary right now: massive curtailment of energy use, and lifestyle change. For more information, see www.CultureChange.org
You're right, but with a blind spot. The energy technofix has two main problems: it doesn't scale up to run the present petroleum-oriented infrastructure for the population size, and, secondly, it serves to put off what's necessary right now: massive curtailment of energy use, and lifestyle change. For more information, see www.CultureChange.org
1
Our "commons" now is the Earth,
Of despoilers there is no dearth,
The nay saying hoax criers
Koch brothers inspires,
And Conservation's nothing worth.
Republican candidates all,
Take positions that do appall,
Prepared to efface
The whole human race,
Not heeding how soon comes the Fall!
Of despoilers there is no dearth,
The nay saying hoax criers
Koch brothers inspires,
And Conservation's nothing worth.
Republican candidates all,
Take positions that do appall,
Prepared to efface
The whole human race,
Not heeding how soon comes the Fall!
192
You got the Koch brothers and the Republicans in there Mr. Eisenberg, but forgot to mention Bibi, AIPAC and Sheldon Adelson who, as you know, are also great despoilers of the environment. Could you give us another stanza that includes them too?
25
You must have missed the NYTimes article which said that Israel, subject to the same conditions, has totally solved its water problem thru conservation and technology. They are not stealing any water from their neighbors but are providing it to the region. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-revolution-in-i...
How do you claim that Israel, the champion of drip-irrigation and desalinization is a despoiler of the environment? And throwing in Sheldon Adelson and AIPAC is just an anti-Semitic bit of rubbish.
How do you claim that Israel, the champion of drip-irrigation and desalinization is a despoiler of the environment? And throwing in Sheldon Adelson and AIPAC is just an anti-Semitic bit of rubbish.
2
Sorry Susan but you are wrong. The article says that Israel solved its water shortage by conservation and building desalinization plants. It doesn't say they are sending any water out of the country. It doesn't say how much comes from the occupied territories both from the settler's wells and from the common aquifers. It doesn't say how much CO2 the desalinization generates. It does elude briefly to the extreme pollution caused by Israeli industry.
4
However, there is a fascinating potential solution to saving the Dead sea, and generating hydropower and fresh water in the process. The Dead Sea is around 1,200 feet below sea level, meaning that water from either the Mediteranian or the Red Sea could be conveyed by gravity to the Dead sea, generating hydroelectricity in the process. Thus, the Dead sea's original level could be recovered, power generated, some of which could be used to power desalinization.
There are at least 2 different options, my favorite just because it is simpler and easier to understand is the Dead Sea Power project that you can see plans for here: http://www.deadseapower.com/project_review/ This project would bring water from the Meditranian through a tunnel to the Dead sea, first dropping it through a hydroelectric power plant.
The other project involves a long surface canal bringing water from the Red sea, also generating hydroelectric power from it as it drops into the Dead Sea.
Of course there are many potential problems such as environmental risks caused by introducing more salt water to the Dead Sea (although at the current rate the dead sea will eventually go dry, and that is a disaster). And while one likes to think of such a valuable thing as an asset that could promote peace, it might be just another bone for Israel, Palestine, and Jordan to fight over.