Juan Cole: O'Malley was right about ISIL and climate change

[eridani]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027011582

[elleng]

1. Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley sparked controversy this week

by saying that the conditions for the rise of ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) were set by the impact on Syria of climate change, which drove farmers from their land into slums around cities and created extreme poverty. O’Malley’s assertion was immediately ridiculed on Fox News Channel and by Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who called the allegation a “disconnect from reality.” Who is right in this debate?

It should not come as a surprise that O’Malley is indeed correct, especially since he chose his words very carefully. He said, “One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS, was the effects of climate change and the mega-drought that effected that region,” which “wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis…. It created the symptoms, or rather the conditions of extreme poverty that has led now to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.” O’Malley did not attribute the radical extremism in northeast Syria only to climate change and drought, underlining that it was only one of the causes of the weakening of the Syrian state and the immiseration of the population, which made them so desperate that they even turned to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his hateful beheaders for salvation. It was, however, one cause among others, he said.

[Beowulf42]

3. Wait a minute

Is it logical to assume then that as the effects of drought expand, especially outward from the equator, that the pressure on nearby areas, such as Africa and the Middle East, on areas such as Europe, southern Asia, the U.S., will increase the influx of people looking for food and employment? Our short-sighted politicians who have trouble with the "Vision Thing," had better get their jockstraps on and lace up their sneakers. We Ain"t Seen Nothin'" Yet.

[raouldukelives]

4. You got it. There are those that want less suffering in their name.

That desire to leave behind a better world. And there are those with investments in Wall St.
Who gladly help bribe elected officials to continue to ignore reality and assure the gravy train for themselves at the expense of everything, for everyone, forever.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. You got it, all except the sexist "jockstrap" crudity, as if all politicians are men

Or is it saying the only short-sighted ones are men? That would be equally sexist.

[pscot]

7. Welcome to DU

[Koinos]

2. I read Juan Cole almost every day.

He is a professor at the University of Michigan and an esteemed expert on Middle Eastern affairs. His ongoing account of the lies surrounding the Iraq war was legendary. If anyone knows what he is talking about, it is Juan Cole.

His site: http://www.juancole.com/

The final paragraph of his article in The Nation:

Climate change in the Middle East is a security issue for the countries of that region and for the United States. GOP blindness to this problem and insistence on continuing to put 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year is contributing to a set of disasters for the United States and the world. O’Malley should be praised for saying this forthrightly, though it is a sad commentary on American politics that his statement of fact should be a matter for congratulation, or that it should have been met with derision from the ignorant.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. Welcome to DU from another

Juan Cole admirer.

[Koinos]

10. Juan Cole is a national treasure. Bush tried to get him fired, and it didn't work.

[druidity33]

8. another fan here. nt.

[Koinos]

9. Among the consequences of climate change: Economic and political instability all over the world.

Martin O'Malley's plan is to get us off fossil fuels for electricity by 2050:

https://martinomalley.com/climate/agenda/

We need to treat this issue with the urgency it deserves.

Juan Cole underlines that fact.