The Syrian Conflict: Drought In The United States

According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.

The two most important resources in this region are oil and water. The huge oil “deposits there and in the neighboring countries around the Persian Gulf (the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain) established these countries as some of the richest in the world” (Document F). Nevertheless, the countries who do not have as much access to oil are weak economically. Oil is the biggest export in the Middle East, and in a way, the amount of oil a country has determines how wealthy that country will be. Another component of oil is that countries and ethnic groups are disputing for the control of prices of this economic resource. It has gone to the far extent of foreign countries attempting to control the oil price and also the use of weapons for this (Document E). In addition, it is impossible for each country to have equal access to water due to the unbalanced distribution of these essential resources. As a result of this, these countries are fighting for as much control of water sources they can get. Radically, there are many countries in the Middle East that are striving to obtain as many natural resources to strengthen their economy and lifestyle, and it seems most obvious that the scarcity of these resources is a significant problem in the region

So far, more than 1 out of 10 Syrians have been wounded or killed since the beginning of the war in 2011. “Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country's pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their

The ambition of the often autocratic leaders to acquire more land, which may bring them access to oil, water or arable land. The problem according to Sørli et. al is “scarcity” and “abundance” (147). Water is scarce, and oil is in abundance, but the access to both is limited. According to our text, the new “water wars” have emerged as a major source of conflict, in addition to the “oil wars” (Anderson et. al, 226). Water is scarce in the Middle East, and will continue to dwindle as the population rises. Not every country has the same access to the water sources, which will naturally cause problems. For example, Israel has control of the Golan, and Egypt of the Nile, and Kuwait of the Persian Gulf. Oil is in abundance, but only to a limited number of countries in the Middle East causing great economic disparity between those who have, and those who do not. Kuwait, having access to the Persian Gulf, produces a large supply of oil to international players. Given its high value internationally, and its worth, oil is much sought after.

Syrian civil war started in 2011 was the outcome of the opposition against the President Bashar al-Assad regime. The uprising emerged as a response to the Arab spring movement that lead to regime change in Tunisia and subsequently turned into mass unrest rooted into the discontent with long-term dictatorship and poor economic situation in the country (Manfreda, n.d.). The number of Syrian citizens killed in the civil war reached 140000 since March 2011 (SBS 2014). The European Commission (2014, 2) reports approximately 9.3 million civilians “in need for humanitarian assistance”. The scale of armed rebellion between government and opposition that lead to an increasing number of casualties among civilians did not remain unnoticed by the

When one thinks of turmoil in the Middle East, oil is often the first thought, however, water has begun to be a problematic area, both internal and international. However, the cause for water scarcity does not only depend on conditions within its borders (Giordano, Giordano & Wolf , 2004). Israel's water source comes from the Jordan River, an elongated valley in the central Middle East, and is shared with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine (Lowi, 1995). The Hasbani River, the Dan River, and the Banyas River are the three tributaries of the Jordan River. Although the Jordan Basin extends into five states, approximately 80 percent

Aswell, since December of 2016, over 4 and a half million Syrians have left the country and over 6 million people have been evacuated. The Syrian Regional Refugee Response has charts of the current deaths, refugees, and shelter populations. This shows the seriousness of the mass amounts of people flooding out of the country to escape war.

Ernest Hemingway was a world renowned writer who wrote many novels and short stories in his lifetime. He was awarded some of the most prestigious awards an author can receive and also was awarded the Nobel Prize for Writing. Hemingway was a man who served, like many American men, during World War I. He was a Red Cross Ambulance Driver. Later in his life, he wrote many novels such as ¨The Sun Also Rises¨, ¨A

How they did not adapt to fit the drought: From there adoptions were not taken with the sudden environment change people had no way to fit back. Currently, 12 million are living in the drought. Communities are collapsed and livelihoods destroyed (Girard, 2011). Refugee Camps are being pushed to the limit holding 400,000 people when designed for the capacity of 90,000(Stewart). This is only the begin of the struggle because so many people are already trying to help, but war torn countries continue.

The Syrian refugee crisis has received massive media coverage. People around the world are trying to comprehend the desperate, complicated situation surrounding Syria. The civil war in Syria is the worst crisis in our time. Syrians upset at the fact that long promised reforms have not been enacted, began anti-government demonstrations which started the civil war in 2011. The peaceful protests turned ugly, with the government violently putting an end to those protests. Afterward, ordinary citizens took arms, causing the situation to escalate. Syrians are fleeing their homes because of the great violence, which have left thousands dead and millions wounded, a collapsed infrastructure, resulting in a shattered economy, and for the safety of the children. Syrians are either streaming to surrounding countries or risking their lives to travel to Europe.

Manzoor, K. P. (2011). The global water crisis: Issues and solutions. IUP Journal of Infrastructure, 9(2), 34-43.

Syria and the greater Fertile Crescent are often thought of as the birth of agricultural societies, some 12,00 years ago. Recently, however, this area has experience the worst 3 year drought on record. The drought conditions exacerbated existing political, water and agricultural insecurity and caused mass agricultural failure, livestock mortality, massive rural to urban human migrations. Kelley et al set out to understand how these effects were the product of vulnerability and hazard severity by analyzing Syria’s liability to drought and the social impacts of the recent droughts leading to the onset of the Syrian civil war. The Kelley team completed their analysis through observations and climate models in order to assess how unusual the drought was within the observed records and the reasons why it was so severe.

As the Syrian conflict moves into its sixth year, hopes for economic stability remain unclear in the Hashemite Kingdom. “Since the start of the violence in 2011, over 600,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan. Over three quarters of these refugees live in overcrowded accommodations, while more than 150,000 Syrians live in refugee camps”(Oxfam Policy-International, 2013). The overwhelming increase in population, as a result of the Syrian crisis, has placed a major strain on Jordan’s economic infrastructure, specifically through the region’s production of freshwater resources. According to the United Nations Inter-Agency on Water (UNIA), Jordan is ranked one of the ten water-depressed countries in the world. The growth in Syrian population has increased this strain, with UN estimates revealing that it may take weeks before a single drop reaches a local tap. The crisis has led both the Jordanian community and Syrian refugees to seek solutions, which has led to extracting groundwater from unkempt and polluted areas. This result has brought forth an increase in diseases and greater rise in mortality rates.

In 2011, conflict began in Syria and has led to 2.5 million Syrian refugees today, contributing to a total of 10.5 million refugees worldwide. This catastrophe has caused economic,

In the political and social badlands that those residing in this world have come to regard as the middle east, there exists a country by the name of Syria. Like many other countries of the region, this country has large areas of arid land not fit for habitation. However, unlike some of the other countries of this region, Syria boasts large hospitable coastal, forested, and mountainous areas that have diverse seasons ranging from extreme heat to snow in the winter months. Most of the habitable areas of Syria reside along the western coastline of the region or along the eastern plateau, which boasts large areas of mountainous and often densely forested areas. This diversity has given Syria some social wiggle room that its neighboring