Climate Change May Have Helped Spark Iran’s Protests

Scientific American ^ | January 8, 2018 | By Scott Waldman

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The impacts of climate change are among the environmental challenges facing Iran that helped spark protests in dozens of cities across the Islamic republic.

At least 20 people have died in the uprising, driven by the sudden collapse of financial institutions, low wages and mistrust of national leaders. Rising temperatures are seen by some experts as an underlying condition for the economic hardships that led to the unrest.

A severe drought, mismanaged water resources and dust storms diminished Iran's economy in recent years, according to experts who study the region. While the protests are largely driven by resistance to the country's hardline conservative government, such environmental factors might have contributed to the largest protests inside Iran in years.

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad understood that climate change and water mismanagement was ravaging family farms, and his government provided subsidies to families who struggled to put food on the table, said Amir Handjani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center. When the current president, Hassan Rouhani, signaled that he would reduce those benefits, enraged Iranians across the nation's arid countryside joined the wave of protests.

"You have climate change, shortage of water, they can't grow their crops, and now they're getting their cash handouts taken away," said Handjani. "It's a panoply of issues coming together at once."

Among the sparks of activism are corruption, nepotism, rippling effects of low oil prices and sour reactions to the Trump administration's denunciations of Iran, said Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

She said the role of climate change on the protests is "massive" and underreported by the media. The protests have largely sprung from provincial cities that climate refugees now call home, instead of the capital, Tehran.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[Maceman]

[Da Coyote]

I remember when Scientific American actually wrote about real science.

[Dennis M.]

Pretty sad. Scientific American used to be about science. It has turned into a PC joke.

[Army Air Corps]

I wonder if people can now blame Climate Change for their inability to get laid.

[null and void]

Hmmm, that would explain the last few years...

[Capt_Hank]

Same here, I used to subscribe before I retired.

[stinkerpot65]

Lying scum.

Every liberal is a violent totalitarian thug.

[corkoman]

Had more actual science in it than Sci American. Sheesh.

[Diogenesis]

The article is about hearsay and lies
and claims the Iranian protesters
love the mullahs and hate Pres. Trump.

“The Trump administration’s retreat from the
Paris climate agreement and its larger rejection
of climate policy mean that Iranian citizens
are increasingly blaming environmental problems
on the United States, Ehsani said.”

Scientific American this is NOT.

[billorites]

"I remember when Scientific American actually wrote about real science."

We all used to read National Geographic as well.

Now they're talking about shutting down Playboy.

Looks like all I'll have left to look at are my wife's Lane Bryant catalogs.

[cranked]

Can’t make this stuff up..../s

[Grampa Dave]

Climate Change May Have Helped Spark Iran’s Protests!

[freedumb2003]

So human-cause climate change was responsible for famines going back to the 400s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

All those campfires, I guess.

[Dahoser]

I wonder if people can now blame Climate Change for their inability to get laid.

Wonder no longer: Climate change is killing our sex drive, bringing down U.S. birth rate, study says (CNN November 2015)

[Opinionated Blowhard]

While the protests are largely driven by resistance to the country's hardline conservative government,

Make sure you get that in too, Scientific American. The Iranian mullahs, who operate a theocratic Socialist state, are conservatives.

[Interesting Times]

Attention, ladies. Climate change will cause chocolate to disappear, make rats run up your legs, and motivate dingos to eat your baby.

[FrankR]

[Billthedrill]

While the protests are largely driven by resistance to the country's hardline conservative government, such environmental factors might have contributed to the largest protests inside Iran in years.

Uh huh. "While the unprovoked invasion of Poland may have had something to do with the beginning of WWII, there were undoubtedly environmental factors at work as well." What do I win?

[M Kehoe]

Good afternoon.

“Attention, ladies. Climate change will cause chocolate to disappear, make rats run up your legs, and motivate dingos to eat your baby.”

I believe I have heard all three within the last month.

Propaganda never sleeps.

5.56mm