A new ICRC/Norwegian Red Cross policy brief "Making Adaptation Work" presents how the humanitarian consequences of environmental degradation and climate change are aggravated by armed conflict in the Near and Middle East, and which adaptation approaches are emerging to face the compounding impact using examples from Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Aid agencies have warned that tens of millions of people in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia face severe hunger in the next six months following failed harvests, stunted crops and soaring prices of staple foods. Droughts and floods have occurred across the world as a result of the strongest recorded …
About 40,000 civilians in Syria's Madaya town are reportedly on the brink of starving to death as they have remained cut off from food and medicine supplies over the last six months due to a siege by government forces and Hezbollah militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in …
Syria, Libya and Yemen are among the countries whose ability to withstand climate change shocks and stresses has deteriorated most in the past five years, suggesting conflict makes people more vulnerable to climate impacts, researchers said. The University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), released on Tuesday, uses 46 …
Desertification -- climate change-triggered degradation of land ecosystems -- might, in a decade, create 50 million refugees, the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD), a global initiative led by 30 different research groups, warned in a new study published Tuesday. The study, backed by the United Nations, also found that $6.3 …
Global warming does not cause the conflicts that have caused mass movement of people, but it would be wrong to say it does not contribute As I looked in on my own children sleeping safely last Thursday night before I went to bed, I did so with added poignancy as …
The Irish State is set to donate €60 million to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) over the next three years. The commitment, which was made by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney at an event in Milan, makes Ireland one of the largest per capita donors …
Syria's water network, heavily damaged by bombs and shelling, is at risk of collapse as its civil war drags on, increasing the threat of deadly typhoid or cholera outbreaks, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. Millions of people in Aleppo and Damascus are cut off from …
Rising population and dwindling water supplies will affect millions of people and exacerbate conflict in the region Water supplies across the Middle East will deteriorate over 25 years, threatening economic growth and national security and forcing more people to move to already overcrowded cities, a new analysis suggests. As the …
Climate change is "adding fuel to the fire" of worsening political instability and unrest around the world, an expert told a security forum. "We are experiencing a surprising uptick in global insecurity... partially due to our inability to manage climate stress," Columbia University professor Marc Levy, who conducts studies for …
Nitrogen oxides, released from fossil fuel use and other combustion processes, affect air quality and climate. From the mid-1990s onward, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has been monitored from space, and since 2004 with relatively high spatial resolution by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. Strong upward NO2 trends have been observed over South …
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees warned Thursday that 11 typhoid cases among civilians from a besieged Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital may be just “the tip of the iceberg.” Medical teams from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Yalda, an area east of …
About 25 million birds are being unlawfully shot, trapped and glued in a Mediterranean crime wave that is even affecting birds vulnerable to extinction, according to the first report of its kind. Conflict-hit countries such as Syria and Libya fare particularly badly in the study by BirdLife International, with Egypt …
About 800 million people still live in dire poverty and suffer from hunger despite the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) being the most successful anti-poverty push in history, the U.N. said on Monday. The number of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day has more …
Tackling climate change risks must become a top foreign policy priority if the world is to combat the global security threat it poses in the 21st century, according to a new study commissioned by the G7 countries. Multiple conflicts have taken the government systems for dealing with them “to their …
Much of the Middle East and North Africa is set for acute water shortages and the region must do more to conserve water while expanding a series of pilot program including solar-powered water pumps, scientists and officials said on Tuesday. "The situation is critical," Essam Khalifa, a senior official from …
A rare bird may become extinct in Syria because of the capture of Palmyra by Islamic State, experts say. A tiny breeding colony of the northern bald ibis was found near the city in 2002. Three birds held in captivity were abandoned last week after their guards fled the fighting. …
A new UN-backed report says the war in Syria has plunged 80 percent of its people into poverty, reduced life expectancy by 20 years, and led to massive economic losses estimated at over $200 billion since the conflict began in 2010. The report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research …
Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said on Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that it was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011. The …
Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011. The …
Education is now one of the deadliest pursuits for children and teachers inside Syria, as the country's schools are increasingly being damaged and destroyed in the conflict.
