Juan Cole: Global Warming and al-Qaeda in the Greater Indian Ocean
[Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and the Middle East scholar at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively on the Middle East and the West-Islam relations.]
...The general bad news is that a University of Alabama team of scientists has concluded that the first half of 2010 has been the hottest first five months of a year on record.
The specific bad news is that a team of climate scientists at the University of Colorado has discovered that some parts of the Indian Ocean are warming and rising more than others. A huge bathtub-shaped region has warmed 1 degree Fahrenheit during the past 50 years. The rising waters could threaten the low-lying Maldives islands. The change also has implications for monsoon rains, perhaps making them heavier in the east (Bangladesh, Orissa in India) and producing drought in the west (i.e. East Africa). The warming of these waters is almost certainly caused by man-made increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
These findings are very bad news, since the last thing Bangladesh needs is more flooding, and the last thing East Africa needs is more drought. Floods and displacement in Bangladesh could push Muslims in that populous country to desperation and extremism....
Read entire article at Informed Comment (Blog)
...The general bad news is that a University of Alabama team of scientists has concluded that the first half of 2010 has been the hottest first five months of a year on record.
The specific bad news is that a team of climate scientists at the University of Colorado has discovered that some parts of the Indian Ocean are warming and rising more than others. A huge bathtub-shaped region has warmed 1 degree Fahrenheit during the past 50 years. The rising waters could threaten the low-lying Maldives islands. The change also has implications for monsoon rains, perhaps making them heavier in the east (Bangladesh, Orissa in India) and producing drought in the west (i.e. East Africa). The warming of these waters is almost certainly caused by man-made increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
These findings are very bad news, since the last thing Bangladesh needs is more flooding, and the last thing East Africa needs is more drought. Floods and displacement in Bangladesh could push Muslims in that populous country to desperation and extremism....