Saturday January 4th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: What War With Iran Might Do To The Climate Crisis Issue
Dear Diary. So far, I have not seen this subject broached by news services, so I am writing a few thoughts on potential conflict with Iran here to make people think today. As we all know, small events can lead to hugely significant chapters in the history of civilization. After amassing great arms and armies from the late 19th century through 1914 empires clashed during WWI as a consequence of the spark produced by the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. This spark led to millions of deaths in the 1910s and I would strongly argue led to WWII and the Holocaust. The Trump Administration has lit a spark over the last week with the killing of Iran’s head of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani.
Sometimes sparks don’t lead to conflagrations, just fizzling out, while others can do horrific damage provided that they are stoked by fuel to grow flames. As of this Saturday we just don’t know what the assassination of a beloved general by many Iranians will do on the world stage. So far, I do see that this “Wag The Dog movie” type incident has put both Impeachment and the Australian fires at the tail end of thirty and sixty minute broadcasts, practically off the radar of U.S. public’s minds this weekend. I really fear that retaliation by Iran will prove the decision to assassinate Soleimani disastrous. Did a corrupt Trump intentionally stoke fires towards a war with Iran for other reasons? I strongly suspect so.
As I’ve stated many times 2020 will be a crucial year for the climate. A war with Iran might go one of two ways in association with the climate issue. If Trump is blamed for a war in which many U.S. service personnel are killed and hundreds if not thousands of Iranians are also killed, his popularity would crater with further calls for conviction via impeachment forthcoming. More than likely if this first scenario comes to fruition a Democratic candidate would be elected, and the U.S. would be on the right track in association with the climate moving into the 2020s.
On the other hand a war might rally Americans around the flag and their embattled President enough to get Trump reelected, spelling doom for the climate according to many of my climate friends like Dr. Michael Mann. Should this spark fizzle, of course, we will be back to business as usual here in the U.S. during 2020 with impeachment very much in the news and news services concentrating on the horrific situation in Australia, which would be the best scenario that I am praying for. Retribution coming from Iran, though, may not let any spark fizzle, unfortunately during this first month of the new year and decade.
A war would choke off oil coming from Iran, and the threat of conflict is already starting to raise gasoline prices. Due to fracking the United States has become much more energy independent, relying less on middle eastern oil, becoming a net exporter of oil during the 2010s. A widespread war involving Saudi Arabia, hurting their oil infrastructure, could really put a crimp in worldwide supplies despite frackin though, initially hurting all economies greatly. However, such events would benefit oil producers here in the U.S. and in Russia, putting millions if not billions of dollars in the pockets of corporations in these two countries, much to the delight of some corrupt officials in the orbit of Trump and Putin.
Conspiracy theorists are already sharpening their knives and with good reason:
Also, the military is one of the leading contributors to global warming. A war would certainly lead to an uptick in CO2 emissions due to the movement of troops, the machines of war both on the ground and in the air, and arsenals.
We need to start asking the question who benefits from a protracted war with Iran, which would directly affect the climate? As I suspect, if this potential Iranian conflict escalates I’ll be posting more related climate material on this site. Please stay tuned.
Regardless of the climate issue any war, or to a lesser degree conflict, would involve the loss of human life and much suffering. Let’s pray that cooler heads will prevail on both potential sides here in the U.S. and in Iran.
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Here is more news coming out of Australia on Saturday:
Here is more climate and weather news from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
Here are some “ET’s” from the third:
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”