Editor:
Remember when Mr. Trudeau was accused of “committing sociology” when he suggested we look at the “root causes” behind terrorist attacks?
Seems like Harper now shares an affinity for sociology in claiming we must acknowledge the “root causes” behind the Syrian crisis, ideologically predetermined by himself to be “Islamic terror”/ISIS, against whom only military efforts can prevail.
However if he were to commit serious sociology he would learn that Syria suffered from an unprecedented four year drought from 2006 to 2010 that destroyed 60 percent of its farms, killed 80 percent of its livestock, and drove a million and a half rural Syrians into the overcrowded cities where they combined with another million and a half Iraqi refugees fleeing war.
Poverty, inequality, overcrowding, corrupt and inept leadership exploded into an ongoing civil war in 2011.
There have been many forecasts that climate change would lead to mass migrations from areas that could no longer feed their human populations leading to social unrest, chaos.
The severity and duration of the drought in Syria and surrounding areas suggests that climate change is to blame and will become worse.
If Canada were to take climate change seriously and do its part to reduce GHG’s we may be able to mitigate future desperate migrations.
Right now we could do our part by quickly taking in more refugees, signing the UN Arms Trade Treaty to help control the spread of lethal weapons to rogue regimes and learning the lesson that sociology teaches; war does not make anything better.
Liz Fox,
Lantzville