A short video from the Yale Climate Communications series titled ‘Drought, Water, War, and Climate Change’ on climate change as a catalyst for crises. The video discusses how climate change potentially contributed to the drought in Syria causing large scale human migration, poverty, political instability and, possibly, the civil war.

Students will learn about how global warming and rising temperatures has an effect on the natural resources of a state. They will also learn about various factors that could have caused the civil war in Syria such as large-scale migration from farmland to urban areas and the subsequent collapse of the state. Students will further learn about the implications of the civil war on global geopolitical alliances and global security.