The worst drought in 900 years helped spark Syria's civil war

(Mashable) - The drought that played a role in triggering the catastrophic Syrian Civil War was the worst such climate event in at least the past 900 years, according to a new study published this week.

The study bolsters the conclusions from other research that found that because of human-made global warming, the drought was made three times more likely to occur, and that it was one of a number of factors that led to the outbreak of hostilities in 2011.

The new study examined tree-ring records showing the annual precipitation history from recent years back to the year 1100, across an area stretching from southern Europe to northern Africa to the Levant region of the Middle East.

The Levant region encompasses Cyprus, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, found that in the western Mediterranean, recent droughts have not yet departed from their natural variability, but in the east, including Syria, they have.

The conclusion about the Levant drought in particular increases confidence in computer model projections of future climate conditions.