Middle East Conflict May Affect Climate

Researchers and national security experts have been keeping an eye on how climate change might affect international conflict, but new research suggests that war might also change the climate. Atmospheric nitrogen dioxide, as measured by satellites, has dropped in some parts of the Middle East since 2010. Researchers have wondered whether it might be related to economic crisis and armed conflict in the region. A team led by Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, in Mainz, Germany, used NASA satellite data to show that pollutants decreased after United Nations sanctions against Iran, the rise of ISIS, and the Syrian uprising in 2011 (Sci. Adv. 2015, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500498). Nitrogen oxides, including NO₂, are released when fossil fuels are used, and they adversely affect air quality and contribute to human-caused climate change. “A combination of air quality control and political factors, including economical [sic] crisis and armed conflict, has drastically altered the emission landscape of nitrogen oxides in the Middle East,” the authors say.