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Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Egypt's Revolution and Climate Change

I guess one of the current climate disputes (who can keep up?) is about whether the Egyptian Revolution is inspired, or at least partly inspired, by (anthropogenic) climate change.

Joseph Romm says yes. Keith Kloor says no.

I vote: Yes.

Look: all revolutions, and all of history, have complex reasons. People are complex. Life is complex. Nothing is every all due to this or all due to that.

From what I understand, Egypt eats a lot of pasta. And its price has risen greatly in recent months. Why? Well, wheat prices are way up:






Why? In significant part because of the Russian heat wave of last summer. Note when the jump in wheat prices occurred: last June, about the same time as the anomalous Russian heat wave.

Look, these things are never going to be a direct, 1-1 relationship. But it's suspicious. It has to make you think.
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2 comments:

  1. charlesH1:27 PM

    David,

    Didn't the UN say that corn ethanol subsidies and mandates were the biggest cause of food inflation?

    Pretty clear cause and effect don't you think?

    Now some of the green NGOs are trying to put the corn ethanol disaster back in the bottle. Have were learned anything from this?

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  2. Dano9:36 AM

    Charles, we learned that the phenomenon politicians pandering to corn states has negative environmental outcomes.

    But no, the UN didn't say that AFAICT. It surely is a contributing factor. Along with widespread crop failures.

    Best,

    D

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