As global warming takes its hold the earth, record temperatures are being recorded throughout the world. A climate change agency has stated that the world just experience one of the hottest May’s ever recorded. While those in first world countries can retreat to air conditioned homes and cars, many are not nearly as lucky. There are more than 50 million people worldwide who are displaced from their homes and living in refugee camps with little resources, few areas of shade, and no adequate shelter from the relentless heat. The number of refugees throughout the world is expanding rapidly because of the situation in Syria. Many Syrians continue to leave their country in large numbers to escape the violence. By the end of 2013, 2.5 million refugees left Syria to settle in camps in other countries. Even more than that, about 6.5 million have been displaced and forced from their homes to another area of the country. Due to the ISIS crisis in Iraq many are leaving that country as well. These refugees are flocking to countries like Lebanon and Turkey where the heat of the summer is very intense.
In a sort of cruel ironic way, the climate change that is making it so unbearably hot is also part of the reason that the conflict in Syria began. The results of climate change were very hard on the Syrian people, even before the conflict. Climate changed caused drought throughout the country, resulting in little crop yields that eventually led to the discontent that caused the nation to go to war. The fight that essentially began over a lack of resources is now continuing to punish those who fled with even less resources and even more extreme heat. The Middle East has reached peak temperatures this summer. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration refers to the region as possessing a “much warmer than average” temperature from March to May this year.
