Media reports and activists have called the Syrian conflict the first large-scale climate war of the twenty-first century, connecting climate directly to the vast numbers of refugees arriving in Europe. Scientists are more circumspect about making explicit connections between conflict and climate – but not about the changing climate itself. Even if Syria recovers politically in the next few years, it stands to lose nearly 50 per cent of its agricultural capacity by 2050. There is no going back from here.
