Blame shifting: Obama tells DiCaprio climate change ‘contributed’ to the Syrian civil war

WASHINGTON DC — Discussing the threat of climate change with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, President Obama on October 3, said “powerful” studies suggest “the droughts that happened in Syria contributed to the unrest and the Syrian civil war.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “There’s already some really interesting work — not definitive but powerful — showing that the droughts that happened in Syria contributed to the unrest and the Syrian civil war. Well, if you start magnifying that across a lot of states, a lot of nation states that already contain a lot of poor people who are just right at the margins of survival, this becomes a national security issue. And, that’s why even as we have members of Congress who scoff at climate change at the same time as they are saluting and wearing flag pins and extolling their patriotism they’re not paying attention to our Joints Chief of Staff and the Pentagon who are saying this is one of the most significant national security threats that we face over the next fifty years.”

SXSL: President Obama Participates in a Discussion with Leonardo DiCaprio and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (Also see: DiCaprio: Climate deniers ‘should not be allowed to hold public office’)
The White House
October 3, 2016

Climate Depot Debunks President Obama’s claim:

Scientific studies, data and history refute Pentagon’s climate/national security claims – Climate Depot’s Rebuttal

Der Spiegel: Even Warmist Scientists Dismiss Climate Change As Cause Of Syrian Conflict, Refugee Crisis

Flashback 2014: ‘Why Climate Change Had No Impact on the Syrian Uprising

OBama Shifts Blame From Assad To Global Warming As The Cause Of The Syrian Civil War: ‘National security experts have pushed back against these claims. Former U.S. Army Gen. Robert Scales told Congress in March the “administration’s new-found passion to connect climate change to war is an example of faulty theories that rely for relevance on politically-correct imaginings rather than established historical precedent.” “The point is that in today’s wars, politically-correct theories inserted into a battle plan might well extend war needlessly and get soldiers killed,” Scales said.

Extreme weather failing to follow ‘global warming’ predictions: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Droughts, Floods, Wildfires, all see no trend or declining trends

Scientists reject notion that human-caused climate change led to war in Syria – ‘Human-influenced climate change impact on the drought conditions was almost certainly too small to have mattered’

2014 Study: ‘The humanitarian crisis of the late 2000s largely predated the drought period. Focusing on external factors like drought and climate change in the context of the Syrian uprising is counterproductive as it diverts attention from more fundamental political and economic motives behind the protests and shifts responsibility away from the Syrian government.’

Der Spiegel Demolishes Syria War-Climate Paper By Kelley et al.: ‘Hardly Tenable’…’Distraction From Real Problems’

2015 claim: Global warming caused drought ‘Helped Spark Syrian War’ – 1933 claim: ‘YO-YO BANNED IN SYRIA – Blamed For Drought’

2013 conflict in Syria blamed on drought caused by global warming — Flashback 1933: ‘YO-YO BANNED IN SYRIA – Blamed For Drought By Moslems’ – Real Science reaction: ‘In 1933, drought was blamed on Yo-Yos. Eighty years later, modern Yo-Yos blame drought on CO2’

Latest science refutes global warming/drought claims: Globally, ‘there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years.’