Reacting with glee, conservatives thought they had an O'Malley gaffe. He blinded them with science.

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Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith 1h1 hour ago
“Reacting with glee, conservatives thought they had caught a gaffe” when @MartinOMalley cited science http://grist.org/climate-energy/omalley-connects-climate-change-and-security-republicans-think-its-a-gaffe/ …

Martin O’Malley is trying to raise awareness about the ancillary benefits of combatting climate change. That’s why the former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate talks a lot about creating green jobs.

On Monday, O’Malley raised another point: Climate change may be worsening conflicts in some parts of the world. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said:

One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that nation, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather, the conditions — of extreme poverty that has led now to the rise of ISIS and this extreme violence.

If you’re well-informed about climate change and national security, O’Malley’s statement won’t be the first time you’ve encountered this idea. And it certainly shouldn’t strike you as bizarre. As Mother Jones notes, “There is no shortage of high-quality, peer-reviewed research explicating this link.”

More broadly, the science on climate change increasing the risk of severe drought, and thus causing resource scarcity, is very well-established. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last year, climate-related droughts can lead to “disruption of food production and water supply,” which can lead to still more problems: “Climate change can indirectly increase risks of violent conflicts in the form of civil war and inter-group violence by amplifying well-documented drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks.”

But Republicans and conservatives are not well-informed on climate change, so they were struck by O’Malley’s comments as if they came flying out of left field. Reacting with glee, conservatives thought they had caught a gaffe. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus pounced and issued a statement: “Whether it’s the weak Obama-Clinton nuclear deal that paves the way for Iran to obtain an atomic bomb or Martin O’Malley’s absurd claim that climate change is responsible for ISIS, it’s abundantly clear no one in the Democratic Party has the foreign policy vision to keep America safe.”

This is not a fair or accurate characterization of what O’Malley said. O’Malley didn’t “claim that climate change is responsible for ISIS.” He said that the drought in Syria contributed to the conditions that gave rise to ISIS. The O’Malley campaign knows their candidate is in the right, so Deputy Campaign Manager Lis Smith shot back on Monday night by saying, “If Republicans want to have a debate about either foreign policy or science, we have a message for them: bring it on.”

read more: http://grist.org/climate-energy/omalley-connects-climate-change-and-security-republicans-think-its-a-gaffe/


Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith 8h8 hours ago
I guess @FoxNews, @Reince are used to so many Dems caving, but @MartinOMalley won’t back down on the truth. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/07/22/fox-continues-to-slam-omalley-for-accurately-po/204529 …

As Media Matters detailed, multiple expert studies and reports explain how a severe drought likely due to climate change caused economic and social conditions in Syria to deteriorate, which provided "tinder" for the 2011 uprising there. Experts have also detailed how ISIL took advantage of Syria's civil war to gain territory and establish a base of operations in the country. O'Malley summarized this research accurately during a July 20 interview with Bloomberg Television, saying "Climate change and the mega-drought ...created a humanitarian crisis" in Syria that "led now to the rise of ISIL."

Read more about the connection between global warming and the rise of ISIL here.

Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith Jul 20
Hey @Reince: bring it on




Salon.com ?@Salon Jul 21
GOP mocks Martin O’Malley for linking global warming with national security -- but the Pentagon takes it seriously http://slnm.us/mYYiIwr

He was referring, in all likelihood, to this recent study suggesting that climate change, while not the cause of the 2011 uprising in Syria, may indeed have been a contributing factor in the conditions leading up to the crisis. It was not the first to suggest as much: previous research has looked at the role drought played in creating unrest in the region, as well as the link between increased heat and violence.

“We’re not saying the drought caused the war,” Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and one of the study’s authors, explained. “We’re saying that added to all the other stressors, it helped kick things over the threshold into open conflict. And a drought of that severity was made much more likely by the ongoing human-driven drying of that region.”

It’s unclear if the Republican National Committee was aware of this research, but since the GOP, in general, tends to reject the consensus of most scientists on climate change, they likely wouldn’t have been swayed by the scientific basis for O’Malley’s statement. Indeed, they quickly put out this hissy-fit of a press release:

@Reince @GOP Statement On @MartinOMalley's absurd claim that climate change caused #ISIS:

“If Republicans want to have a debate about either foreign policy or science, we have a message for them: bring it on,” responded Lis Smith, O’Malley’s deputy campaign manager, in a statement emailed to the press. ”On both topics they are trapped in the past. They defend the wrong-headed decision to invade Iraq — a war that cost thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars. When faced with cold, hard scientific facts, they bury their heads in the sand and deny the adverse effects of climate change on the planet.

”

The real scandal, of course, is that Republicans continue to deny the national security implications of climate change, which experts say works as a “threat multiplier” — exacerbating risks that are already in place, as in the case of Syria. The Pentagon’s already taking the issue seriously; in its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, it explained how “pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world,” which in turn “will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions – conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.”
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House Republicans, in response, tried to defund the Department of Defense and CIA’s climate change research...

read: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/21/martin_omalley_links_global_warming_to_isis_republicans_promptly_flip_out/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow


Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith 6h6 hours ago
And…yet another story piles on @GOP & @Reince for not understanding science. Their silence (now) is deafening http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-22/o-malley-clashes-with-republicans-over-link-between-climate-change-and-isis

For a politician who has been struggling to register in the polls, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley scored a victory this week: The chairman of the Republican National Committee attacked him by name.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement aimed squarely at the former Maryland governor, who registers 1 or 2 percent in most polls. Priebus called O'Malley's claim “absurd” and said it's “abundantly clear no one in the Democrat Party has the foreign policy vision to keep America safe.”

For good measure, he said Clinton, the RNC's most frequent target, “should immediately state whether or not she agrees with these extreme comments.”

O'Malley's comment was also mocked in conservative blogs such as Newsbusters and PJ Media.

In fact, there is credible research that connects the impacts of climate change—rising sea levels that displace coastal populations, droughts that ravage water supplies in poor communities—to greater conflict and terrorism.

A November 2014 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found evidence that the Syrian drought from 2007 to 2010 “contributed to the conflict in Syria.” A drought of the severity experienced by the nation, the report found, “has become more than twice as likely as a consequence of human interference in the climate system.”

The Pentagon also concluded in an October 2014 report that climate change poses threats to U.S. national security...

read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-22/o-malley-clashes-with-republicans-over-link-between-climate-change-and-isis


NYT: Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=2


O’Malley (6/27/2015): ISIS Is A Result Of America’s ‘Mindless Rush To War’
http://www.mintpressnews.com/omalley-isis-is-a-result-of-americas-mindless-rush-to-war/207052/


Haley Morris ?@haleymorris
Fact: @GOP Is Upset That Martin O'Malley Cited Actual Science On Climate Change And Conflict http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/omalley-climate-change-syria_55ae7ed0e4b07af29d56793c … #OMalley2016


Haley Morris ?@haleymorris 24h24 hours ago
When @GOP attacks science, @MartinOMalley will give them a reality check: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/21/martin-omalley-tangles-with-the-rnc-over-the-connection-between-climate-change-and-isis/ … #OMalley2016


Martin O'Malley ?@MartinOMalley 9h9 hours ago
There is an indisputable link between climate change and our national security: http://omly.us/1CP7EUI @MotherJones




Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith 2h2 hours ago
@BobbyJindal—who doesn’t believe in evolution—joins in on the anti-science crusade against @MartinOMalley. Exactly. http://www.bobbyjindal.com/what-is-responsible-for-the-rise-of-isis/ …


Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith 2h2 hours ago
When @RickSantorum joins the @GOP in denying science & attacking @MartinOMalley for believing in it, science wins.


Martin O'Malley's now RAISING MONEY off of the republican's DENIAL OF SCIENCE:

Martin O'Malley ?@MartinOMalley 2h2 hours ago
We sent this to supporters & guess what? A lot of them believe in science, too! You with them? http://omly.us/1Dw1svy

[beam me up scottie]

1. Ouch.

Standing up for science instead of whining about how religious bigots are persecuted in this country.

Way to go, O'Malley!

[bigtree]

2. the New Luddites

...vs. the majority of the nation.

[beam me up scottie]

3. We have to make sure a Dem gets in the White House in 2017.

When the Republicans took over both houses I knew they were going to try to marginalize rational thinkers.

We need to stand our ground, science is not a democracy.

[elleng]

7. Right! As Eric deGrasse Tyson said,

(paraphrase) it's TRUE whether you like it or not.

[beam me up scottie]

13. And they don't like it at all.

It's Neil deGrasse Tyson, btw. I absolutely adore that man.

[elleng]

20. OH SORRY, NEIL!

He's WONDERFUL!

[brer cat]

4. If they ever stop to really listen to O'Malley

he should scare their pants off. He's smart and he embraces science which makes him the direct opposite of anyone in the clown car.

[MH1]

18. ^^^ Yes.

But the one thing on their side is that a large swath of the electorate isn't great at listening or thinking either. Other than listening to Faux Nooz and Rush Limbaugh.

[elleng]

5. HECK YES!!!

'Martin O’Malley is trying to raise awareness about the ancillary benefits of combatting climate change. That’s why the former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate talks a lot about creating green jobs.

On Monday, O’Malley raised another point: Climate change may be worsening conflicts in some parts of the world.'

ISIS Is A Result Of America’s ‘Mindless Rush To War.'

Martin O'Malley's now RAISING MONEY off of the republican's DENIAL OF SCIENCE.

Is DU ready for Martin O'Malley???

[msongs]

6. ISIS is the love child of Bush and Cheney...many factors help the baby grow nt

[elleng]

8. Yes, and still growing.

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14. O’Malley (6/27/2015): ISIS Is A Result Of America’s ‘Mindless Rush To War’

“No threat probably better illustrates the unintended consequences of a mindless rush to war — and a lack of understanding — than the emergence of ISIS,” O’Malley said in his first foreign policy address as a presidential candidate...

He added: “We are still paying the price of a war pursued under false pretenses and acquiesced to, in the words of Dr. (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) by ‘the appalling silence of the good.’ ”

[seveneyes]

9. All climates matter

The one we live in matters most.

[oasis]

10. Global warming and the rise of ISIS!

[delrem]

11. "One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria"

was the creation of Hillary Clinton's "Friends of Syria" movement, dedicated to a coup overthrowing the gov't of Syria, "led from behind" by the the USA.

From what I gather reading DU, US Americans are capable of reading and understanding the truth of those words, when presented with the hard evidence of their factuality, but even then are mostly unable to understand what they actually mean.

I guess O'Malley is like that, too.

[elleng]

12. You guess O'Malley is like what, too?

Capable of reading and understanding? That's surely true.

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15. O'Malley is like

Last edited Thu Jul 23, 2015, 08:51 AM - Edit history (1)

...'recognize' science.

Lis Smith ?@Lis_Smith

Beginning of a new twitter series: Email Subject Lines @HaleyMorris (Press Sec.) Sends #MartinOMalley

[elleng]

19. Thanks.

I don't tweet.

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21. I really don't do much more than retweet, elleng

...which is nothing more than clicking on the retweet tab.

Most of what I use twitter for are updated links to events, articles and actions from principles involved in whatever issue I'm looking to highlight. It's a step beyond google which is indispensable for the network of candidate support. Mostly all that's involved is reading and using whatever is being offered that's important to my own efforts.

[bigtree]

16. kick

[bigtree]

17. ThinkProgress: O’Malley is right

ThinkProgress ?@thinkprogress 2m2 minutes ago
O’Malley is right: Climate change helped create conditions for rise of ISIS http://thkpr.gs/3683536


Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley linked climate change to the rise of ISIS earlier this week. Conservatives pounced. Score this round for O’Malley.

For three years now, leading security and climate experts — and Syrians themselves — have made the connection between climate change and the Syrian civil war. Indeed, when a major peer-reviewed study came out on in March making this very case, Retired Navy Rear Admiral David Titley said it identifies “a pretty convincing climate fingerprint” for the Syrian drought.

Compare the words of Admiral Titley — former Deputy Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance (!) and currently Director of Penn State’s Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risks. — with O’Malley’s (video in article):

“One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather, the conditions — of extreme poverty that has led now to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.”

...Perhaps the central takeaway from this area of research is that the greatest danger to humanity this century from human-caused climate change is Dust-Bowlification and the threat to our food supplies and hence global security.

That’s because large parts of the most inhabited and arable parts of the planet — including the U.S. breadbasket — face the exact same heating and drying that have already affected the Mediterranean...

Returning to O’Malley’s comments, it’s pretty clear that they are quite reasonable and defensible. Personally, because the causes of war and terrorism are so complicated and interconnected, I prefer to say things like “climate change HELPED create conditions for rise of ISIS.” Not that nuanced phrasing will not spare anyone the attacks from the anti-science crowd.


read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/23/3683536/omalley-climate-change-isis/


Events leading up to 2011 Syrian uprising, with chart of net migration of displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees into urban areas (in millions) since 2005. Source: Kelley et al. (2015)