{"id":455310,"date":"2026-07-13T07:13:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=455310"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:13:37","slug":"claim-the-iran-war-is-worsening-the-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=455310","title":{"rendered":"Claim: The Iran War is Worsening the Climate Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by <\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More absurdity from the climate change causes everything bad brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How the Iran War Worsens the Climate Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Sarah Yerkes<\/a> and Alejandro Martin Rodriguez<\/a>
JUL 10, 2026 8:00 PM AET<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fears of a reignited conflict are rising, even as the true cost of war<\/a> is only beginning to be tallied. Alongside the thousands of deaths, the destruction of infrastructure, and the global economic costs<\/a>, the war is exacerbating existing climate vulnerabilities and exposing the people of the region to an increasingly dangerous and nearly uninhabitable reality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A combination of conflict and climate change<\/a> has most acutely affected Iran and the broader Middle East and North Africa. Water is rationed, temperatures are breaking records, and droughts have been increasingly severe. Temperatures in the region are expected to rise by twice the global average<\/a> during the 21st century. Syria, Libya, and Yemen have already endured <\/a>civil wars and protracted humanitarian crises. Climate change and conflict share a complex, multidimensional relationship, each capable of exacerbating the other<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond targeted attacks on desalination plants<\/a>, strikes against civilian and industrial infrastructure since war started\u2014including strikes on oil facilities and chemical plants\u2014have polluted the region\u2019s already fragile waterways<\/a>. As World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned<\/a>, attacks on petroleum facilities in Iran at the outset of the war, including those targeting the Shahran oil depot and the Shahr-e Rey refinery in Tehran, risked \u201ccontaminating food, water, and air,\u201d with potentially severe health consequences for children and the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict is also deepening these vulnerabilities by diverting governments\u2019 attention, capacity, and funding away from the climate resilience and adaptation investments their populations urgently need.<\/strong> The war has caused at least $58 billion in damage <\/a>to energy<\/a> infrastructure across the Gulf, and slashed tourism revenues by around $600 million a day<\/a> since hostilities began. The result is regional governments left with fewer resources to adapt to the worsening climate crisis, including efforts to combat water scarcity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/07\/10\/iran-war-middle-east-water-scarcity-climate-crisis\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Articles like this are a reminder of the profound ignorance of some sectors of the establishment media. They\u2019re talking about Iran like it is a normal country, which takes the needs of their citizens seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason Iran has a water crisis while other gulf states and Israel do not, is the current regime doesn\u2019t care enough about water security to fix the problems. Their entire attention has been focussed on self enrichment and the destruction of Israel and the United States since the Iranian revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s water crisis exposes collapse of the regime<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades of corruption, mismanagement and misplaced nuclear priorities leave Tehran facing rationing, empty reservoirs and potential evacuation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ilan Berman \u2013 Monday, November 17, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taps are running dry in Tehran<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s capital is now experiencing a massive and deepening water shortage. After months of drought and scorching heat, the five reservoirs feeding the city of more than 10 million are mostly empty. Local authorities have been forced to mandate water rationing, and the situation has become so dire that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently warned that, unless the region experiences rainfall in the coming weeks, the city may need to be evacuated altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons have everything to do with the skewed priorities of Iran\u2019s ruling clerical regime. True to their revolutionary pedigree, Iran\u2019s ayatollahs have consistently preferred guns over butter. They have poured billions of dollars into the country\u2019s nuclear program, its burgeoning arsenal of ballistic missiles and its extensive network of terrorist proxies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What they have not done is make a meaningful, sustained nationwide effort to reverse the country\u2019s worsening water situation. Now that the crisis has truly hit, Iranian officials are predictably trying to deflect the blame onto the Iranian people themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2025\/nov\/17\/irans-water-crisis-exposes-collapse-regime\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author of the following article is Nikahang Kowsar<\/a>, a University of Tehran trained geologist who once stood for election as a reformist candidate for Tehran City Council, but currently lives in exile in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grand Theft Hydrology: How Iran\u2019s Water Mafia Engineered a Drought\u2014Then Sent the Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s drought isn\u2019t some angry weather god punishing us with a dry spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>NIK KOWSAR<\/a>
MAY 23, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Water Mafia\u2014a term I\u2019ve been using<\/a> for years, finally getting the attention<\/a> it deserves after some recent geopolitical truth bombs. Imagine a cozy little cartel of IRGC contractors, consultants with magical impact assessments, ex-revolutionaries rebranded as \u201chydropolitical visionaries,\u201d and a revolving door of Energy Ministry officials who always seem to retire in Dubai or Vancouver\u2026 right around the time the rivers disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These folks don\u2019t manage collapse\u2014they monetize<\/strong> it. Every dried-up wetland, every cracked riverbed, every tanker-truck village is another invoice: signed, sealed, and cashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the real magic: even in wet years, there\u2019s still a crisis. Why? Because they\u2019ve already sucked the aquifers dry\u2014and surprise, they\u2019re not refilling. Iran\u2019s water policy is basically looting the savings account and<\/em> burning down the vault. What used to be underground reservoirs\u2014nature\u2019s emergency fund\u2014is now either empty or, thanks to land subsidence, permanently damaged. Entire basins have collapsed like a Ponzi scheme in a sandstorm. You can\u2019t store water in a sunken sponge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear: this isn\u2019t just environmental collapse. It\u2019s theft<\/strong>. It\u2019s a crime scene. A slow-motion disaster that was warned1<\/a> about, predicted2<\/a>, entirely preventable, and\u2014most unforgivably\u2014profitable.

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/nikkowsar.substack.com\/p\/grand-theft-hydrology-how-irans-water<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The biggest threat to water security in Iran is the Iranian regime. They didn\u2019t have to provoke Israel and the USA into attacking them. They didn\u2019t have to turn a blind eye to corruption, so well connected thieves could loot what public water budget was available. Building more wind turbines in the West will not fix this hideous mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Time article goes on to claim higher CO2 levels will make nations like Iran uninhabitable, but the evidence does not support this assertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Holocene Optimum<\/strong>, when sea level was significantly higher than today, and temperatures were likely significantly warmer than today, Iran was wet<\/strong>. Large parts of Iran experienced significant monsoonal rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Late Pleistocene-Holocene multi-proxy record of climate variability in the Jazmurian playa, southeastern Iran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author links open overlay panelAlireza Vaezi a<\/sup>, Fereydoun Ghazban a<\/sup>, Vahid Tavakoli b<\/sup><\/a>, Joyanto Routh c<\/sup><\/a>, Abdolmajid Naderi Beni d<\/sup>, Thomas S. Bianchi e<\/sup><\/a>, Jason H. Curtis e<\/sup><\/a>, Henrik Kylin c<\/sup> f<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.palaeo.2018.09.026Get<\/a> rights and content\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n