Before fighting broke out in Syria,

the countryexperienced its driest weather on record. Rainfall andsnow totals were at their lo
west level in Syrian history.
Now,
a new study explores how rising temperatureshelped influence a series of events that likely l
ed to the countrys civil war. The findings were published in the Proceedings of
the National Academies ofScience.
Another report in the same publication tells how the crippling drought in
theAmerican state of California also appears linked to climate change.
From 2007 to 2010, Syria suffered the worst drought in its recorded history.
Colin Kelley is a climate scientist. He was the lead writer of the Syrian study.
He says crops failed and farm animals died across the country.
He says thechanging conditions forced an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes.
"And these people picked up their families and en masse migrated to
theurban areas to try and survive. They weren't thinking about the future. Theywere thinking
about the present."
Colin Kelley says many of these people fled to cities. He notes that, at
thetime, Syria already had as many as 1.5 million refugees from
the Iraq war.Temporary housing was built in Syrian communities for
the new arrivals.These communities were the same places where fighting first broke out in
2011.

Displaced Syrian families take refuge near Damascus in Feb. 23, 2015

In their report, Colin Kelley and his team suggest thedrought that led to
the unrest was made more likelybecause of climate change.

They found that

the weather Syria has experiencedsince about 1950 fits well with what models predict fromi
ncreased greenhouse gases. Studies have linkedrising levels of
this pollution to climate change.
"When you include the long-term trend,
that you are twoto three times more likely to have multi-year droughts that were as severe a
s the most recent one."
But, he adds, it was not just the lack of rain that did it.
"We're not saying that global warming or climate change triggered or causedthe uprising in
Syria. What we are saying is that
it basically exacerbated thedrought that occurred, made it more severe -the most severe in theobserved record - and that
this set about a chain of events that ultimately ledto the uprising."
Another report suggests climate change has made more likely the extremelydry weather in
the western United States.
One in eight Americans lives in California. The state produces 12 percent of
the nation's gross domestic product
the value of all goods and servicesproduced within the country.
Noah Diffenbaugh is a Stanford University climate scientist.
He saysCalifornia has wet years and dry years.
"We do know from looking at
the historical record that low precipitation yearshave been much more likely -- greater than
two times as likely -- to producesevere drought if they co-occur with warm conditions.
And what we've foundin California is that there's been a very clear long-term warming."
In new research, he and other researchers say that
has made a drought likethe current one more probable.
"That increase in probability doesn't occur without the human contribution ofgreenhouse gas
es to the atmosphere."

And in both California and Syria, the studies say the future looks to be warmerand drier still.
Im Jonathan Evans.
VOAs Steve Baragona prepared this report. Marsha James wrote it for Learning English.
George Grow was the editor.
______________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

cripple - v. to make something unable to work normally;
to cause greatdamage to something
exacerbate v. to make a bad situation or problem worse
precipitation n. water that falls to the ground as rain, snow, etc.

Most scientists agree that increasing amounts ofcarbon-dioxide gas in

Earths atmosphere is partly toblame for rising temperatures, also known as climatechange.
Changes in the atmosphere can have a bigeffect on weather conditions around the world.
The most cost effective way to get power still comesfrom burning fossil fuels such as coal, o
il and naturalgas. They are less costly than other forms of energy.
But burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, knownto scientists as
CO2. Keeping excess CO2 from entering the atmosphere is
adifficult and costly process. Scientists are looking for
the best and least costlymethods for capturing the gas and storing it away from
the atmosphere.
Some of this research is taking place in western Norway.
The TechnologyCenter in Mongstad is the largest facility in
the world for major testing of newCO2-capturing technologies. The center is called TCM.
Tore Amundsen is its chairman.
He says TCM has produced importantknowledge since it opened in 2012.
"We learned about selection of materials, we learned about design models, that has
been improved considerably through these tests, and we learned alot about operations of
a facility which is a fairly large facility."
Tore Amundsen says there are other things to
be learned from operating largemachinery designed to capture CO2 from power stations.
"Simple things like how to start it up, how to run it at different modes,
and howto close it down again. Simple things like that
we didn't have experience withbeforehand."
TCM is connected to
a nearby electric power plant. Mr. Amundsen says thecenter treats exhaust fumes from
the plant. It uses chemical solvents tocapture CO2 from those gases.
"The solvent attracts the CO2 molecules from
the exhaust gas and then wetake the chemical with the CO2 molecules and boil the
CO2 so to speak, sothat we can separate the CO2 from the solvent that we used and
we use thesolvent again to capture more CO2."

The goal is to capture 90 percent of the CO2 from the exhaust gases.
But Mr.Amundsen says the process is still costly.
"With the current state of technology it is something that
will increase the costof electricity between perhaps 30 to
40% when the technology is applied on apower plant."
Experts say the best way to store the captured gas is
to place it undergroundinto areas left empty after the removal of oil or natural gas.
But the Technology Center Mongstad does not pump the CO2
it capturesunderground. Instead, it releases the gas into the atmosphere.
Tore Amundsen says only highly developed industrial nations have the moneyto pay for
this kind of technology. So far, only Canada has
a power plant thatpumps CO2 gas underground. Other countries are building similar power
plants.
Im Jonathan Evans.

VOAs George Putic reported this story from Washington. Jonathan Evanswrote it
for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
______________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

excess n., an amount that is more than the usual or necessary amount
exhaust n., the gases produced by an engine
power plant n., a building or factory in which electricity is produced for alarge area
solvent n., a liquid that is used to break up another substance

The United States technological organization LockheedMartin says it

will produce a working fusion nuclearreactor within five years. Lockheed Martin says it may
have an operating prototype by 2017, and a versionfor sale by
2022. Fusion involves forcing togetheratomic nuclei.

But the Lockheed Martin announcement has met withdisbelief. Critics say nuclear fusion as
a power sourcethat can be sustained over time will not be developedanytime soon.
But they also say that once the processis ready, it will be as huge a development as
thediscovery of electricity. Whenever it arrives, nuclearfusion promises to be
the future source of cheap andsafe energy.
About 400 nuclear power plants operate in
the world. All create heat byfission dividing atoms of heavy, radioactive elements like ura
nium andplutonium. Such plants cost a lot to build.
But they also provide a huge amountof energy. Still, their highly radioactive fuel makes the
m dangerous.
There is also the problem of what to do with still dangerous spent, or used up,fuel. Also,
the fusion plants can be used for building nuclear weapons.
Fusion provides a much safer way to use nuclear power for creatingelectricity. But it
is much more difficult to do this process, which is theopposite of fission. Both the U.S.
and European Union have beenexperimenting with fusion reactors. They say they do not ex
pect them tooperate for many years.
David Ingram leads the Department of Physics and Astronomy at OhioUniversity.
He says a fusion reactor would be a welcome development.
Scientist Ingram says fusion reactors use isotopes of the lightest element,hydrogen.
He says they make a million times more energy than released fromburning coal.
Scientists also say there would be no danger of explosions, unlike todaysnuclear centers.
The researchers also say fusion reactors could not have acore meltdown, such as those tha
t happened at the Chernobyl andFukushima reactors.
Im Jonathan Evans.
VOAs George Putic wrote this report from Washington. Jeri Watson adaptedit
for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

prototype n. an original model on which something is patterned

sustain v. to provide what is needed for something or someone to exist,continue, etc.
radioactive adj. having or producing a powerful and dangerous form ofenergy called radi
ation
isotope n. any one of various forms in which the atoms of a chemicalelement can occur
fuse v. to join or become joined because of heat or a chemical reaction

Now its your turn to use these Words in This Story. In

the commentssection, write a sentence using one of these words and we
will providefeedback on your use of vocabulary and grammar.