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Juan Cole is one of my “must read’ columnists.  His expertise is the history and politics of the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Israel.  It is highly unusual for him to comment on the climate.

You can’t relate a one-off event like Israel’s massive forest fire near Haifa to climate change, which has to be measured over a long series. It is the worst in Israel’s history. But what is true is that more and more such disasters will be faced by those regions of the earth that become dessicated — as a result of changes in weather patterns caused by the rise of carbon dioxide parts per million in the atmosphere from 280 in the 18th century to 389 today.

Climate scientists have demonstrated a clear drying trend in the Mediterranean and other sub-tropical regions.

It is ironic that so much blood has been shed on who will possess that forest near Haifa, and Mother Nature just reminded us whose it really is: Hers.

ITN on how the blaze is still raging on the third day:

Juan Cole