Anyone with a passing interest in ancient history will have heard of Lake Urmiah as it appears on several important occasions in association with hordes from the Pontic steppe zone in Assyrian annalistic records over a long period of time. It was associated with Medes and Persians, the Subartu/Subarian barbarians, and even with an influx of Scythians, all them enemies of the Assyrian state. It seems to have constantly been favoured as an area of settlement by incoming pastoralist tribesmen, possibly as a result of rich pasture or a very fertile soil. However, in modern Iran such a situation appears to be far from the truth as it stands now. At http://phys.org/print397998406.html – the waters of Urmiah have begun to seriously evaporate – but who or what is to blame. Like a lot of issues, Climate Change is on to the problem and here we have an attempt to blame global warming for evaporation of the lake. It is also clear the level of water has receded for reasons associated with population numbers. The lake has actually receded by 80 per cent n volume over the last few deades,
Meanwhile, at http://phys.org/print398018442.html – we have Faith leaders that imply that we must devest in fossil fuels. One set of belief systems coming out in sympathy with another belief system. At http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2016/11/10/shes-back-la-nina-co… … but they know this already in Australia as they have had a lot rain over recent months. Will they make the same fuss if it gets colder as they did when it got warmer in 2015 as a result of El Nino.
For some sceptical balance to the views above go to http://notrickszone.com/2016/11/11/8-new-papers-reveal-natural-global-wa… … which may well be a bit of a red herring as we don't know what caused Heinrich events (or their Dryas companions) or the numerous Dansgaard Oeschger oscillations over the last 80,000 years. We really have no idea what caused temperatures to suddenly jump by 10 degrees on Greenland at the end of the Ice Age (Greenland could have been shunted away from closer to the North Pole for example or may have been enveloped in a near permanent cloudy situation or a debris filled atmosphere that was constantly being replenished). Anything is possible and this paper is really all smoke, mirrors and imagination.