Iraqi oil production (2000s AD)
In the 1500s AD, a global cooling period known as the Little Ice Age affected people all over the world, from the Navajo and Iroquois in North America to the French in Europe and the Mongols in Central Asia. West Asia was no exception. In the Ottoman Empire, after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, it was very cold and there was very little rain (a drought). There was not enough food to feed everybody. People blamed the government and fought the government in the Celali Rebellion.
The Little Ice Age ended in the 1800s, and the climate got warmer and wetter again.
Today, global warming caused by American and European use of oil and coal is also causing droughts in West Asia. There is not enough water to grow food for everyone, and there will be less and less water as time goes on. This is already encouraging wars like the civil war in Syria, and the Kurdish fight for independence.
