The Sulaymaniyah Earthquake.

At 18:18 (GMT) yesterday (12/11/17) a 7.3 Magnitude earthquake struck along Iraq's border with Iraq. The 'quakes epicentre occurred at a shallow depth of just 12km (7 miles) around 30km (20 miles) south of the town of Halabja.

On March 16th 1988 (16/3/88) Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein attacked Halabja with a variety of chemical weapons including the nerve agents Sarin and VX. The attack was punishment against Iraq's Kurdish population who had sided with Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. The attack killed at least 3,200 people and injured at least 7,000.

Any discussion about the use of chemical weapons - of which there have been many of late - is not really complete without mention of Halabja. However at the time international reaction was remarkably muted. The US even denied that its ally Iraq had committed such an atrocity and instead tried to blame it on their enemy Iran.

The entire area around Halabja sits on the faultline between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. So earthquakes are not unheard of in the part of the World. However this is certainly the largest and possibly only earthquake I can remember and I've been heavily involved in this region for the past, nearly four years.

In the winter of 2013 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran Iraq's south-western Anbar Province. In the summer of 2014 ISIL overran the north-eastern Nineveh Plains area of Iraq including the city of Mosul.

ISIL are an apocalyptic group. They believe their actions will bring about the end of the World. They also believe that this apocalypse will be preceded by an increase in natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

In April 2015 the central Iraqi city of Tikrit was liberated from ISIL.

In February and June 2016 the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar Province were liberated from ISIL.

In July 2017 the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was liberated from ISIL. This included the liberation of the entire Nineveh Plains area around Mosul and the area between Mosul and Tikrit. Particularly Hawija.

Although ISIL are clearly on the verge of their final battle there is some concern they maintain some presence in the mountainous areas of Sulaymaniyah Province. However this has not yet been confirmed to the point the Iraqis can go and do something about it.

While this has been going on the Iraqi Kurdish Region unilaterally held a vote declaring itself to be an independent nation state. This has led to weeks of tension as Iraqi forces have gradually pushed the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga force back into the Iraqi Kurdish Region from positions they seized in the fight against ISIL.

Sulaymaniyah is part of that Iraqi Kurdish Region. In fact if you include the Iranian Kurdish Region this hasn't been a cross-border earthquake at all. It has simply occurred in the central/southern area of Kurdistan.

The liberation of positions on the Iraq/Syria border west of Mosul led to people talking about the possibility of Iran creating a land bridge through Iraq and Syria.

Yesterday's (12/11/17) earthquake does look as though someone is physically trying to tear Iraq and Iran apart. Although technically I think it was caused by Iraq and Iran being pushed closer together.

Shia-Muslim Iran's main regional rival is Sunni-Muslim Saudi Arabia. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman is currently trying to modernise his country. This includes plans to build nuclear power stations to move away from fossil fuels like oil. There is understandably concern the plans for nuclear powers stations is actually a cover to build nuclear weapons to be used against Iran.

The earthquake occurred at the mid-way point of the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNFCCC deals almost exclusively with Climate Change. However in order to understand Climate Change you also have to understand all other aspects of the natural environment.

Up until a few years many Climate Change deniers would point to the greenhouse gases (ghg's) released from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are tectonic events which are frequently accompanied by earthquakes. So in order to discuss tectonic events effect on Climate Change you must first understand earthquakes and volcanoes.

Within the business of the UNFCCC there is an area of work known as; "Adaptation." Although everything is interconnected this does not set out to address the causes of Climate Change. Instead it helps nations adapt to the natural disasters caused by Climate Change.

There is certainly no known link between Climate Change and earthquakes. However the natural disasters which are caused by Climate Change such as droughts and the associated famines are slow onset disasters. They take months and sometimes even years of ever so slight changes until their effects can be seen.

Earthquakes by contrast are swift and violent with their effects being seen instantly. As a result earthquakes are often used to highlight the stark difference between rich nation's ability to respond to natural disasters and poor nation's ability to respond.

For example if a 7.0 Magnitude earthquake strikes a rich nation like Japan all that will happen is the electricity and natural gas supply will cut out of around 10 minutes due to an automatic failsafe.  If a 7.0 Magnitude earthquake strikes a poor nation like Haiti suddenly you're talking about 100,000+ dead and millions being made homeless.

One of the things that reduces the impact of earthquakes is a strong regulatory environment. In short regulations are passed to make sure buildings can withstand most earthquakes. Inspections are carried out to make sure those regulations are being followed and violators are prosecuted.

The UNFCCC hopes to use this approach to combat Climate Change. If you're passing and enforcing regulations to make sure buildings can withstand earthquakes, floods and hurricanes its quite easy to also have regulations making sure buildings are as energy efficient as possible.

At past COP Summits there has been extensive discussion of whether nuclear power plants of the type Saudi Arabia intends to build can be considered; "Green Technology." In short whether UNFCCC funds can be used to pay to build nuclear power plants for poorer nations.

In the end it was decided they can't be. The main argument against is that nuclear power is so complicated and potentially so dangerous they only way to do it safely is by building up a deep base of scientific knowledge. That comes only from building your own nuclear power plants rather than importing them from abroad.

The nuclear power debate within the UNFCCC was ended by the 9.0 Magnitude earthquake which struck Japan on March 11th 2010 (11/3/10). Amongst other things this caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Even as possibly the most technologically advanced nation on Earth the Japanese only just got away with that.

COP23 occurs at something of a strange time for the UNFCCC. At the COP21 Summit in 2015 the Paris Agreement was signed. However this does not go into effect until 2020. So at COP23 everyone is really sitting around waiting for either the Paris Agreement to take effect or to be scrapped.

Although there is certainly enough work to justify holding the COP23 Summit things are nowhere near as intense as the were at say COP21. As a result there is a bit of free time to discuss topics that are only loosely related to combating Climate Change.

As a result I am finding it hard to focus on and find a focus within COP23. At the same time I have a clear focus in Iraq and Syria from which I can't seem to escape.

So while I very much disagree with the Paris Agreement and think it needs to be scrapped and replaced I am not boycotting COP23 in protest. It just that amid a very hectic time for me I physically cannot find a way to make it a priority.

The big news to come of COP23 is that the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has signed up to the Paris Agreement. This means that all nations have now signed up to the Paris Agreement although the US has since withdrawn from it.

Like the Paris Agreement itself Bashar al-Assad's decision to sign up to it has absolutely nothing to do with combating Climate Change. By accepting Syria as a party to the Paris Agreement the UN is being forced to confirm that the government of Bashar al-Assad is the government of Syria.

While not even I have been making it a priority the war in Syria and Iraq has actually had a negative and extremely widespread environmental impact.

The war in Syria started because Turkey wanted to seize the nation by force and run it as part of a new Ottoman Empire. However much like Climate Change deniers supporters of the war have come up with a series of often extremely outlandish alternative causes.

One of these is that between 2006 and 2011 Syria experienced one of the worst droughts in its history. The claim is that this drought raised food prices triggering popular protests against the government.

Although it isn't true in this case that scenario isn't that outlandish. The national anthem of France where the Paris Agreement was signed is full of lines about slitting the throats of the rich to use their blood to water the fields of the poor. That's because the French Revolution of 1789 was triggered by drought and food shortages.

One thing the war has done is dramatically changed landuse within Syria.

Done properly farming cares for the soil and cuts down of soil erosion. Since 2011 farming in Syria has all but stopped being replaced by people setting off bombs left, right and centre. Bombs are very bad for the soil. Describing a bomb crater as an example of soil erosion seems like the height of understatement.

On September 11th 2015 (11/9/15) there was a mass storm at Islam's holiest site - Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Amongst other things this killed 107 people and caused a construction crane to collapse onto one of Mecca's main Mosques.

At the time there was lots of legitimate discussion amongst environmental scientists over whether the increased soil erosion caused by the sectarian war between Muslims in Syria had caused the storm which damaged Mecca. 

In an effort to dominate at COP23 amongst other things Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has been putting on his version of the UK's "Paradise Papers." This centres around mass arrests on corruption allegations.

The arrested include the head of the Bin Laden construction company. Whose crane collapsed on Mecca on September 11th 2015 (11/9/15). They also include people involved in the official response to the severe flooding Saudi Arabia experienced in 2016.

With UNFCCC circles there has long been discussion about so-called; "Water Wars." In short Climate Change makes droughts worse. This causes nations to fight wars over dwindling water supplies or use control of those water supplies as a weapon against others.

In the Syria conflict that has started to happen. The main river is really the Euphrates River. This starts in Turkey and runs through Syria and Iraq into the Persian Gulf.

Over the winter of 2016/17 there were extremely heavy rains. This lead to concern the Tabqa Dam which forms Lake Assad out of the Euphrates in Syria could collapse under the weight of water. This concern forced the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to conduct an operation to take control of Tabqa Dam in March 2017.

Immediately after the SDF had taken control of the Tabqa Dam Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan closed dams further upstream in Turkey. The intention being to starve Tabqa Dam of water to prevent the SDF from using it to generate electricity. When this failed Erdogan opened the floodgates in an attempt to flood SDF controlled areas.

Following yesterday's earthquake there is concern about damage to a number of dams across Sulaymaniyah Province.

As a provider of renewable energy hydroelectric dams are always a big talking point at COP Summits. They currently produce about 40% of the World's electricity and the UNFCCC would like to increase that number.

The other big environmental impact of the conflict is oil.

Rather than being refined in formal refineries the war has forced people to refine oil by the crude process. This involves slowly boiling oil in basically a metal bathtub until it turns into gasoline. This releases huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water.

Also ISIL in particular burn oil wells and tires to create toxic smoke to hide their positions from aircraft. In the Battle of Mosul they set fire to a Sulphur mountain close to Qarrayah.

Then you've got all the toxic chemicals and heavy metals released by bomb damaged buildings. I think the reconstruction of Mosul alone is going to provide the UNFCCC with case studies for years to come.

18:20 on 13/11/17 (UK date).