http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/25/world/africa/zimbabwe-elephant-poaching/index.html?iref=storysearch

The following article talks about the diminishing number of elephants in Africa due to their excessive poaching for their ivory. It states that the high global demand of ivory has given many poor poachers the incentive of entering the illegal trade for quick money. The largest demand for the ivory is in Asia were ivory is used as a medical remedy, and second is the United States with a close third being Europe.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/17/why-water-is-key-to-syria-conflict/?iref=storysearch

The following article is about the Syrian drought before the civil war. During the year 2008-9 Syria has suffered from one of the most severe drought of the region and requested help from other nations to resolve the water crisis. Although they requested help from the U.S. they weren't supported by the U.S. and were eventually only able to raise one quarter of the total funds from donor nations they wished to raise, in order to resolve the problem. Political analysts have claimed that if the U.S. had been more attentive about the immense scarcity of water in Syria, they could have avoided a large factor causing the civil unrest. The drought was a spark to light the civil war so to speak, and the U.S. could have saved thousands of lives with supporting Syria during their crisis and hopefully also avoided the civil war.