As the saying goes, third time is the charm:
Expert consensus grows on contribution of record high food prices to Middle East unrest
I have to say, the "status quo" media does come in handy some times. For example, one day "Scientific American jumps the shark," and another day they are cited prominently in a subhead to help make a point. Good heavens! Which is the true Scientific American? Anyway, it seems Romm is determined to play this card (my emphasis):
As unrest spread through the MidEast, it became increasingly obvious that higher food prices were playing a key triggering role.
I don't have time right now to plow through all of Romm's "expert" articles, so I'll just say what Nicholas Kristof says in his op-ed :
Today, we are all Egyptians!
That includes you, Joe, tangential climate change link and all. UPDATE: Charles Blow, in his weekly NYT column, writes:
It is impossible to know exactly which embers spark a revolution, but it's not so hard to measure the conditions that make a country prime for one.
Go have a look at the data.