An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American:Iran's capital has moved many times over the centuries, notes the report. "But this marks the first time the Iranian government has moved the capital because of an ecological catastrophe." Yet, Rubin says, "it would be a mistake to look at this only through the lens of climate change" and not factor in the water, land, and wastewater mismanagement and corruption that have made the crisis worse.Linda Shi, a social scientist and urban planner at Cornell University, says: "Climate change is not the thing that is causing it, but it is a convenient factor to blame in order to avoid taking responsibility" for poor political decisions.