REUTERS/Andrew Burton
Audience members watch a model during the J. Mendel Spring/Summer 2013 show at New York Fashion Week, September 12, 2012.
Anne Barnard of The New York Times has published a stirring, dark piece about the free fall that is Syria after three years of relentless civil war.
One sentence will put in perspective for many: "Analysts say that 42 percent of all Syrians, more than New York City's population, have fled their homes."
More than 2.5 million Syrians have fled the country and another seven million are internally displaced in a country of 23 million. That's about 9.5 million people, compared to about 8.3 million New York City residents.
Al Jazeera created interactive maps that illustrate, accounting for population density, how this type of human exodus would fit into various parts of America. Here's New York City:
Al Jazeera
A growing number of Syrian refugees are children.
Barnard's next sentence drives the point home: "An equivalent catastrophe in the United States would mean 131 million Americans on the move."
In October, an independent Syrian adviser to aid told Barnard that Syria "will be reduced to the bottom of the development ladder, along with countries like Somalia and Yemen," the war continued for another year.
It's well on its way. And given that Syria is "now probably history's most-documented manmade disaster," as Barnard notes, turning away becoming less and less of an option.