“UNTIL the 1970s, Basra’s climate was like southern Europe’s,” recalls Shukri Al-Hassan, an ecology professor in the Iraqi port city. Basra, he remembers, had so many canals that Iraqis dubbed it the Venice of the Middle East. Its Shatt al-Arab river watered copious marshlands, and in the 1970s irrigated some 10m palms, whose dates were considered the world’s finest. But war, salty water seeping in from the sea because of upriver dams, and oil exploration which has pushed farmers off their land have taken their toll. Most of the wetlands and orchards are now desert. Iraq now averages a sand- or dust-storm once every three days. And this month Basra’s temperature reached 53.9ºC, a record beaten only by Kuwait and California’s Death Valley (and the latter figure is disputed). “Analysis of data suggests that since the 1970s the frequency of heat extremes has increased, while cool summer days and nights have decreased,” says Gemma Shepherd, who works for the UN’s Early Warning and Assessment Environment Programme in Nairobi.
Unlike other parts of the world where climate change has led to milder winters, in the Middle East it has...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2aInaK1
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