2023-06-19 01:26:22
With the escalation of climate change challenges plaguing Iraq, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) published, on Saturday, a report entitled “In pictures, not numbers: what has climate change done in Iraq?” It includes a group of shocking images that document the enormity of the environmental deterioration experienced by Mesopotamia.
The photos came within the framework of a photography competition on the effects of climate change, organized by its mission in Iraq last year in cooperation with the Iraqi Red Crescent, in an attempt to re-shed light on the exacerbation of the threat of climate change on Mesopotamia, with the acceleration of warming, drought, water scarcity, desertification, and shrinking green spaces. .
A picture says a thousand words
According to experts, this initiative of the international organization sheds light on the necessity of documenting the repercussions of climate change and its effects through pictures and video clips, which can make a difference and define, in a tangible and direct manner, the seriousness of what is happening, as a picture speaks a thousand words, as it is said.
The organization considered that environmental degradation is a local, Iraqi and global issue, and that it is urgent to develop such awareness-raising initiatives to make this issue a permanent focus for research and discussion, in order to curb climate degradation and extremism and develop necessary and sustainable solutions and remedies.
The Iraqi environmental expert, Dr. Ramadan Hamza, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
* Documenting the repercussions of the climate change phenomenon through pictures is very important to show the extent of the environmental and climatic deterioration to the general public, so that this issue does not remain only in the corridors of the scientific and academic circles or the relevant ministries, which contributes to influencing more on the feelings, emotions and perception of the recipient by examining the extent of the damage that caught up with the environment around him, but nevertheless it may not necessarily express the entire scene, and it may not reflect the reality in all its details.
* The role of such initiatives is motivating and undoubtedly sheds light on the full picture of climate change, which is a global and existential problem that needs serious scientific treatment with tables, information, numbers, analyses, simulations and conclusions, and then the approval of solutions, but they remain symbolic initiatives that reveal the horror of the disaster only, and pressure to push the authorities and the population towards More awareness of the seriousness of the situation due to the ferocity of the phenomenon of climate change in Iraq.
* Solutions and treatments are primarily the responsibility of the concerned governments and ministries, in consultation and coordination with experts, specialists and international organizations. Water scarcity, drought and thirst in Mesopotamia, by encroaching on its shares and rights in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries.
* Climate change severely ravages Iraq, which is suffering from the sixth season of drought, and its consequences will extend for many years to affect various aspects of life, production and human activity, and result in intertwined and complex social, economic and security crises, especially in the most vulnerable and affected communities in rural and peripheral areas.
* It is very important to work on spreading environmental awareness more, and to inform the dangers and extent of the growing phenomena of climate extremism and its change, by organizing activities and initiatives that closely monitor the tense environmental reality in its details, and convey it to people, making it an issue of public opinion.
Shocking numbers and ratios
* Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate deterioration in the world, due to violent climatic phenomena such as high temperatures, insufficient and lack of rain, drought and water scarcity, and frequent sand and dust storms and floods.
* In 2013, for example, more than 300 sand storms blew over Iraq, while in the period between 1950 and 1990 the number of sand storms was less than 25 in one year only.
* 94% of the displaced in the southern governorates of Iraq cited water scarcity as a major reason for their displacement.
* In 2001, 90% of the marshes disappeared, and Iraq lost its biodiversity, and this was a reason for large-scale displacement.
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