Got extremely bored today at work, so I thought to myself what better to do then to check out whats going on in terms of sustainable development in Syria!!! Ya' feel me ! interesting stuff.
So I went on google and searched "Syria Sustainable Development" and as usual the relevant stuff comes up...(?) I was surprised to see that there was a report on the sustainable development programme in Syria that was submitted to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. So I decided to read it. It was really enlightening. The environmental management and planning system they were proposing to implement is very similar to the system here in the UK to some respect. Until I hit this bombshell of a sentence:
"MSEA is assisted by a Consultative Technical Committee and nine Environmental Committees reflecting scrotal interests."
SCROTAL??!!! reallyyy? they have scrotal interests? Excuse me if I am mistaken but scrotal does not fit in that sentence at all! unless there is another meaning to that word (from what I know scrotal is basically describing something that has a scrotum... you should google it if you need more info that's as far as I go)
NINE committees reflecting scrotal interests! I think we have some serious scrotal issues in Syria that no one knew about.. we should all get our scrotals checked by those committees before its too late! haha..
This is the link to the report in pdf. click here if interested.
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Friday, 19 June 2009
Global warming sweeps Syrian countryside
DAMASCUS: Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted of their residents in 2007 and 2008 because of climate change, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development warns of potential armed conflict for control of water resources in the Middle East.
"The 2007/8 drought caused significant hardship in rural areas of Syria. In the northeast of the country, a reported 160 villages have been entirely abandoned and the inhabitants have had to move to urban areas," it said.
In Syria and also in Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, "climate change threatens to reduce the availability of scarce water resources, increase food insecurity, hinder economic growth and lead to large-scale population movements," the report said.
"This could hold serious implications for peace in the region," the Canada-based institute said.
The study, financed by Denmark, predicts a hotter, drier and less predictable climate in the Middle East, "already considered the world's most water-scarce and where, in many places, demand for water already outstrips supply."
Oli Brown, who co-wrote the report with Alec Crawford, said: "Climate change itself poses real security concerns to the region. It could lead to increased militarization of strategic natural resources, complicating peace agreements."
"Israel is already using climate change as an excuse to increase their control over the water resources in the region," he said.
The IISD said, however, that there is much that national governments and authorities, civil society and the international community can do to respond to climate change and the threats it may pose to regional peace and security.
"They can promote a culture of conservation in the region, help communities and countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster greater cooperation on their shared resources," the study said.
Brown and Crawford's report says climate change could affect farm productivity in Syria, where agriculture represents 23% of gross domestic product and employs 30 percent of the active population.
"Some 13% of agricultural land was downgraded between 1980 and 2006 because of ... urban expansion and agricultural, industrial and tourism activities," Fayez Asrafy, a desertification expert, told AFP.
"Rainfall shrank by 10 millimetres (a year) between 1956 and 2006 while temperatures rose by (an average) 0.5 degrees Celsius, though below the worldwide average of 0.6 degrees," Syrian meteorologist Khales Mawed said.
The IISD predicts even modest global warming would lead to a 30% drop in water in the Euphrates, which runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, while the Dead Sea would shrink in volume by 80 percent by the end of the century.
more on treehugger.com
The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development warns of potential armed conflict for control of water resources in the Middle East.
"The 2007/8 drought caused significant hardship in rural areas of Syria. In the northeast of the country, a reported 160 villages have been entirely abandoned and the inhabitants have had to move to urban areas," it said.
In Syria and also in Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, "climate change threatens to reduce the availability of scarce water resources, increase food insecurity, hinder economic growth and lead to large-scale population movements," the report said.
"This could hold serious implications for peace in the region," the Canada-based institute said.
The study, financed by Denmark, predicts a hotter, drier and less predictable climate in the Middle East, "already considered the world's most water-scarce and where, in many places, demand for water already outstrips supply."
Oli Brown, who co-wrote the report with Alec Crawford, said: "Climate change itself poses real security concerns to the region. It could lead to increased militarization of strategic natural resources, complicating peace agreements."
"Israel is already using climate change as an excuse to increase their control over the water resources in the region," he said.
The IISD said, however, that there is much that national governments and authorities, civil society and the international community can do to respond to climate change and the threats it may pose to regional peace and security.
"They can promote a culture of conservation in the region, help communities and countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster greater cooperation on their shared resources," the study said.
Brown and Crawford's report says climate change could affect farm productivity in Syria, where agriculture represents 23% of gross domestic product and employs 30 percent of the active population.
"Some 13% of agricultural land was downgraded between 1980 and 2006 because of ... urban expansion and agricultural, industrial and tourism activities," Fayez Asrafy, a desertification expert, told AFP.
"Rainfall shrank by 10 millimetres (a year) between 1956 and 2006 while temperatures rose by (an average) 0.5 degrees Celsius, though below the worldwide average of 0.6 degrees," Syrian meteorologist Khales Mawed said.
The IISD predicts even modest global warming would lead to a 30% drop in water in the Euphrates, which runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, while the Dead Sea would shrink in volume by 80 percent by the end of the century.
more on treehugger.com
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Sustainable Development
Well well well.. uhmm.. its been ages since I last wrote anything here, but here I am back again, I know people missed me and stuff but life is tough, deal with it!
Anyways, sustainability, something I stumbled on I believe it was during April of this year when I first saw the youtube video of the Masdar Initiative in Abu Dhabi which I posted earlier on this blog. Since then my interest only grew and I am currently doing a postgraduate degree in this miracle called sustainability! But I really do think that everyone in the middle east should know something about this, not only is this concept beneficial but it is extremely important as developed countries are taking the concepts of sustainability and applying it to each and every development, every policy and regulations placing sustainable development as the focal point in the future development of those countries.
As a muslim, I find some concepts of sustainable development very familiar to what Islam teaches, sadly enough we have not taken advantage of what we already know.
The definition that is most widely used for sustainable development (SD) is the one given by the Brundtland 'Our Common Future' Report which defines SD as "meeting the needs of the present generation without comprimising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" concentrating on three main aspects which are Environmental, Social and Economical development. I'm not going to go into details with this just wanted this to be an introduction to this wonderful series that I have also stumbled upon; the e2 series, a series which gives different examples from across the world of sustainable design of different developments. I hope everyone watches these videos and tell your friends to watch them too. Enjoy!
Anyways, sustainability, something I stumbled on I believe it was during April of this year when I first saw the youtube video of the Masdar Initiative in Abu Dhabi which I posted earlier on this blog. Since then my interest only grew and I am currently doing a postgraduate degree in this miracle called sustainability! But I really do think that everyone in the middle east should know something about this, not only is this concept beneficial but it is extremely important as developed countries are taking the concepts of sustainability and applying it to each and every development, every policy and regulations placing sustainable development as the focal point in the future development of those countries.
As a muslim, I find some concepts of sustainable development very familiar to what Islam teaches, sadly enough we have not taken advantage of what we already know.
The definition that is most widely used for sustainable development (SD) is the one given by the Brundtland 'Our Common Future' Report which defines SD as "meeting the needs of the present generation without comprimising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" concentrating on three main aspects which are Environmental, Social and Economical development. I'm not going to go into details with this just wanted this to be an introduction to this wonderful series that I have also stumbled upon; the e2 series, a series which gives different examples from across the world of sustainable design of different developments. I hope everyone watches these videos and tell your friends to watch them too. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)