Compass – In recent years, the whole world, especially the Middle East and North Africa, has witnessed many contradictory climate changes, and the Arab region has emerged as the most threatened place by natural disasters and the rising temperatures that will be caused by the accelerating climate change year after year.

While the year 2021 came as the hottest year ever in the Middle East and North Africa region, some Arab countries are recently witnessing a distinct polar atmosphere that they have not witnessed for more than 3 decades, as the Arab region recorded record temperatures in the past days in light of the unprecedented wave of snow and storms that are ravaging In countries such as Syria and Palestine, as well as Egypt, Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia.

Despite the dominance of the phenomenon of climate change and the plans and standards for combating it on the agenda of the major global countries, which see in them a real threat that may end life on the surface of the earth and cause the extinction of humanity, the Arab citizen has stayed away from these global demonstrations calling for the enactment of strict laws to combat change. The climate and its destructive effects, and contented himself with reading some news that warn and warn, amid his preoccupation with challenges that may seem more urgent in light of the conflicts and political turmoil witnessed by most countries in the region.

Unprecedented frost

Following the closure of roads and airports in Turkey and Greece, the snow storm headed in recent days towards the Levant and Egypt, bringing with it an unprecedented frost wave that the region has not witnessed before, coinciding with the entry of a polar wave that hit the regions in northern Saudi Arabia, in addition to Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.

The polar depression, which began to intensify at the beginning of this week, resulted in the accumulation of snow in the countries of the Levant and northern Saudi Arabia, as well as the areas inhabited by refugees inside camps in Syria and Iraq, who mainly live in difficult living conditions that lack the basic necessities of life, as snow and frost exacerbated the tragedy of the displaced. Especially children, including those trapped inside the rickety tents.

While some meteorologists believe that the weather conditions in the region in recent days are familiar weather conditions that occur from time to time, others believe that they reflect a future that carries more extreme and out of the ordinary scenarios due to climate change resulting from global warming that our planet is witnessing.

The Arab world and climate change

The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry indicated in late 2019 that some regions in the Middle East and North Africa will see a rise in summer temperatures of about 4 degrees Celsius by 2050, even if international efforts succeed in reducing the average global temperature based on the signed Paris Agreement. year 2016.

Various climatic reports always confirm the same fact, which is that the regions of the Middle East and North Africa and their peoples will be most vulnerable to the real threats that will be caused by global warming, thanks to their mainly dry desert climate, in addition to that they will be more vulnerable to drowning because they are located on the coasts of the Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean and the Arabian Sea.

In addition to warnings of a rise in temperatures in the Middle East and North Africa to levels that will make life impossible, especially in the Arab Gulf states, the region will also be subject to severe droughts that will increase pressure on groundwater and thus negatively affect agriculture, not to mention floods. Which will flood the major cities and make them uninhabitable due to the rising water levels in the seas and oceans.

Global efforts to reduce the effects of global warming

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concluded its work in mid-November after all participating countries reached a new climate agreement called the “Glasgow Climate Pact” that will try to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. Exceeding 1.5 degrees, the scientists said, risks unleashing even more severe impacts of climate change on humans, wildlife and ecosystems.

In conjunction with the rise in the temperature of the planet to about 1.1 degrees Celsius than it was before the industrial revolution, the past year witnessed the heavy rains that flooded China and western Europe and caused hundreds of deaths, while hundreds of others were killed as a result of high temperatures in the northwest region of the ocean. The Pacific has reached record levels, in addition to drought, wildfires and the melting of huge masses of ice at the poles.

A report issued two days after the end of the COP26 talks warned that the 65 countries most vulnerable to the repercussions of climate change in the world, led by Sudan, will witness a drop in their GDP by 20% by 2050 and 64% by 2100 if the world temperature rises by 2.9 Celsius.

TRT Arabic