What are environmental problems in Middle East?

Rising temperatures and extended periods of drought, combined with growing populations, socioeconomic development, and urbanization, put further pressure on scarce water resources, posing serious threats to lives, livelihoods, biodiversity, economic stability, and human security.

What are two main environmental issues in the Middle East?

Environmental (In)Security in the Middle East

  • This is an excerpt from Regional Security in the Middle East: Sectors, Variables and Issues.
  • Water Scarcity – A Security Issue.
  • Water Distribution and Potential for Interstate Conflict.
  • Desertification, Pollution, and Health Degradation.

What is the environment like in the Middle East?

Many sections have a Mediterranean climate, featuring hot, dry summers and wet, mild winters. However the mountains of Iran and Iraq have severe winter conditions. Precipitation is generally quite low, with ranges between 350mm to 750 mm annually (UNESCO – EOLSS, n.d.). The area is known for being hot and arid.

How will climate change affect the Middle East?

Yet climate change threatens every country in the region. Aid groups have warned more than 12 million people in Iraq and Syria are losing access to water, food, and electricity because of rising temperatures and record low rainfall. Desertification is sweeping across the region in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Iran.

What are the main causes of pollution in the Middle East?

Along with traffic, other major sources of ambient (outdoor) air pollution include: industry, waste incineration, particularly in open areas in low- and middle-income countries, and the use of highly polluting coal, kerosene and biomass for heating and cooking in poor households.

What are the major environmental challenges that the global is currently facing?

Our planet and humankind face three unprecedented, mutually reinforcing challenges: climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the overuse of critical natural resources.

What are two environmental challenges that the Middle East is facing today how are these challenges being addressed?

Describe two environmental challenges that the Middle East is facing today. How are these challenges being addressed? The major environmental challenges facing the Middle East are; Water security, energy security, food scarcity, land degradation and desertification.

What is the geographical importance of the Middle East?

The Middle East serves as the connective tissue of the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. Located within this global crossroads lies some of the world’s most importance trade routes and military chokepoints, including the Suez Canal, the Turkish Straits, the Straits of Hormuz, and the Straits of Gibraltar.

What is one of the major conflicts in the Middle East?

Since 1945, the Middle East has been viewed as an area afflicted by conflict and confrontation (Sørli et al., 2005), with the most prominent of those conflicts being the Arab-Israeli wars, the Iran-Iraq War, and the First (1991) and Second (2003) Gulf Wars.

What are the causes of global environmental crisis?

It occurs largely as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels, emissions from agriculture and pastoralism, and land-use changes that accompany the destruction, clearance and burning of forests.