Environmental Nakba
The Environmental Nakba
By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, Professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities
Article in proceedings of a conference on the status of the environment held by the Environmental Education Center in Bethlehem 17-19 December 2012
The political struggle for Palestine since the beginning of the Zionist project will soon be eclipsed (or intensified) by the devastating environmental challenges. We will review in this short paper these environmental challenges and especially focus on two reports recently released as examples of challenges to sustainability and long term stability of Palestine (people and nature). The two reports are: 1) a World Bank Report that describes dire consequences of Global warming in the Arab world (World Bank, 2012), and 2) a UN Country Report issued in 2012 titled "Gaza in 2020: A livable place?" I discuss challenges lying ahead that if not addressed immediately could lead to an environmental catastrophe (Nakba) in our area.
Palestine: land and people
Palestine is in the Western part of the Fertile Crescent, those lands that are rich in alluvial soils near river beds stretching from Egypt to Syria and Iraq. The geologic activities over the past 100 million years and especially the formation of the Great Rift Valley ensured varied rich tomography which resulted in a burst of speciation producing many endemic species of plants and animals. It was thus not surprising that this small country is biologically more diverse than some countries 10 times its size. Palestine also sits at the intersection of three continents and has a topography that is goes from
The mild weather, diverse fauna and flora, rich soils, and presence of wild seed species and certain animals in the Fertile Crescent stretching from Palestine to Iraq also allowed humans to go from hunter-gatherers to agricultural and nomadic shepherd life. The Fertile Crescent thus provided the first domesticated animals and plants (wheat, barley, lentils, goats, donkeys). This settlement ensured increase in human populations and development of civilization and religious beliefs among the local Netufian cultures. These settled communities developed a significant civilization along the Eastern Mediterranean called Canaanitic civilization. From these civilization and its primary language (Aramaic) evolved such alphabets as Syriac, Phoenician (later Latin), Arabic, and Hebrew. Local people lived in harmony with nature for millenia except for a few documented cases of overuse of the environment for example in Ain Ghazal in Jordan (Kahler-Rollefson and Rollefson, 1990).
However, the 19th century brought a dramatic shift in paradigms as age of empires ended and Europe evolved the concepts of ethnocentric nation states which was exported to the Middle East in the form of Zionism. The Zionist myth of a "Land without a People for a People without a Land" was used to justify the ensuing catastrophic environmental and population changes. Zionists proceeded to convince Jews to come to Palestine and also in the process drive the native Palestinians out. Thus over the past 100 years the process led to having nearly six million Jews in Palestine (most of them immigrants) while 7 million Palestinians are now refugees or displaced people. This created significant population pressure on the environment that would not have happened had the local people were allowed to develop on their own (the closest similarity would be Tunisia (as Lebanon and Jordan and Syria suffered from the conflicts created by Zionism and had significant input of Palestinian refugees).
Palestine is now divided and its political future uncertain. Since 1948 the new state of Israel ruled over 78% of historic Palestine and has attempted to create a Jewish state via the programmed ethnic cleansing of native people. Israel expanded these areas under its control in 1967 by occupying the remaining 22% of historic Palestine. The areas occupied in 1967 are now discussed as a potential location for a Palestinian state that would thus alleviate what the Zionist movement considers a demographic threat (the native Christian and Muslim population under Jewish rule). The political decision making process guided by ideology led to a number of environmentally damaging processes as we will see below.
Global warming
The world is now fully aware of the potentially devastating impact of human induced activities on climate change. Benefiting industries and countries that burn a lot of carbon into the air attempted to slow down work to stop the deterioration and at least moderate the human impact on our atmosphere. However, the scientific evidence was so compelling (see for example Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). International meetings were held and all serious scientists warned of the impending global challenge (see for example United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change http://unfccc.int ).
The impact of Global warming will not be even across the world. But also even when effects are similar in neighboring areas, the joint statement by world science academies warns that: "Developing nations that lack the infrastructure or resources to respond to the impacts of climate change will be particularly affected. It is clear that many of the world's poorest people are likely to suffer the most from climate change. Long-term global efforts to create a more healthy, prosperous and sustainable world may be severely hindered by changes in the climate." (World Science Academy Statement, 2005 http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf)
The impact on the Middle East will be more pronounced (Evans, 2009). The World Bank, which is known for its business friendly relations, issued an eye-opening report in November 2012 based on scientific data on the impact of human induced climate change on the Arab world. This study revealed unsustainable trends. Over the past 20 years, climate monitoring stations across the Arab world have already shown an increase in average annual temperature. But computer models predict that in the next two to three decades annual rainfall will decrease in our area by nearly 25% and average annual temperatures will climb by 4-5 degrees.
The World Bank study also shows that the gap between water need and renewable water resource availability will go from 16% to 51% by 2040-2050 in the Arab World. In the West Bank and Gaza current demand is 567 million cubic meters while supply is only 170 mcm (already a significant shortage). But by 2040-2050, the World Bank collected data show a demand of 1587 mcm while supply shrinking to 96 mcm!
The World Bank study also shows that population growth with limited resources and environmental capacity is most acute in places like Gaza and the West Bank. Total bio-capacity in the WB and Gaza was the lowest among Arab countries at 0.16 ha/person.
Gaza in 2020
The UN report alludes briefly to how the small strip of arid region in the Southwestern corner of Palestine came host so many Palestinians. Currently at over 1.6 million of whom over a million are refugees from the 1948 ethnic cleansing that created the state of Israel. The UN projects that by 2020 if the trends continue, Gaza population would have grown to 2.13 million and thus to 5835 people per square kilometers. One half of the population is children. Meanwhile the existing water aquifer will become unusable perhaps by 2016 while water demand would have grown to 260 million cubic meters by 2020. Some 60% of households are food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity in 2011. Currently some 33 million cubic meters of untreated or partially treated waste water is dumped to the Mediterranean Sea. The political siege imposed by the state of Israel adds to the economic and environmental challenges. For example Israel restricts fishing to 3 nautical miles even though the Oslo accords had a 20 nm designation.
Concluding Remarks
Palestine in historic times used to have an abundance of fauna and flora but many species especially the large mammals became extinct (see section on Conservation in Qumsiyeh, 1996). Many species today are threatened with extinction. The problems are compounded by impoverishing people, as happened due to the ethnic cleansing and squeezing many Palestinians in refugee camps or in people ware houses like Gaza and Bethlehem cantons. Poor people reproduce more than comfortable people and also tend to focus on survival and thus can cause more damage to their local environment (e.g. by cutting trees down for fuel). Further the colonial settler movement of Zionism wanted the natural resources reserved for the Jewish state and the resulting uneven distribution caused further environmental challenges. In this short paper, we did not even look at the Israeli use of depleted Uranium or chemical munitions like White Phosphorous. Nor did we look at effect of industrial colonial settlements on people and the environment. One of my graduate students found significant chromosomal breaks and DNA damage in Palestinian villages near the Barkan Israeli industrial settlement (Salfit district; Hamad and Qumsiyeh, 2013 in press). Emissions of damaging gases is high in our area and the global environmental change is also impacting us in a disproportionate way. Places like Gaza will become unlivable even sooner (see above).
Taken together, the data show that environmental and political issues in the Middle East are far more intertwined and that the environmental challenges even more pronounced than Western and even nearby Arab countries. Given the trends, an environmental catastrophe (Nakba) in historic Palestine (currently Israel and nearby areas) is all but guaranteed. Only a massive educational campaign and total change in political leadership in the region could begin to address these challenges.
References
Evans, Jason P., 2009. 21st century climate change in the Middle East. Climate Change, 92: 417-432.
Hammad, K. M, and M. B. Qumsiyeh, 2013. Genotoxic Effects of Israeli Industrial Pollutants on residents of Bruqeen Village (Salfit District, Palestine). Intl. J. Env. Studies, in press.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/main.html
Kahler-Rollefson, I. and Rollefson, G. 1990 The Impact of Neolithic Subsistence Strategies on the Environment: The Case of 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan. In S. Bottema et al. (eds.), Man's Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape: 3-14. Rotterdam: Balkema Press.
Qumsiyeh, M.B. Mammals of the Holy Land, Texas Tech Press, Lubbock, 1996.
UN Country Report, 2012. Gaza in 2020: A livable place? UN Publications, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/wgme/dv/2012/2012091/20120912_3_unscogaza_en.pdf
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change http://unfccc.int
World Science Academy Statement, 2005 http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf
World Bank, 2012. Adaptation to a changing climate in Arab countries: A Case for Adaptation Governance and Leadership in Building Climate Resilience (MENA Development Report), 16 November 2012, World Bank Publications, 368 pages. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2012/12/05/adaptation-to-a-changing-climate-change-in-arab-countries
Zohary, M., 1973. Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East. B. Fisher Verlag, Stuttgart, 739 pp.
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