APN|Amman
17 June 2022
The scientific consultant of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), Hasan Al Jaajaa, was a guest of the news program “Al-Hassad Al-Ikhbari” of the Iraqi Al-Sharqiyyah Channel, on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, to talk about the effects of desertification and climate change.
He stated at the outset of his discussion that the problem in the subject of desertification is not country-specific but is rather the problem of the planet. He criticized the conduct towards water and the environment which supposes falsely that the present generations are the last on the planet earth.
Al Jaajaa pointed out that the planet earth loses around 10 million hectares of agricultural land, while the rate of desertification and soil degradation is between 30 to 35 fold of what it previously was. The alarm bell is ringing to indicate the perils facing life at the level of the planet.
Al Jaajaa stressed that concerns about the harshness of what is coming environmentally are well-founded. The figures are very shocking given that the tropical and rain forests considered the lung of the earth are declining due to the logging of international companies, and their replacement by pastures to produce meats that exceed our need only to increase profits. This is in addition to the side effects on the climate due to the use by the major industrial powers of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and otherwise.
The scientific consultant of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) alluded to the real powers in the world which guide global policies, which do not heed the interests of humanity. Actually, their internecine struggles pivot around the accumulation of capital and profits, irrespective of the impact on the planet earth. Al Jaajaa emphasized that we should be realistic in dealing with statistics and figures which bode ill for the future in case we do not all act together; given that we cannot separate the impact of any country (negatively or positively) on another; thus global warming affects us all, and the subject of the increase of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, global warming, the melting of ice in the north pole, and desertification are all phenomena which have had a noticeable effect, and constitute a danger to human life. We must act quick to mitigate them.