Green Options » Middle East desertification http://greenoptions.com/tag/middle-east-desertification Posts tagged 'Middle East desertification' Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:19:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en War, Regional Drought & Electricity Shortages Exacerbate Iraq Environmental Catastrophe http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/02/war-regional-drought-electricity-shortages-exacerbate-iraq-environmental-catastrophe/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/02/war-regional-drought-electricity-shortages-exacerbate-iraq-environmental-catastrophe/#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:19:05 +0000 Susan Kraemer http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/02/war-regional-drought-electricity-shortages-exacerbate-iraq-environmental-catastrophe/

Iraq used to export food. This year it will be importing 80% of what gets eaten in a nation that was once the breadbasket of the Middle East.

The last two years of drought are exacerbating the effects of war and mismanagement; doubling the frequency of sand storms, killing trees and crops, drying up riverbeds and marshes and turning arable land into a desert wasteland.

Recently one of the worst sandstorms in living memory lasted an entire week, choking throats, clogging eyes and afflicting asthma sufferers in particular. But electricity problems might have even more far reaching effects.

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