How much longer can the Middle East withstand climate change?

Published May 6th, 2016 - 03:35 GMT
A camel wanders as an oil instillation looms in the distance in Saudi Arabia. While countries like Saudi Arabia are reliant on the sale of oil, this production contributes to harmful climate change that may make much of the region uninhabitable by 2100, writes Juan Cole. (AFP/Marwan Naamani)
A camel wanders as an oil instillation looms in the distance in Saudi Arabia. While countries like Saudi Arabia are reliant on the sale of oil, this production contributes to harmful climate change that may make much of the region uninhabitable by 2100, writes Juan Cole. (AFP/Marwan Naamani)

Will climate change make the Mideast uninhabitable? 

Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute and their scientific partners have found that even with just a 3.6 degree average rise in global temperatures, parts of the Middle East could become too hot to live in. 

Warming won’t be even around the world. Some places will warm more and faster than others. The Middle East is such a place. Summer temperatures are expected to increase twice as fast as the world average.

Continue reading on Informed Comment 

 

Iranian photographer Asghar Khamseh wins L'Iris d'Or Photographer of the Year  

Following a record-breaking 230,103 submissions to its ninth edition, the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards, World’s largest photography competition awards’ Honorary Judging Committee has selected Iranian photojournalist Asghar Khamseh as the recipient of its most coveted prize, the L’Iris d’Or Photographer of the Year and  $25,000 prize for powerful portraits of acid attack victims.

Chosen from the winners of the awards’ fourteen Professional categories, the winning work, ‘Fire of Hatred’, is a powerful portrait series tackling the social issues around the violent act of acid throwing.

Continue reading on Al Arte Magazine

 

Ghosts 

I remember having a crush on a girl in Damascus. It is one of those hopeless infatuations you have when you are still thirteen. It was the first time of many more to come that I would stay up all night thinking of somebody, wondering if she thought of me, reading into every gesture, every look, every word her lips pronounced. My mind's eye would replay our brief encounter, and think of all the things I could have or should have said. The days and months are measured by the number of mentions I'd hear of her name. When I left Syria, I was still young enough to dream of coming back to Damascus one day, of opening a computer shop, marrying her, and living happily ever after.
 
There is a smell to Damascus that I would recognise anywhere. It is a smell of old stone, earth, and humidity, with undertones of garbage. Even human bodies smell different there: a muskier scent mixed with the sourness of sweat. These are strange things to remember. The city has a lot of cats. I remember a yellow cat with one eye. A pigeon with a gnarled, stubby foot.
 
Continue reading on Maysaloon 

 

Tags:DamascusSonyGermany’s Max Planck InstituteHonorary Judging CommitteeIris d'OrAsghar Khamseh
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