Greece (Brussels Morning) – Extreme environmental phenomena worldwide, opacity and lack of integrity and trusting partnerships between national organizations. This is the situation that prevails despite the recommendations of the United Nations and the SDGs that states are committed to complying with.
Specifically, states are committed to making decisions about the environment, pollution, and intervention with restraint. To give space and funds for qualitative research and to turn to the strengthening of CSOs and international organizations.
Adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serves as a unified framework aimed at fostering peace and prosperity for people and the planet, both now and in the future. Central to this agenda are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent an urgent call for collective action by all nations, regardless of their development status, through a global partnership.
The goals emphasize that eradicating poverty and other forms of deprivation must be integrated with efforts to enhance health, education, and equality, stimulate economic growth, combat climate change, and safeguard oceans and forests.
Harv Eker stated,
How you do anything is how you do everything.
The famous saying is more relevant than ever when it comes to ethical governance, where sustainability may be the outcome, but the question is how we get there. Of course, if the North Pole were warmer and if the Sahara were a little more temperate, the situation would be a little better, but in Siberia it is not hot (what not) and in the Middle East it is not snowing. Or is it snowing?
Playing Mother Nature
It is understandable that some areas, especially in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula, would like to see the desert replaced by a temperate oak forest that maintains temperatures of up to 30 degrees. This would help the inhabitants, the biodiversity, and the economy of the region be upgraded according to global standards. But under no circumstances should we play apprentice wizards with the environment.
Unfortunately, the planet is not flat, and now the temperate Mediterranean climate, due to climate change, does not even exist in Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and other countries where every year the temperature is at 40 or more degrees.
For the first time in history, Saudi Arabia has witnessed snowfall, leaving the global community amazed at how such a typically hot region could experience this rare phenomenon following heavy rains and hail. The Al-Jawf region has transformed into an icy landscape, with its usually arid mountains and desert terrain now blanketed in snow. The snow-covered hills have captured widespread attention, with stunning photos circulating across social media. This extraordinary event has sparked discussions online, drawing attention to the impacts of climate change.
The question that arises is whether this intervention in the environment is normal and sustainable with respect to the wider environment and the global community.
UAE and Cloud-Seeding
In April 2024 we observed widespread rains and floods across the UAE where residents, international citizens and locals alike spoke of worldly events and devastation they had never experienced before. Phenomena and rain observed in South Asia suddenly “created” in the Middle East. International analysts spoke of failure in the Emirati weather interventions, while the world community was dazzled by the possibilities.
Cloud-seeding, a rain-enhancing technique that has been in use for over 60 years, involves introducing a harmless substance, silver iodide, into existing clouds. This substance provides a particle for water droplets to cluster around, enabling the formation of ice crystals. Interestingly, every snowflake begins in a similar way—dust or pollen particles in the atmosphere attract freezing water droplets, creating the intricate patterns we associate with snowflakes. The key distinction with cloud-seeding is that, instead of natural particles like dust or pollen, scientists release microscopic silver iodide particles into the clouds to serve as the nucleus for ice crystal formation.
When such intense and large-scale systems are forecasted, cloud seeding – which is a costly process – is not performed because [there is] no need to seed such strong systems of regional scale,
stated to BBC Prof Diana Francis, head of the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.
The question, however, is not what interventions we do when the extreme phenomena of snowfall or extended rain occur or are being prepared. It is the interventions that lead to these abnormal phenomena that concern us.
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