Judging from shared footage of flooded streets and rare snowfall in Beirut, one wouldn’t believe that this month is in fact the warmest December Lebanon has experienced in 140 years.
That’s according to Hadi Jaafar, an associate professor/researcher at the American University of Beirut (AUB), specialized in agriculture and irrigation engineering.
He says there will be no snow nor storms until next year. While 2021 is right around the corner, the change in weather is still concerning to Jaafar because it threatens the “strategic reserve of groundwater” in Lebanon.
As one can infer, groundwater is the natural freshwater from rainfall and melting snow that accumulates beneath the surface. It gets used as drinking water and in the irrigation of crops, among other uses.
The fact that December this year will be the warmest December in Lebanon in over 140 years validates concerns about climate change and global warming and its negative impact on the Earth and its population.
In 2018, the New York Times warned that the cedars of Lebanon, which have “outlived empires and survived modern wars,” are being threatened by climate change.
Unfortunately, there is still not enough awareness on climate change and the impacts of global warming in Lebanon.
Even environmentally conscious citizens cannot escape the use of diesel-powered backup generators, which emit harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, because of the country’s electricity crisis and years of poor planning as well as the waste of public funds.
