It’s Getting Hot In Here…

…so take of all your clothes!  OR NOT. I have seen a lot of talk on Twitter about the extreme warm weather of Beirut these past few weeks, and even heard Edde Sands is still open. Interesting. For someone living in Canada, this is excellent news! Winter on the beach, Christmas spent getting a tan… what more could I want? Picture it, Mediterranean, palm trees, sandy beaches, and and sun. Bliss.

Snow snow snow

@JennHaddad and others beg to differ, and with constant “Twitter Ja2ras“, I stopped talking about how happy the thought of a warm winter makes me, because it seems to be irritating them ( <3 ).  But now that I think of it… it should be irritating them. I guess it would irritate me if I spent an extremely hot summer waiting for a cool winter, and then find out it doesn’t look like it’s coming. I mean, I am not there right now, but is it true that Sannine is barren? Like actually NO snow? I don’t know… but I can’t say I don’t care.

It’s not only Twitter that seems to be buzzing about the heat in Beirut though. Many journalists, from around the Middle East have been talking about it as well. Picture this… the cedars that our flag bears so proudly, gone, dried out, all because of inadequate snowfall in the country. Being a mountainous country, Lebanon’s wildlife is extremely dependent on the cold weather, the snow, and other environmental characteristics associated with the high altitudes of the country. It is absolutely crucial.

Theres a couple of things you have to keep in mind when it comes to Lebanon and temperature change. The first is that Lebanon’s snowfall has a direct impact on the underground water levels, the replenishing of the rivers, and the third, possibly the most important, that 70% of the population is condensed onto the coast of the country. Now this is an important list of three things affected by snow. Really. We have a problem!

Our wildlife is in danger, our coastal cities are in no way prepared for rising water levels, our rivers and underground water supplies are in crucial danger of drying out, and not to mention it is said by 2040 that snowfall is supposed to drop by 40%. That’s a lot. Our lifeline in this country is snow, we heavily rely on it, and don’t forget Lebanon is known to be rich in water resources because of it. What’s there to be done?

Well here’s many things that can be done, but like most other things, we lack the initiative, the funding, and the support from governmental institutions. Sad hey? It’s one of the things I hope to work on in Lebanon. Look at the Kunhadi foundation, a bunch of students helped run it, and they did extremely well. Maybe we can do something about the pollution, the smog, and somehow create a future that mirrors our past. A water rich, snow-covered, and never-this-dry Lebanon. What do you guys think?

I don’t know… with Cairo being cooler than Lebanon these past few days, maybe we should accept a Lebanon that soon will be like Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Ugh.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40194906/ns/us_news-environment/