Scientists and policymakers are increasing concerned about extreme weather and climate events. These include extended waves of abnormally hot or cold weather, unseasonal temperatures, changes in precipitation and wind patterns, along with more dramatic occurrences like unprecedented blizzards, cyclones sudden downpours, sudden floods and extended droughts.

Attempts to curtail climate-altering phenomena, which is known as mitigation, has been the focus of international protocols (Montreal, Kyoto) and gatherings (such as the failed Copenhagen Summit of late 2009). While the international community can claim modest achievements in some areas, for example, pacts that have led to a decrease in the use of ozone-reducing substances, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases has been far from encouraging. Accordingly, there is a second focus in the climate change literature, dealing with adaptation.

It is sobering then, that the focus of a special report entitled Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation released last week, by The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is not on how climate change can be forestalled. Rather, it deals with what societies will have to do to adapt to such change.

Established in 1988 by the United Nations Environmental Program and the World Meteorological Organization, the IPCC’s mandate is to assess “the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.”

At a time when significant progress is lacking in negotiations to reduce fossil fuel use and other causes of climate change, a shift in emphasis to adaptive strategies is a necessary one.

Implicit to adaptive strategies is the recognition that climate change has already begun, that its impact will be increasingly felt, and that even if mitigation practices are enacted and succeed, planetary systems have been altered.

As stated in the report, [a]nthropogenic climate change is projected to continue during this century and beyond. This conclusion is robust under a wide range of scenarios for future greenhouse gas emissions, including some that anticipate a reduction in emissions (p. 29).

Societies, to survive, will have to adopt economic, social, institutional, technological and cultural practices that are adaptive to these realities. There is recognition that to varying extents, these adaptations will be socially and economically transformative.

A Blueprint for Survival?
The IPCC report deals planning the kinds of supports that will be needed to cope with slowly evolving trends, as well as risk and disaster management for climate events. For example, dramatic sea level rise due to polar or glacial melting is unlikely to take place overnight; flash flooding due to torrential, out-of-season rains already has.

In planning for sea-level rise, delta regions and other low-lying areas should be protected with shore fortifications and drainage systems constructed over the medium-term. Concerning flooding, areas where adequate water runoff systems do not exist, for example shantytowns or spontaneous settlements, the provision of adequate sewage systems a short-run priority.

Determining whether short-, medium- or long-term preparations are needed is a function of the level of vulnerability (defined in economic, social and institutional terms) characteristic of the people, places and property existing in an at-risk area. Exposure describes the extent of damage that could be foreseen in an area due to “people; livelihoods; environmental services and resources; infrastructure; or economic, social, or cultural assets in places that could be adversely affected.”
The aim of adaptive strategies to climate change is to create infrastructures, technologies, economic instrumentalities, institutions and educational programs in place that will increase the resilience of peoples and their life-places. Current thinking largely equates resilience as being the product of sustainable development.

Internationally and in the Middle East
Aside from the country-specific apparatuses and programs that need to be established to deal with climate change phenomena, international cooperation will be essential. In an article I posted yesterday at The Times of Israel, “Israel and Its Neighbors Must Adapt to Climate Change – Together,” I discuss the necessity of international cooperation in contending with climate changes, especially with respect to the Middle East where resource scarcity and fragile ecosystems that straddle national borders are pervasive.

Whether in the form of economic assistance, joint infrastructure development, collaborative planning of shared ecosystems, or information sharing and technology transfer, state borders will be highly porous with respect to climate change. This is especially true since many countries, and sectors in virtually all societies, do not have the resources to contend with the kind of changes and the extent of change that is anticipated – particularly not intensive ones that take place without warning or preparation.

In an increasingly climactically unstable world, the rule of thumb will have to be the interdependence, rather than believing that any particular country can weather the trends alone.

A Report to Take Note of
Although the prestige of the IPCC was dealt a blow in January 2010 when it acknowledged that a mistake had been made in a paragraph of a 2007 report it had issued (an exceptional occurrence which was exploited by climate change deniers as a major component in their disinformation campaign (see my post, Climate Change Denial and the Climate of Fear), the IPCC is still regarded as the leading scientific body monitoring and modeling climate change. Its recommendations are taken as authoritative and are highly influential among environmental professionals.

Policy makers, environmentalists, socially-responsible corporations, institutions and ordinary citizens would do well to study the IPCC Special Report. It could serve as a blueprint for survival in times of the bad weather forecasted ahead.

Dr. Yosef Gotlieb, a contributor to Green Prophet, is a geographer and author, most recently, of Rise, A Novel of Contemporary Israel. His blog, Issues of the Day, appears at www.ysgotlieb.net.

Image of climate change from Shutterstock

The 52^nd Conference of the Israel Geographical Association conducted the last week of December at Tel Aviv University dealt with developments affecting Israel, the Middle East and the planet as a whole. Geography, a discipline that is multi-varied in the subjects it addresses, is deeply relevant to the issues that environmentalists find most compelling.

A particularly interesting – and worrying –presentation was made by Dr. Dror Avisar, head of the Hydrochemistry Lab in the Department of Geography and Human Environment at Tel Aviv University. The lab focuses on micro-contaminants in groundwater. Avisar’s presentation at the geography conference dealt with the impact of medicines remaining from human and animal use on Israel’s water stocks. This contamination is much more widespread, enduring and harmful than I was aware of.

For example, an estimated ninety percent of antibiotics consumed to combat or prevent disease is excreted back into the water supply. Additionally, discarded antibiotics and other drugs are  dumped (from hospitals or manufacturing facilities)  and return to the hydrological system.  Even sophisticated water treatment systems have difficulty filtering out these contaminants, which also include considerable amounts of painkillers, psychotropic medications and hormones.

These micro-contaminants present multiple problems. Their biodegradability takes longer than previously believed and the reactivity of their components is high.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria is already a concern for infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists. Similarly, the buildup of tolerance to pain meds and psychiatric ones could also conceivably be a consequence of the presence of these substances in water and the soils they irrigate or infiltrate.

So, too, the presence in water and soil of hormones and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, even in micro-doses to small to be screened, has already been linked to the premature onset of puberty in the early elementary school grades, loss of sperm count and motility, and an increased incidence of male breast cancer, and allergies has also been reported. Examples of affected settlements in Israel were presented by Avisar.

Changes in Israel’s Rural Space

Other presentations dealt with changes in Israel’s rural space. Among these are the spatial transformations of many kibbutzim, which have converted lands from agricultural or industrial purposes to expanded residential communities for nonmembers.

The latter are interested in commuting to work in urban areas from residences in rural space, where a higher quality of life and direct contact with the natural environment are priorities. Further studies on the impact these new ex-urban areas will have on such issues as environmental quality, the preservation of open spaces and Israeli society as a whole, will be needed.

Also pertaining to Israel’s rural sector,  which has been wracked by changes in the traditional support system that the authorities once provided to agricultural producers but which have been profoundly affected by the free market approach and generally dismissive policies of recent governments, was a paper by Giora Ben-Dror  dealing with the moshav.

The moshav, a cooperative (in contrast to the traditional kibbutz, a communal village), has been troubled by some of the same difficulties the kibbutz has faced since the 1990s. Interestingly, while its historical economy has been profoundly affected, many moshavim remain a social and spatial organization that continues to adapt to changing conditions.

The conference began with an internal debate among geographers concerning the increasing quantification of the social sciences, with measurement and statistical data, analysis and simulation being  placed at the service of planning and other professions. The “positivists’ are countered by other geographers, who believe the discipline should be focused on theory and social critique and historical, case and descriptive studies.

The truth is, that both camps in the geographical community have been coexisting for years, and the healthy debate is more academic than operational: Practitioners of both quantitative and qualitative approaches are alive in Israeli and international departments of geography and elsewhere and neither are in danger of perishing.

Dr. Yosef Gotlieb, a geographer, blogs at “Issues of the Day” on his website, www.ysgotlieb.net.  He is the author of Rise, A Novel of Contemporary Israel.

image via notionscapital

Both climate change and the repressive political culture that pervades the Middle East have roots in the state system and political culture of the region. The autocratic regimes of the Middle East – specifically Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Iran – came about as part of the successful efforts of the formerly imperial powers of Europe, chiefly Britain and France, to preserve their economic and political interests in the domains of North Africa and West Asia they once ruled.

A process that began in the nineteenth century, intensified in the post-World I period and then continued through the early 1970s enabled the departing imperial powers to carve the regions into states. Authority over these polities was conferred on indigenous elites whose regimes were propped up by royalties from the transfer of petroleum resources to the roaring fires of the industrial West through tidy arrangements with European and increasingly American corporations.

The insatiable appetite of industry for fossil fuels coupled with market-driven economic growth and rising consumerism in the countries of the “developed” North have been the main engine of carbon-based climate change. This engine has been powered by the petroleum resources of the Middle East whose political, economic and social configuration has been designed to serve the market economies.

From an environmental point of view the carbon-based foundation of the post-colonial state system has been catastrophic. The environment, however, has not been the only casualty of the system.

The Middle East State System and Repression

The process that began with the self-immolation of a vegetable vendor in Tunisia in December 2010 and that has passed through Benghazi, Tripoli, Cairo, Sana’a, Manama, Aleppo and Damascus demonstrates that the Middle East state system has been as cruel to the masses of the Middle East as it has been ruinous to the global environment.

The political economy that has led to climate change also created family estates (ex. the oil-rentier states of the Arabian Peninsula) and inherited dictatorships (ex. Syria) that brought unrivaled wealth to the ruling cliques while denying reasonable material conditions and livelihood to millions of the people they have lorded over.

Aside from the material deprivation, the elite state system of the Middle East has and continues to use police-state repression to maintain its control over its populations as seen in recent events wracking Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.

The system provides for the mutual support of the ruling elites, as witnessed by Saudi tanks assisting in the repression of Shiite demonstrators by the ruling minority Sunni regime of Bahrain.

Twenty-First Century Enlightenment

Twenty-first century enlightenment, the new spirit moving people to demand a better future and the opportunity to shape it is proving how much a shambles the post-colonial state system in the Middle East truly is. The mass uprisings have been spawned by the depravation of basic material needs, the disenfranchisement of both domestic and foreign labor, and the denial of fundamental human rights and civil liberties to the governed.

The arbitrary creation of post-colonial states in the Middle East has prevented Kurds, Berbers and other groups from exercising self-determination and cultural autonomy. However, as exemplified by the recent referendum in the southern Sudan leading to the independence of a new African state free from the domination of a fundamentalist, dictatorial center based in Khartoum, the peoples of the region are determined to dismantle the decrepit system that has controlled and exploited them.

It is ironic that Israel, which has suffered historically from the exclusivism of the Middle East elites who promoted the notion that the Jews are foreign to the region and undeserving of self-determination here, has still not acted to extend these rights to the Palestinians. As Israeli progressive forces mobilize to replace (through the ballot box) the current government with one whose vision for the future is based on progress and justice, assisting the Palestinians in realizing their national goals alongside Israel ranks among the highest issues on the agenda of Israel social Greens.

A Common Agenda

Just as environmental degradation knows no border, the Israeli social Green agenda and that of like-minded people in neighboring countries inevitably engenders regional cooperation, not conflict. The Israeli southernmost city, Eilat, is a stone throw from the great arid landmass of the Arabian Peninsula to the East and the Sinai desert to the south.

The Gulf of Eilat and the Gulf of Aqaba (Jordan) are one and the same body of water and what transpires there directly affects the populations of both cities and their countries. Many aspects of development should be jointly planned there.

Israel’s watershed and that of the future Palestinian state are intertwined and the Jordan and other rivers of the country, now dwindled to streams, have their sources in the tributaries of the Golan Heights, which is also the source of the nearly-depleted Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).

The Dead Sea, degraded by excessive mineral mining and badly planned tourist development affects Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Poor sewage treatment in the Palestinian territories as well as neglect in Israel threatens the drinking water aquifers of both nations.

As water throughout the Middle East becomes scarcer and imperils both potable stocks and economic activities it is likely that it, rather than political issues will be the major source of regional conflict in upcoming years. However, were the regional states to engage in cooperative planning of water use, jointly maintain quality and provide accessibility to all, those conflicts conceivably could be avoided.

Green Energy

With respect to energy, rather than increasing dependence on fossil fuels the vast arid lands that the people of the region share could be turned into solar estates for green energy production. Similarly, the production of wind and tidal energy installations on the Golan Height and along the Mediterranean could also significantly contribute to a sustainable energy future.

Cooperatively planned rehabilitation of the seriously endangered marine habitats along the eastern Mediterranean that run from Turkey in the north and along the coasts of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and northern Africa is an aim in itself. It also could serve to foster aquaculture development, which many sustainability experts believe must be a major source of food in the future.

Regional Cooperation for a Sustainable Future

There is no end to the good that could come from a future Middle East guided by a sustainable vision achieved though cross-border cooperation. Israeli technology enterprises, particularly those in green-tech fields could be a major fulcrum of a cooperative program.

Capital is not a scarce resource in the region and the great wealth that has accrued to the elites through the fueling of the global environmental crisis could be redirected to the common good. What remains in the royal treasuries and foreign bank accounts of the outgoing autocrats and the economic elites after their expenditures in such follies as Masdar City, Palm Islands, the Royal Mecca Clock (“Big Ben”) Tower project in Mecca, the desert ski slopes in Dubai and other environmental monstrosities, could be reallocated to help feed and green the Middle East.

As basic material resources grow scarcer owing to a lack of visionary policy, over-mining and ambient contamination, social Greens throughout the region should coordinate agendas to makes sure that it is cooperation and coexistence, not competition and hostility that form the guidelines of governance in our adjacent countries. This is the only ways that we can possibly deliver a future to coming generations. As global change begins to affect every sphere of life on the planet, this approach is the only alternative for a livable future.

Image via my inner voice

The autocratic rule now being challenged in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East has its roots in the state system that developed in the region during the twentieth century. This system is based on a political economy that was created largely to expediently transfer resources – principally fossil fuels – from the region to the industrializing world. It is a system that not only oppresses the populations of the states that were formed but that has had a pivotal role in generating climate change.

Egypt’s woes start with cotton
Child labor for cotton, in Egypt. image via the Guardian

This state system in today’s Middle East derives from the European imperial enterprise in the region which had as its objective the acquisition of natural resources — at first cotton and later oil — and strategic assets, including waterways and territorial footholds in Asia and Africa.

These resources and assets would serve both economic and geopolitical objectives that were an integral part of industrialization and European and North American economic expansion from the late eighteenth century onward.

Cotton from the Nile basin would provide much of the raw material needed for English mills during the early years of the Industrial Revolution. Further trade and cultural ties led to an expanding European political and military presence in the region. Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Germany vied for influence and power in the Middle East, which had been ruled for centuries by the Ottoman Empire. By the early twentieth century, rivalries between the European powers gave rise to World War I.

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire as a result of the War, British and French and Italian possessions and spheres of influence in the Middle East enabled these powers to create polities and install ruling elites where none had previously existed to further their economic and other strategic interests.

In the British sphere, sheikdoms, kingdoms and emirates were created in Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Arabia, the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates), Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan and Kuwait. In the French sphere parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon were also allocated to ruling elites whose interests coincided with those of the European powers. Libya was created out of Italian holdings.

The Oil Factor

As a result of the growing industrialization in the West and the need for oil to power it, the Middle East became increasingly important as a source of fossil fuels. With the rise of Arab, Persian and other nationalist opposition to direct rule and colonialism in the first half of the 20th century, alternative forms of control were devised that would grant nominal independence to the inhabitants of the region while insuring the flow of cheap petroleum to the West.

The Western powers entered into a series of mandates, treaties of protection and other agreements with local strongmen and elites. These included tribal, religious and ethnic leaders – the Hashemites (Palestine, Jordan, Iraq), the Saudis (Saudi Arabia), the al-Khalifas (Bahrain), the Abu Saids (Oman), the al-Thanis (Qatar), the al-Sabahs (Kuwait), the Pahlavis (Iran) – as well as economic elites such as the Maronites in Lebanon and military strongmen as in Syria and Egypt to create an array of states – emirates, kingdoms and autocratic republics.

The polities that emerged often lacked any historical continuity or geographical integrity, nor did they conform to social, cultural or linguistic realities. Some ethno-national groups such as the Kurds whose country, Kurdistan, was a distinct socio-cultural entity throughout history were divided by the borders of five newly created states (Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and the former Soviet Union).

No less absurd, a country called Iraq was created out of a mélange of Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shiite Persian regions.

So, too, the gargantuan country known as Sudan was carved out of a predominantly Arab region in the north onto which an African south was grafted solely so that Britain could have access to the Nile, the rich cotton and other crop lands along it and ultimately the petroleum fields of the South.

Religious and social currents were manipulated and legitimizing creeds created to justify the ascent to power of the various newly-installed elites and their treasuries were infused with royalties paid to them from the petroleum bounty – revenues derived from the sale of black gold, petroleum that was increasingly coveted by the West.

Fossil Fuels for the North

The new elites installed in the Middle East enjoyed European and American (and in the Syrian, Egyptian and the former Yemen Democratic Republic cases, Soviet) patronage and were partnered with Western petroleum companies – Shell (formerly Royal Shell, a mixed Dutch-British concern), British Petroleum (BP) formerly Anglo-Persian), and the American firms Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Standard of California and Standard of New Jersey.

These and other companies employed a particularly insidious business model that guaranteed exorbitant profits to European and American shareholders and declining revenues to the treasuries of the newly created states. Nationalists and intellectuals contested this system of resource transfer which essentially subsidized the wealthy economies without benefit accruing to the peoples of the region; cycles of unrest, cooptation, and repression ensued.

Only the rulers of these countries, the elites that had been installed by the western government gained from the arrangement. This has led to an enduring anti-Western sensibility among large numbers of inhabitants along with distrust and contempt for the ruling elites.

A Culture of Repression

The dominant political culture in the Middle East over the past six decades has been characterized by authoritarian government, anti-democratic repression, human rights violations, the absence of civil liberties and economic exploitation of masses of citizens and disenfranchised foreign workers.

Tens of millions of people throughout northern Africa, west Asia and the Arabian Peninsula no longer acquiesce to passive acceptance of an inherently unjust system. These people are now demanding to be heard and they are insisting on a fair piece of the future.

As Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon – and, one can assume the rest of the region, sooner or later — contend with shifting tides of disaffection on the part of citizens who are unwilling to be objects of abuse and exploitation, a new era is beginning in the region. Not only is justice potentially in the offing for tens of millions of people, but the system that brought climate change – cheap fossil fuels and hyper-capitalization – is tottering.

This in no way guarantees that alternative energy sources and sustainable economic systems will become dominant tomorrow. However, with these new winds of change it is possible that a key link in the world’s carbon addiction may come undone: The new Middle East might be driven by rulers whose interests are less interested in amassing personal wealth based on oil riches and more on providing for the basic needs of their people.

Read more environment news on Egypt:
Egyptian Energy Crisis Sends Protestors To The Streets
In the Face of “Nile-lessness” Egyptians Protest Water Shortage
What Egyptian Regime Change May Mean for Regional Energy Cooperation
Egypt To Grab Sudanese Land To Meet Its Wheat Needs
21st Century Egypt Powers Two Villages Entirely With Solar Power
Egypt in Top 22 Nations for Renewable Investment Potential

The inherent connection between development and environmental concerns was a major theme of the 2010 Rehovot Conference organized by the Weitz Center for Development Studies (WCDS). The conference on “Inclusive Sustainable Development Initiatives,” took place between Dec. 5-7 at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University in Rehovot. The conference brought participants from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and Europe for a biennial conclave sponsored by the WCDS. For many of the participants, this was an alumni gathering since a significant number were among the 4000 students from more than 80 countries who have studied in the Center’s programs since 1963.

The Rehovot Conference offered an opportunity for the in depth discussion of issues involved in poverty alleviation, socioeconomic change, planning and  environmental welfare. The consensus among these participants is that it is impossible to speak of development without addressing environmental degradation and global change.

Biospheres

Among the sessions I attended was one on Ecosystems and Human Well-Being. A presentation given by Prof. James Kennedy and Alexandria Poole of the University of North Texas reported on the The Omora Ethnobotanical Park, a sub-arctic territory in the southernmost Chile that is a part of UNESCO Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

The Omora Ethnobiological Park aims to maintain the biocultural integrity of this region. It is home to indigenous peoples, among them the Yagan, Chilean military families and the descendants of the British settlers who colonized the region.

It is located in Magellan Chile, the area that figured prominently in the work of Charles Darwin and has one of the world’s richest concentration of nonvascular plants (ex. mosses, lichen).

Megiddo Biosphere Region: Citizens Initiative

I was particularly impressed by the presentation made by Yoel Siegel and Hadas Bashan on the Megiddo Biosphere Region, an attempt at  bottom-up regional development in Israel’s rural heartland.

The area involved falls roughly between Afula, Yokneaam, Binyamina and Givat Oz in the Jezreel Valley and adjacent lands. It has a population base of ten thousand residents residing in kibbutzim and moshavim. Ninety-six percent of its 10,000 dunams  (1000 hectares) consists of forests, groves and open spaces and has an abundance of biodiversity. It is the site of Tel Megiddo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The local population of the Megiddo regional council is expected to expand significantly in coming years. Given its prime location between Tel Aviv and Haifa, the region is targeted by real estate developers for construction.

What is remarkable about the initiative to transform Megiddo into an authorized biosphere region and thus a protected area is the high level of citizen participation in the planning process.

The volunteers have created work groups dealing with infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, economic development, community development and management of the proposed biosphere. Challenging the prevailing winds that have diminished the strength of Israel’s rural cooperative settlements, the project aims at increasing income levels and stemming rural out-migration in a manner that preserves the ecological wealth of the region. Plans are proceeding to have the area recognized as part of the UN biosphere program.

I left the presentation feeling that the Megiddo project is one of the most exciting and promising social and environmental endeavors in Israel today.

Local and Regional Development

A particularly strong session on local and regional development was chaired by Yitzhak Abt, an agricultural specialist who is one of the most veteran movers in Israel’s international cooperation programs (which are facilitated by MASHAV,  a division of the Israel Foreign Ministry and one of the Rehovot Conference’s sponsors).

As someone who has worked in Israel’s development cooperation activities as an instructor, planner and researcher (at the Weitz Center, formerly the Development Study Center), I was moved by the praise conferred on the Rehovot Approach by Krishna Bahdur Kunwar of Nepal’s Three S Foundation. Mr. Kunwar, a former student at the Center has promoted the interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral (agriculture, industry and services) model of integrated regional development advanced by Prof. Raanan Weitz, the Rehovot Center’s founder. The approach has been applied in the field in rural areas of Nepal and is taught at the country’s Tribhuvan University.

Rehovot Approach Applied to Europe

Remarkably, the Rehovot Approach has been deemed as relevant to the “developed” world as well as developing ones. Dr. Stefaano Nonfra of the Oxford Sustainable Development Enterprise and a former student of Prof. Weitz and Prof. Massimo Ruggero of the Universita degli Studi di Genova discussed the application of the Rehovot Approach to information systems for development in the European Community.

I assisted Prof. Weitz in preparing his book New Roads to Development in the mid-1980s and suspect that he would have been enthralled to hear how highly valued his theory is to development practitioners around the world.

Arava Institute’s Life Cycle Approach

Shira Kronich of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies presented a project in capacity building and technology transfer undertaken by its staff. Accompanied by Dr. Shmuel Brenner and Dr. Clive Lipchin of the Institute, Ms. Kronich described the Life Cycle Approach to rural development advocated by the Institute.

She discussed a case involving  the introduction of appropriate water and energy technologies formulated in Israel in a pilot project taking place in an arid region of Kenya. The approach is a sophisticated and relevant one and the presentation received the rapt attention of those present.

No Environmental Progress without Poverty Alleviation

A paper that sent a powerful message  to the participants was given by Leonard Mulongo, Patrick Kerre and Jacqueline Oseko of Kenya’s Moi University. In his presentation entitled “The Environmental Cost of Poverty to Society, The Kenyan Experience” the speaker passionately argued that environmental degradation will continue to occur in the presence of entrenched poverty.

Given dire hunger and want, rural peoples cannot attend to long-term goals of environmental protection (for example sustainable forestry) when resources at hand are required to fulfill the most rudimentary needs.

This message, of the inextricability of poverty alleviation as an imperative for environmental welfare should be present in the minds of policy makers and activists interested in a sustainable future.

I  visited Avdat this August on one of the hottest days of the year when temperatures soared well above 40 degrees. Then, atop the ruins of the ancient settlement astride the Spice Route in the Negev Highlands it was difficult to understand how a community – at its peak 12,000 people – could sustain itself on the desert mount.

Visiting the site  again in early November as part of the recent Drylands, Deserts and Desertification conference sponsored by Ben-Gurion University’s Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, the key to how Nabatean, Roman and Byzantine societies survived under the spartan conditions at this UNESCO World Heritage Site became apparent: the application of indigenous knowledge, ancient wisdom that, enabled settlers to cultivate crops and herd small flocks using ingenious technologies adapted to harsh conditions.

Insight into how three civilizations maintained a community in the middle of the desert was offered by veteran desert guide Arthur du Mosch and by Blaustein Institutes professors Pedro Berliner and Hendrik Bruins.

Prof. Bruins (pictured below), a member of the Institute’s Man in the Desert department has uncovered archeological evidence — bones found at a meter depth — that when carbon dated indicates that the desert agriculture was practiced at Avdat even before the Nabateans arrived in the area.

His research suggest that rudimentary farming was undertaken as early as seven thousand years ago, in the late Neolithic period and that local pastoralists engaged in run-off agriculture including the use of fertilizers much earlier than previous believed.

Rainfall under 100 milliliters per year

The early Negev agriculturalists had created terraces to capture the runoff of the rare rains falling in this area -less than 100 milliliters annually – in quantities sufficient to create crop yields with enough surplus to be stored. Storage of water was achieved in cisterns that ancient stoneworkers had cut into boulders. They also created silos out of stone that were used to keep grains, grapes and other crops.

The Nabateans, nomads who originated in the Arabian peninsula first settled at Avdat in the first century before the Common Era. The Nabateans dedicated the settlement in honor of their king-diety, Obodas who then reigned at the heart of the Nabatean civilization at Petra, in today’s Jordan.

The Nabateans were guides and traders with ties to commercial outposts in India, Africa and throughout Arabia where they dealt in perfumes and spices. According to guide du Mosch they traversed the desert in camel trains consisting of 400-800 camels per caravan with each animal carrying a fortune in spices 25-30 kilometers per day on journeys lasting between 40 to 60 days. Their routes passed through Damascus, proceeded to Mecca, onward to Petra, then to Avdat and onto Gaza where their wares were shipped to markets in Europe.

Knowledge of desert conditions

What enabled the Nabateans to prosper in the stark arid conditions was their knowledge of topography, water sources and the biology of their main technology, the camels. So well calibrated was their knowledge of conditions and resource use that they were able to cultivate grains, grapes, chickpeas, olives, lemon and pistachios and even produce wines coveted across the Mediterranean.

Hadrian, the Roman emperor consolidated Avdat into the empire in 106 CE and it became a military outpost attached to a reduced settlement; its Nabatean origins were eclipsed. The Roman influence on the architecture on the mount is found even in its ruins where arches, courtyards, altars and pillars once stood. Wine culture peaked at that time. An earthquake heavily damaged Avdat in the fourth century but the settlement was revived by the Byzantines in the sixth century. Remainders of the Christianization of the site is evidence by several churches consecrated in the area where Roman pagan rituals were carried out on alters in porticos on the mountain peak.

An intimate knowledge of place

In its urban functions the residents practiced strict hygiene in all  public places and violation of sanitation laws resulted in fines and even expulsion. Water in cisterns and jugs was guarded against infestation and plazas, alleyways, roofs were scrupulously maintained.

The skillful husbandry of scarce resources was a major reason that settlement could endure at Avdat. What is striking is that a high level of self-sufficiency existed under grueling arid conditions in an area where buildings were destroyed several times by earthquakes.

Prof. Berliner, the Blaustein Institute’s current director  stressed the ingenuity of the various settlers who inhabited Avdat. Their knowledge of the local hydrology, morphology, vegetation and soil physics was particularly astute. The central Negev receives its rainfall  in heavy, sudden downpours known as convective rains. Most of this quantity is immediately evaporated by the desert heat. The intensity of the rain is such that the local soil is compositionally unable to absorb the quantity that falls, which results in runoff.  The limited amount of rain that is held by the soil is contained by a thin crust that holds enough water to sustain certain vegetation. The rest, the runoff, must be “harvested” and held in terraces cut into the sides and on the floors of the neighboring wadis.

The past has keys to the future

What Prof. Berliner communicated to the crowd of desert and drylands specialists from around the world who participated at the BGU conference was that the Avdat agriculturalists had figured out how much water the soils could hold and realized that if they captured the surplus runoff in terraces and small dams on the desert floor and slopes, they could cultivate crops, feed herds of small animals and live comfortably in stone desert dwellings.

At a time when identifying sustainable practices will be needed to deal with dwindling and degraded resources stocks, Prof. Berliner’s message that “the past has keys to the future,” bears ample retelling.

Photos by the author Dr. Yosef Gotlieb

Dire predictions, and new approaches, described the tenor of presentations made during the opening day of the Drylands, Deserts and Desertification Conference last week held at the Sde Boker campus of Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

The conclave, the third annual international conference organized by the University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in cooperation with UNESCO was devoted to the theme “The Route to Restoration.” Organized by BGU professor Alon Tal, a leading environmental figure in Israel, over five hundred participants from fifty countries were expected to have participated at the four-day conference. The theme of restoration was presented at the very start of the meeting where the plenary lecture was given by Professor Michael Rosenzweig of the University of Arizona (Tuscon).

Speaking on the subject of ecological restoration in the drylands, evolutionary biologist Prof. Rosenzwei began his talk by citing the unprecedented peril posed by the biodiversity crisis.

He stated that the crisis “is much, much greater than recognized by the international community.”

Prof. Michael Rosenzweig (below right) differs with a major school of ecology that advocates the closing off from human activity of  territories that are particular rich in biodiversity. These areas include approximately thirty ecological “hot spots” around the world.

Hot spots, which together cover just over two percent of the earth’s land mass are characterized by such a great endowment of biomass that by protecting them upward of fifty percent of all plant species and 34 percent of vertebrate animals species could be safeguarded (see Conservation International’s  Biodiversity Hot Spots).

The biodiversity crisis is characterized by species loss including extinction due to habitat destruction. It is now estimated that a species becomes extinct every twenty minutes and that a large proportion of bird and mammal species will become extinct in the next 200-300 years as a result of climate change and habitat loss deriving from deforestation, the reef crisis and other forms of environmental degradation.

While the elimination of species is a natural part of evolution, the current rate of extinction is believed to be 100-1000 times greater than expected, a situation that qualifies the current reality as an age of mass extinctions.

At risk is not only the number of species but the diversity of genetic characteristics that survive (see Levin and Levin,  American Scientist The Real Biodiversity Crisis).

A further concern that has been less clearly established is that the rate of speciation, the process by which new species arise, may also be in decline.

Reconciliation Ecology

Rather than closing off hot spots and other ecologically vulnerable areas from human activity, Prof. Rosenzweig advocates another approach, reconciliation ecology which he pioneered in such books as Win-Win Ecology and in the journal Evolutionary Ecology Research.

Essentially, reconciliation ecology posits that it is possible to protect  biodiversity in areas of human occupancy if the economic activities undertaken foster rather than harm diverse species. Areas where species loss and other damage to flora and fauna has taken place can actually be revived by carefully controlled regimes that enhance and promote the regeneration of biological stocks and species restoration.

Reconciliation ecology envisions designing “ways we use the land for living, for profit, for recreation and for producing our food, fuel, fiber, minerals and building materials,” in a manner that “supports many other species. Sharing our land and having it, too,”  as described by the Alliance for Reconciliation Ecology.

Living Laboratory

Michael Rosenzweig and his group have a living laboratory at Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona. The site has been home to successive settlements including a village established there some 2300 years ago. Today it is a recreational site for hiking and its unique ecosystem is maintained as a nature reserve by a partnership of  the University of Arizona and the Pima County. Activities for adults, students and school children ranging from astronomical observation, instruction in soil science and topology, cactus cultivation and surveying plant species take place at Tumamoc Hill.

At Tumamoc reconciliation ecology the approach is applied. It  entails inventorying existing species and establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity. This is done in a way that integrates, rather than excludes human occupancy and activity.

Nest Towers in Portugal, A Salt Marsh in Eilat

Prof. Rosenzweig also described a case he is familiar with in Castro Verde, Portugal where the restoration of a dwindling bird population, kestrels (a type of small falcon) was revived through the invigoration of agriculture in the region. Emphasis was placed on cultivating crops that the birds could use as food. Nest towers were erected to  provide new homes for the birds whose original arboreal nesting grounds had been denuded. The agricultural restoration countered pervasive soil erosion in the area by ninety percent and increased yields in the region by a factor of fifty.

Prof. Rosenzweig also cited the case of the International Birding and Research Centre where a salt marsh was established by ornithologists Dr. Reuven Yosef on a garbage dump in northern Eilat.

The natural marsh, used by migratory birds flying the air lane between Europe and southern Africa and that passes directly over Israel provides ecological service (a rest area and food source) to an estimated half a billion to one billion birds representing 230 species each year.

After the original salt marsh was destroyed in order to make way for hotels and other infrastructure for Eilat’s tourist industry, Dr. Yosef created  a new ecosystem by involving volunteers from all over the world,  including a program conducted in cooperation with the Earthwatch Institute (for further reading see An Oasis Builder In A Land Of Strife).

The creation of the new habitat in the midst of a densely populated urban center fostered new sets of flora and fauna in a system that is scientifically designed and maintained. It has enabled the great avian migration to continue over Israel. The wellbeing of this migration has myriad ecological implications throughout three continents.

The  Tumamac, Castro Verde and Eilat cases offer a new view to ecological restoration. Rather than leading to the closure of the regions from human settlement it promotes creating an optimal relationship between people and the natural involving adaptive practices that, aside from enhancing biodiversity serve to create employment opportunities and increase incomes in marginal areas. The approach is to reconcile human activity with the maintenance and enhancement of new habitats or the restoration of diminished ones.

Photo by Wolfgang Motzafi-Haller courtesy Ben-Gurion University.

In his comments on Israel’s invitation join to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last May, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu stated: “The more we continue to free up Israel’s economy, and the more we continue to remove barriers to competition, the more Israel’s economy will thrive and the more the people of Israel will prosper.…”

A government report published on Sunday suggests differently: Statistics from the report by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), indicate that large swaths of Israel’s population have been left behind by the Likud’s liberal economic program (Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel). Class division has increased, the number of people living under the poverty level is rising and Israel’s compares most unfavorably to European standards of socioeconomic welfare.

Elderly and children at risk

According to the CBS report, 29 percent of the Israeli population is in danger of falling under the poverty line compared to 17 percent in the European Union. In Israel, 38 percent of children and 33 percent of the elderly are at risk of impoverishment  compared to 19 and 20 percent of Europeans in these categories.  Poverty according to the standard used in the EU is found  in households which have less than sixty percent of the median disposable per capita income characteristic of the society.

The report indicates that in 2008 the average net income of the wealthiest twenty percent of Israel’s population was 7.5 times more than the average for the lowest twenty percent; in 2000 the differential between these classes was 6.5. In Europe the differences between the richest and poorest quintiles of the population was 4.5 in 2000 and 4.9 in 2008. In other words, in Israel the gap between the classes is widening and is doing so at a faster rate relative to Europe. In these terms, Israel’s situation has worsened as a result of the free market reforms relative to other OECD members.

In his remark’s on Israel’s acceptance to the OECD, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that “[o]ur goal is to become within the next decade one of the 15 highest per capita income countries in the world.”

In the liberal economics worldview, nations should aspire to increased per capita income as reflected by increases in the national product. However, these measures do not show how growth is distributed within the society; they reveal little about a society’s internal socioeconomic development.   While Israel has had robust economic growth over the past two decades, yesterday’s CBS report shows that it is the “elephants” of the society that have benefitted and not the “sparrows.”

They own banks, malls, infrastructure, real estate…

Israel’s economy has been characterized by an extraordinarily high concentration of power and ownership  in its most elite classes – a profile developed over the last thirty years during which market economics has guided government policy. The Netanyahu government has been compelled to acknowledge the intense concentration of economic control and has appointed a committee to investigate how to counter it.

This concentration  of the country’s economy in the hands of the Twenty Families, the private empires where finance (banks, insurance), real estate (housing, shopping malls), infrastructure (construction , minerals, transport) and retail (supermarkets, food, clothing ) has a distortive effect on the economy.

Daniel Doron, head of the pro-market Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress writing  in yesterday’s The Jerusalem Post (Perverting Public Discourse) describes the system by saying that it is “causing every family to pay a monopoly tax of between 20 percent and 30% on everything it consumes… This is particularly hard on lower-income families.…”

Elites fighting tooth and nail

In his article Doron discusses the extent to which these plutocrats are fighting reforms by investing heavily in public relations and lobbying campaigns.

Such attempts were brought clearly into focus by the appearance of Yitzhak Tshuva and his coterie of lobbyists before the Knesset in early October to fight efforts aimed at increasing the paltry royalty rates the State of Israel receives from the exploitation of fossil fuels in its territory. Current rates are among the lowest in the world  (see Israel’s Oil Tycoons Seek Higher Ground) and Tshuva –whose Delek Group is in partnership with Noble Energy, a US multinational corporation are attempting to exploit new and promising gas finds off of Israel’s coast — is fighting reform tooth and nail.

They insist on their right to amass billions while remitting as little as possible to the state’s coffers.

Minerals give-away

Aside from oil and gas, concerns investing in other minerals resources have been abundantly blessed by the government’s free market orientation. In a recent article published in Haaretz entitled “Sea of Corruption”  (Oct. 7, 2010, p. 5) Merav Michaeli discusses how Israel Chemicals (with revenues in 2009 of NIS 17 billion (about $5 billion USD) and net profits of NIS 2.92 billion in that year) was sold by the government to the Eisenberg family in 1995.

The Eisenbergs then sold the corporation to the Ofer family. According to Michaeli the Ofers have reaped profits from Israel Chemicals of NIS 3 billion since 2003.  While the royalties of 12.5 percent paid to the state from petroleum resources are a pittance, the 5 percent paid for mineral resources are even more absurd.

As Israel Chemical’s website boasts “with exclusive concessions to extract high quality, low cost minerals from Israel’s Dead Sea and rights to mine the Negev Desert, ICL [Israel Chemicals] is a…a major player in specialty chemical high margin niche markets.”

This is truly an advantageous position for economic mega-players: a government near give-away that enables whopping capital accumulation to one of the country’s wealthiest elites. It is important to note that the subsidence and other environmental damages incurred to the Dead Sea area are partially a result of mineral extraction by Israel Chemicals.

Thirty years of the Likud’s liberal economic program has normalized such aberrations perhaps most notably in the free reign given to land developers. The result is the exploitation of Israel’s natural resources by the economic elites with little regard for environmental impact or social justice.

In an age when profiteering and economic growth are sacrosanct, there is little wonder that Israel’s educational achievement and social welfare is in decline.

Free market ideology as state creed

In the three decades since Menachem Begin and the Likud began its war on Israel’s social democratic foundations, free market ideology has been elevated to state creed.

Powerful economic interests dominate Israel’s – and by extension, the West Bank’s – economy with profound environmental, political and cultural implications. The policies that led to Israel’s ascent to OECD membership, so coveted by the Netanyahu government have caused our society great damage. The ominous message contained in the CBS  report bodes poorly for Israel’s future under this regime.

Read more about the ungreen economy of Israel:
Israel Polluters Face New OECD rules
Will Israel’s Undersea Gas Pipeline Idea Increase the Mediterranean’s Already Polluted State?
One State. One Environment
Intel Israel Is LEED’s Golden Child

Above image of Sami Ofer via Israel Sun

Israeli and Turkish delegations joined European and American counterparts in Spain to draw attention to environmental factors causing a killer disease.

Strengthening community will be an integral part of a sustainable future.  A “community of angels” in my notes referred to the delegates from more than 20 countries in the European Union, Israel, Turkey and the United States who convened in Castelldefels to discuss Pulmonary Hypertension. The European Pulmonary Hypertension Association conference took place just outside of Barcelona from Sept. 18-20^th.

Dr. Iris Tal and I represented the Israel Pulmonary Hypertension Association at the gathering. There, patients, caregivers and clinicians discussed treatment options, drug accessibility, standards of care, research horizons and general support for the victims of the illness.

Rare Disease, Difficult Treatments

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), sometimes referred to as pulmonary arterial hypertension is a rare ailment characterized by abnormally high levels of blood pressure in the lungs that places an excessive load on the heart. Untreated, PH is incapacitating and sometimes fatal. Currently, there is no cure for the disease but over the last few decades a number of treatments have emerged that extend life, increase functional ability and improves the quality of life in patients. None of these treatments are simple but they are essential to maintaining the lives of victims.

PH has a number of causes. It is sometimes congenital and while its diagnosis often takes place later in life it is sometimes detected among newborns. PH also develops secondary to other illnesses such as liver cirrhosis, Gaucher’s disease and disorders involving  soft and connective tissue (for example, scleroderma).

I learned at the conference of a third source of PH of which I was not previously aware: PH can also be induced by environmental hazards. For example, one patient and long-time activist acquired PH as a teenager along with other people in her vicinity as a result of a toxic chemical spill in Spain.

Diagnosis

People with PH sometimes live for decades without knowing that their fainting and dizzy spells, shortness of breath, fatigue, blue lips and many other symptoms derive from the condition.

An observant doctor can suspect that a patient has PH but the conclusive diagnosis is dependent on technology, minimally on echocardiography or catherization. Accordingly, patients without financial or other access to these technologies may have their symptoms misattributed to other diseases.

Treatment

Establishing the potential number of people requiring treatment for PH is an important consideration for patients and their advocates. PH, because it is considered rare, is an “orphan disease.” This small population base is cited by pharmaceutical companies as reason to charge high prices for medications (the “gold standard” of PH treatment, Flolan, a substance delivered through a catheter directly to the pulmonary artery 24/7 can cost $100,000 a year or more). As attested by conference delegates coming from poorer countries, the economic concern is a major impediment to treatment in their societies.

We in Israel are very fortunate to have the recognized  medicines approved for PH available in the Health Ministry basket. However, often the control of PH requires combinational treatment with more than one medication and obtaining the necessary approvals is a difficult and time-consuming process.

In some countries patients do not have access to combinational therapy or even to the medication of choice that could best control their illness. Certainly such medications are unavailable in many societies elsewhere in the world: they are costly, logistically complicated (many of these medications must be freshly prepared under sterile conditions and require refrigeration; some entail the implantation of catheters and semi-permanent needles and tubing).

They also require specialized equipment (several of these drugs are delivered by a pump attached to the patient). Regardless of what medication they take, many PH patients require supplemental oxygen either around the clock or periodically. Oxygen supply systems, whether fixed in place or portable, also involve major capital expenditure.

Other PH treatment options  for PH include lung transplants and radical surgical procedures. These treatment modalities are costly and arduous. Organ donations continue to be scarce the world-over and patients languish and perish while waiting for surgery. One notable exception is Austria where the law stipulates that organs can be harvested from a deceased person unless she or he has explicitly issued instructions to the contrary.

The complexity of PH treatment produces great strain on patients, their families and caregivers.

Israeli delegates Gotlieb (R) and Tal (L) with leaders of the American and European PH Associations

PH Associations

This need for support and advocacy is the reason why organizations like the Israel PH Association and its European, Turkish and American counterparts have come into being.

These groups fulfill myriad functions including providing financial assistance, counseling, referral, mutual support and lobbying. They act to heighten public awareness and provide information.

A draft statement was issued at the meeting calling for uniform standards of care throughout the constituent countries. Specifically, consistent standards are sought with respect to economic and logistical accessibility of  medications and supplies. The delegates resolved to coordinate public awareness campaigns, acquire joint counsel to overcome legal and institutional barriers, and engage a medical authority to monitor research in diagnosis and treatment and to encourage collaboration among hospitals and research institutions. We concurred that medical education is vital to the timely referral of prospective patients for conclusive diagnosis and treatment and intend to focus on increasing knowledge of the disease among primary care clinicians.

Intnl. Community of Angels working for care and cure

Cordial relations transcending borders characterized the entire meeting. This community of angels is interfacing with other patients rights and health advocacy groups across Europe, Israel, Turkey North America, South America and elsewhere  to further our common aims.

Its growing successes represents the power of citizens group to effect change.

Dr. Yosef Gotlieb, a contributor to Green Prophet, is a board member of the Israel Pulmonary Hypertension Association. He was diagnosed with PH in 2005.

The Israel PH Association can be contacted at: +972 747-029-092 or at  contact@phiarael.org.il. Its patient hotline in Israel is 1-800-74-75-74.

Photos courtesy European PH  Association.

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The author at Poas Volcano. Photo by Terry Chance.

Dr. Gotlieb describes a recent trip to his birthplace: Costa Rica

Alajuela Province, July 22, 2010: For a Costa Rican-born Israeli geographer, a 36-hour lightning visit for a family event in San José afforded an opportunity to one of the most unique landscapes and ecosystems in the world.

Atop the Poas Volcano situated in one of Costa Rican’s renown national parks there are two lagoons, one in the central crater of the now-active volcano, the other, the Botos, filled to the brim with rainwater. Surrounding the area is a rare form of woodlands – a cloud forest – a natural aviary with 79 species of birds.

The day I toured the site began with my reading in La Nacion, the country’s leading daily. An article described aspects of Costa Rica’s water resources that stand in stark contrast to our situation in Israel. Like in Israel, water is a central concern in this country. However, rain forests and numerous rivers are found throughout this largely tropical land situated between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, on the Central American isthmus.

As a result, unlike our parched land, Costa Rica suffers from water excesses, specifically inundations during the rainy season. On the day before my arrival, more than 20 houses were washed away by rain-swollen rivers in the Central Valley, where the capital San José is located.

Diverse Eco-Zones

Costa Rica, like Israel, is a small compact country and has a wealth of distinct eco-zones that can be reached within hours. My visit to the Poas Volcano began in the temperate central valley, which is bordered by a mountain range and a chain including four of the country’s seven active volcanoes. All told, Costa Rica has 212 volcanic formations.

From Escazu, an upscale borough of the capital, we drove north. The highway through the metropolitan area is jammed with vehicular traffic and lined with savannah; grasses grow a meter tall or higher. Deep ravines with rivulets can be seen from the road.

Along the way to Poas is the second of the Central Valley’s cities, Alajuela, which is a symbol of Costa Rican democracy. In 1856, the settlement held the line against an invasion by Nicaraguan mercenaries in the service of an American filibuster, William Walker, who attempted to carve out a slave empire in Central America.

The area was particularly coveted by the invaders given that along the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border runs the San Juan River, which was sought as an alternative site to the Panama Canal.  Alajuela is a small city proud of its historical significance and educational institutions. Its central park is bordered by mango trees and a sculpture of Juan Santamaría, the national hero who led the resistance against the American-backed invasion.

Coffee Lands and Huge Ferns

Coffee cultivation. San Isidro, Costa Rica. Photo by author.

Alajuela is thirty kilometers from the Poas volcano. On the way to the national park we passed the town of San Isidro, named after the Catholic saint of land and farmers.

It is an area of incredible fecundity and the locale of many of the country’s famed coffee plantations. At an elevation of one thousand meters, the terrain is ideal for coffee cultivation.

With rich volcanic soils, good drainage, sunny mornings and rain-filled afternoons that provide  the six hours of daylight that is optimum for growing coffee, the crop thrives in the area. Significantly, forty percent of the coffee lands in the area are owned by one family. Migrant labor, mainly from Nicaragua to the north, is the principal labor source cultivating the crop.

Past San Isidro is a transition zone where the primary form of cultivation is horticulture, predominantly large ferns cultivated under the shade of expansive black netting. The produce is exported to North American and European markets for use in flower arrangements. Hibiscus flowers are abundant, as is a range of  other flora.

Further north is grazing land for dairy cows. The embankments at the side of the road tower up to ten meters revealing deep, brown soils. The roots of a typical tree are often the size of a log. The houses along the hillsides are painted mauve, lime, blue and guava –  tropical colored adobes amidst the verdant green. North American hippies in search of tranquility found their way here in the 1970s and signs leading to enterprises like Muy Tranquillo Regalos (“Very Tranquil Gifts”) and the La Paz Peace Lodge line the road.

Poas Volcano National Park

Giant fern, Poas Vocano (pen in middle for perspective). Photo by Author.

Founded on January 25, 1971 the Poas Volcano National Park is 2708 meters above sea level and encompasses 6,500 hectares. It has two craters, the Central Crater being the site of an active volcano and the Botos Crater crowning a volcano that has been extinct for thousands of  years.

I was warned that there might be poor visibility due to the rains experienced earlier in the week and that were expected to continue. Thankfully the skies held, and the site is well-planned and cared for by the authorities.

The Central Crater: Power and Plumes

The passageway to the volcano is a ten minute walk fringed with large trees and ferns the size of elephant ears. The pungent odor of sulphur becomes apparent when, suddenly, the tree line ends and one arrives at a wooden observation post. Before you is a sight that is difficult to anticipate, a world unlike any other.

The vast landscape is denuded of vegetation. Sheer rock in various shades of brown, gray and red line the sides of a huge crater of the Poas Volcano that is very much active. Clouds hover overhead and a jet of vapor and steam pumps from the bowels of the earth. It is raw nature, the source of power that can and has ejected boulders, lava and ash within recent memory (1956). At present, the 1.6 kilometer wide crater emits steam and vapor, a reminder of its explosive potential, an epicenter for earthquakes.

Seeping sulphuric vapor, Poas, Photo by Author.

Danger of Acid Rain

At the bottom of the crater is one of the site’s two lagoons. Due to the active heat of the volcano, the lagoon in the Central Crater is expected to become completely evaporated by December of this year, down from a depth of fourteen meters six months ago. The consequence will be acid rain, which will likely damage coffee and other crops in the adjacent slopes of the mountain. As long as the volcano is active and the heat evaporates rainwater, the threat of acid rain remains.

The Botos Lagoon

Botos Lagoon, Poas Volcano. Photo by author.

Fauna and flora, Poas cloud forest. Photo by Terry Chance.

A forty minute walk from the main crater leads to the extinct Botos Crater. The basin is deep with rainwater that feeds into the Rio Angel and the Rio Sarapiqui. The site is exquisite, a natural wonder.

It is surrounded by thick forests containing scores of bird species including hummingbirds, robins and quetzals. Mammals include coyotes, long-tailed weasels, skunks and felines and a squirrel endogenous only to Poas.

Throughout the low, thick canopy and brush surrounding the Botos lagoon is a myriad of plant species that comprise a unique ecosystem in shades of dark and light.

The clouds are of central importance to Costa Rica’s watershed and water regeneration. The cloud forest atop Poas is  the source of many rivers running east to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Pacific.

A tour of the Poas Volcano National Park is breathtaking and sobering: the glory and power of nature are apparent there. The site is a monument to natural realities that no amount of technology can contain or emulate. I hope to return there, again and again, as it is a place of extreme poetry.

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