The Green Sheikh Calls for Action Against Ecological Crimes

Pictured on the far left, the Green Sheikh took a break from his environmental activism to support breast cancer awareness at a polo event in the United Arab Emirates.

We have been warned that the earth has reached a dangerous borderline. Here I’ll give you my personal opinions about the environment, in order to hopefully reduce the affect of crimes committed against the earth and to decrease the danger that plagues us with floods (as the one that happened in Pakistan and more recently Thailand), earthquakes, tsunami and hurricanes.

We must preserve raw materials like energy and water and improve the efficiency of industrialization, avoiding the production of waste in all stages of industrial and marketing operations, and we must replace toxic and dangerous substances with alternative or clean ones.

We must impose penalties on those caught producing emissions (which are expected to double in the next 30 years) after the issuing of the legislation, and we must look to other alternatives and mechanisms for the various stages of the production such as recycling, employing and recovering secondary products and waste as much as possible, in order to convert waste materials into commercial profits.

Global warming

For many years environmental studies related to emissions have been conducted and supervised by a committee of experts ad hoc. Indeed the world witnessed an increase of temperatures caused by gas emissions and by fossil fuel consumption. The Emirates are the most over-warmed countries in the world in terms of per capital carbon dioxide for individuals. Compared to the rest of Arab Asia and Africa, the Emirates have the hottest climate and most extreme climatic conditions; along with sea level rise, this will cause more floods and bad weather.

All these circumstances will lead to a thermal increase against the population with a higher rate of disease due to population and economic growth that has in turn increased the rate of energy consumption. In order to prevent the risk of some national companies working in the oil-refining industry that may run out gas flaring operations, the Emirates have determined what should be done in order to adopt techniques to cut down harmful emissions to the maximum degree. However, we must provide more environmental awareness and implement punitive sanctions to manufacturing and reconstruction authorities, because for economic growth to stay green, it can’t stay dry.

Cleaner production

The result of unchecked climate change would be the collapse of our planet under the high pressure that threatens the livelihood of earth, water, and air, and even of good soil and planting. New diseases have emerged as a result of this imbalance in the ecological balance. In the 80s, the industrial sector implemented a cleaner production program, thanks to the United Nations environmental special program, performing the extraction of contaminated materials before their diffusion, in spite of the following Menda’s manipulation.

We need to restate the concept of “Ecological Efficiency” for the health of this planet and in particular for human health.Ecology increases productivity and decreases the use of natural resources such as water and alternative energy, and it contributes to the production of economic and environmental benefits in order to reduce the negative impact on environment.Thus, this concept is useful in order to prevent pollution and to reduce waste from the source to the final stage experienced by all the products.

Energy waste

We must stress the truth of what has been committed to our planet if we are to revert our airspace from yellow to the clear blue that it once was. We must lead company and factory owners toward the use of clean new techniques that reduce energy waste and dangerous emissions in order to decrease the high rate of carbon dioxide emissions. The industrial system is linked with other systems, and it is not isolated. It should be lead to the optimal use for a life-cycle of materials, from the raw to the manufactured stage of any product, including secondary products, waste production, and storage, and should encourage an optimal use of energy resources and waste production.

Furthermore, we have to make people aware of low cost, smart sustainable buildings which use materials that are suitable for the nature of the local environment, and that are at the same time environmentally friendly. We can prevent the negative effect on population health and on the environment. One of the most important and positive aspects in smart buildings is the cost of using alternative and renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, in the process of heating and cooking.

Using natural ventilation and the sun in several aspects of building leads to reduction of waste and healthier indoor air quality. In addition, frequent landscaping absorbs toxic gases and helps oxygen generation, while the re-use of wasted water of the same buildings, after treatment, is good for watering plants. We must also stress the importance of laws that stipulate limits to atmospheric pollution, land and water and energy waste.

Finally, we should also call for the education of volunteer teams working on the care and protection of the environment and promote more dynamic and real action on charity for greater deeds.

This column was translated from Arabic into English by Silvia Gandolfo, a translator and interpreter based in France. She can be reached at silviagandolfo [at] hotmail [dot] it.