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Arab World Faces Environmental Catastrophe

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Image via Wikipedia The eyes of the world are currently focussed on the political and social upheaval that is ongoing in the Arab world . The events in Tunisia , Egypt, Yemen , Bahrain and Syria have dominated the news for weeks now. However, what lies ahead may prove to be more significant than anything we have seen yet. I am not talking about war or political change here. No, I am talking about the environment. Not in abstract terms either. We are not talking about something that may happen in 50 or 100 years. No, we are talking about environmental catastrophe in a decade or so. What kind of catastrophe are we looking at? Well, according to Lester Brown in The Guardian , we are looking at widespread drought on a biblical scale and consequent food shortages of epic proportions. For instance, Yemen and Saudia Arabia are facing severe depletion of natural aquifers, meaning that water shortages are increasing on a scale we in the West can only imagine in our nightmares. He gives