* Jan 15th UPDATE*

First of all, thanks for all the great responses either here on comments, through email, or even by phone. A friend of mine who could be called an environmentalist and is studying the field sent me this, its worth reading -

Individual Kuwaitis are HUGE (relatively) contributers to global warming. Kuwait has the THIRD highest CO2 emissions per capita (after Qatar and UAE). Don’t go blaming the oil industry, its not just them. In fact its mostly the free electricity hand outs that Kuwaitis get. Don’t take my word, here is data: Out of the 65 million metric tons of CO2 that Kuwait emitted in 1999, the largest portion, 21 million metric tons, were from “public electricity, heating production and auto-producers”. We don’t need heating (yet), and I have definitely never seen a made in Kuwait Car…so? Please turn the lights off.

As for CO2 from transportation and the effect of the individual Kuwaiti: Do you remember the last time you visited a household that only had one car? only two? only three?!?

Source: earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/cli_cou_414.pdf
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Its the middle of January, and we’re getting a really really cold winter. Colder than usual I think but its nice, and checking the forecasts on weather.com, next week is supposed to be around 2 or 3 degrees.

On BBC radio this past week, small bits of news also scare me more. They had an interview a couple of days ago with a British vine yard owner, who was talking about how much he loves this global warming, and how the hot weather is making him grow better grapes for the wines. Then today they were talking about how a chess match between a guy from London and a guy from Moscow might be ruined because the ice sculptures used as chess pieces kept melting!! In the middle of January!!

So I checked the weather in both countries. In London, its 10 degrees, and the 10 day forecast shows it to be warmer than Kuwait!! In Moscow, its 5 degrees! We’re talking about MOSCOW!! scary shit! Actually, another proof of how scary it is, Moscow is turning into a tourist destination, even in winter! Also, someone I know just came back from Boston, and they were saying that last week people were wearing shorts, it was 70degrees F, which means 21 degrees Celsius!!
If you didn’t think 2006 was bad, think again. It was the hottest year ever in the US, according to their National Climate Data Center.

This has continued and the effect has been felt mostly by ski resorts in Europe and the US. In Switzerland, ski trials for World Cup have been canceled for lack of snow, and an excerpt from the article says -

“Waiters in Vienna, where the mercury rose to 60 degrees — just edging out Rome’s 59 degrees — put tables and chairs back out on the sidewalks. Bulgarians basked in the sun on balmy 62-degree Black Sea beaches.”

In the US and Canada, the ski resorts are also counting their losses. (article from Canada, article from US). It is getting so bad that scientists are saying that you should ski now as much as you can, because by 2075, the skiing season might shrink to only 2 months as this increase in temperature continues.

On the BBC, they had an interview with a real estate analyst in Spain, who was talking about how this temperature shift might be disastrous to the Spanish economy. Spain has been growing and has built more housing units per year than any other country in Europe. If the weather stays warm in countries like England and others, the demand for a summer home in places like Spain is likely to decrease. Also, the temperature rise is affecting the summer weather, making it unbearable for tourists, which could kill off tourism appeal in Spain.

Even animals are getting affected by this weird weather! This excerpt tells more -

“With unusually high temperatures, dazed bears in Moscow zoo have just dropped off for winter hibernation after months of insomnia while peacocks in a Bulgarian zoo have laid eggs, reckoning spring has long since arrived.”

African countries have had longer months of flooding, much more than the usual.

For us in Kuwait, global warming effects us in more ways than just weather. We were so happy to see oil prices rise to $70 and beyond in the past two years. In recent months, oil prices has slowly been going lower and lower. Even with the decrease in output by OPEC, prices have been going lower, largely because of the warm temperatures, which mean less demand for oil in many European countries as well as the US. The price of a barrel now is less than $53! To see how much of an effect weather has on oil prices, in the past two weeks alone, the price of oil has gone down 11%!
Things are getting bad. I’m really extremely worried about our future and the future of our children. I didn’t even see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” yet! I know this sounds cliché, but we really do need to do our part as individuals in trying to save our environment. Also, we need to get this issue out there for our politicians. They seem not to even consider this important subject and its effects on our future! We need to get active in seeking ways to minimize the pollution we produce as a country! Just look at Kuwait City’s skyline on a clear day. You will see a very clear smog crowd coming from the chimneys at Doha, which is not that far from where many residential areas are.

After the mysterious dead fish incident a couple of years ago, and the latest reports of our local fish being cancerous, and looking at some pictures of what is being dumped in our sea continuously, this is a very serious issue that will only get worse in Kuwait if we dont start implementing some drastic measures!

These are some pics I took from the new google earth, unlike the old google maps which was limited when I posted the earlier post in 2005 linked in the earlier paragraph.

The point of this post is to try and make everyone think about how serious this issue is. Please don’t think that one person can’t make a difference. There are many ways to do that personally. Trying is the first step.

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Thx to Judy Abbott for this link, sign the petition -

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/campaigns.cfm