There are a number of problems in addition to 'climate change' making the sandstorms progressively worse and which the following Washington Post report outlines. The situation in Iraq is particularly alarming.
As for planting trees -- the report discusses some of the initiatives, but then you run into the problem of watering the trees well enough to develop deep roots to withstand the high winds from the sandstorms.
And I'm afraid the Dust Bowl plantings, if used as a model for the Middle East, ignore the very different climate in that region of the USA, and the fact that uprooting of native grasses on the plains to make room for crop plantings was the biggest culprit.
Another tip stemming from the lessons of the Dust Bowl-- Scientists got the farmers to stop planting crops in straight rows; they needed to leave a little soil overhang for moisture to accumulate.
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But experts say the storms this year are particularly intense, as climate change and desertification increase their frequency. In Iraq, at least nine significant storms have hit the country since April. More are likely to materialize in the summer and, without major policy changes, could continue to get worse in years to come.
“We have had many more dust storms this spring than in the past,” said Salam Abdulrahman, a lecturer at the University of Human Development in Iraq, said in an email. “Every dust storm has lasted from one day to 2-3 days. Previous dust storms were shorter.”
Benjamin Cook, an environmental scientist at Columbia University’s Climate School, said three elements are needed for a sandstorm to take off: wind, a source of dust where there is little to no vegetation, and very dry conditions.
The recent storms in Iraq have stemmed in part from a lack of rain, water-flow issues and human activity.
2020-21 was the second-driest rainfall season in 40 years, resulting in crop failure. Conditions remain poor. In most of the country, groundwater storage, used for crop irrigation and drinking water, is near its lowest levels compared with long-term records, according to NASA data.
The limited water stunts vegetation growth, which loosens the surface for dust storms, said Abdulrahman. He said some locals in Iraq now refer to the dust storm activity as “soilfall” or “earthfall,” because the winds kick up layers of soil.
Wetlands in southern Iraq and Iran, where many people make a living off the land, are drying up.
Ismael al Ameri, a research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, said the near-disappearance of Al Sawa, a salt lake about 150 miles south of Baghdad, will leave a new source of mud, silt and salt for sandstorms. The construction of dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has added to the problem, he said, and more broadly, military operations in Iraq since 2003 have also damaged topsoil layers.
In Iran and Iraq, the storms are also connected to farming practices in the region and the mismanagement of shared rivers, said Banafsheh Keynoush, a nonresident scholar with the Middle East Institute’s Iran program.
The conditions driving dust storms have been exacerbated by human-caused climate change. The Middle East is heating up about twice as quickly as the rest of the world, which has warmed by about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit since the preindustrial era.
The hotter temperatures, paired with increasing water-supply issues, prime the desert region for more dust storms.
“These climate extremes are widely reported as clear indicators of climate change,” said al Ameri, who has previously written on the subject. “This is combined with an increase in storm recurrence activity, not only in spring and summer, but in autumn and winter too.”
An Iraqi environmental ministry official said the country’s dusty days have increased from 243 to 272 days a year over two decades, according to data from the General Authority for Meteorology. He said Iraq could face nearly 300 days of dust storms per year by 2050, the Iraqi News Agency reported.
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They also come at a cost to health.
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The Saudi Food and Drug Authority on Tuesday called on people to wear masks and refrain from eating food exposed to the open air to protect themselves from harmful particles carried by the storms.
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Saudi Arabia plans to plant 10 billion trees in the next decades to reduce its carbon footprint and land degradation. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled a “Middle East Green Initiative” last year, hailed by the United Nations, to work with other Arab countries to plant 40 billion more in the region.
Iran, a regional rival, has spent 450 million euros ($483 million) over the past three years to mitigate sandstorm hot spots in the country by planting trees, stabilizing soil, constructing windbreaks and other measures, according to the Tehran Times.
raq has been experimenting with the strategy for more than a decade, planting eucalyptus and olive trees and date palms as part of a plan to shield the central city of Karbala, one of Iraq’s Shiite holy cities. But construction delays, funding shortages and neglect contributed to the project’s failure, Agence France-Presse reported. Some blame financial mismanagement.
The cabinet on May 10 directed the Finance Ministry to disburse some $2 million to implement a project to stabilize sand dunes, the Iraqi News Agency reported.
Governments in the region have invested in early-warning and monitoring systems for sandstorms, Keynoush said.
But regional governments should take stronger collective action to address the problem, she said. “We need to be a step ahead of sandstorms rather than sandstorms being a step ahead of us.”
[END REPORT]
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