In today's world, where for some there is money left over after the necessities are taken care of, life is often spent accumulating “stuff”.
It certainly feels this way when it comes to clothing, as wardrobes, chests of drawers and cupboards quickly fill up with items.
Once their appeal fades, t-shirts, trousers, skirts, blouses, coats and scarves are typically offloaded to make way for the next round of purchases.
The phrase fast fashion is commonly used to describe the way that manufacturers produce new designs quickly and cheaply, which leads many of us to buy clothes that are worn just once or twice – if at all – before they are discarded.
This comes at a considerable environmental cost, with the clothing industry accounting for up to eight per cent of global emissions, according to figures published by the United Nations.
Other environmental impacts come from the dyes and other chemicals used in clothing production.
The UAE, however, is making efforts to reduce the environmental burden of fashion, as reported in this article.
President Sheikh Mohamed has directed the setting up of the National Institute of Textile Circularity or Naseej (the Arabic word for fabric), which will promote industry action, research and public engagement.
It follows many other environmental initiatives in the UAE that have focused on, among other things, cutting food waste or eliminating single-use plastics.
The importance of a more sustainable approach to fashion is not difficult to appreciate: each year, more than 220,000 tonnes of textile waste are produced in the UAE – more than 600 tonnes a day.
As this opinion article indicates, making the clothing sector greener does not just positively impact the environment – it also generates economic benefits.
Here, Katy Gillett reports that sustainable businesses are behind the initiative, and they say an end to the throwaway culture is needed.
Just as the clothing sustainability effort was announced, another government environmental initiative, this one obliging companies to report their emissions and to come up with proposals to reduce them, has fully come into effect.
In this opinion piece Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a sustainability leader, describes the new law as “a huge step in the right direction” and argues that it is time for businesses to “take accountability”.
Sheikha Shamma explains the significance of the decree and highlights why it is needed.
How AI can forecast UAE heatwaves with 96 per cent accuracy
With summer fast approaching – it officially begins on June 21 in the UAE – the mercury has been rising.
Over and above seasonal norms, temperatures can spike for days at a time, and researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have developed an AI-powered method to forecast when this will happen in the country.
As this article states, the new method is said to be 96 per cent accurate at forecasting heatwaves, which gives individuals, companies and the authorities the opportunity to plan ahead.
With climate change making heatwaves more common, the technology is likely to prove increasingly useful.
Fortunately, the UAE is already better set up than many other nations to cope with extreme heat, as this opinion article describes.
But as Lemma Shehadi outlines in this piece, the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Basra are very much at risk from rising temperatures, with residents facing significant consequences.
The rising Euphrates causes flooding in Syria following heavy rains
Rising water levels in the mighty Euphrates river recently resulted in the issuing of evacuation orders in Syria and Iraq, and these were followed up by flooding, as discussed in this article.
Water releases in Turkey (prompted by a heavy rainy season) and Syria have been blamed, with the situation highlighting threats that could intensify as a result of climate change, because some areas are seeing heavier rain even as drought risks in certain locations also rise.
More recently the situation has eased, as detailed in this piece by Khaled Yacoub Oweis.
At the same time, Syria faces water shortages from illegal wells dug there over the past decade and a half, as revealed in this article, also by Khaled.
Meanwhile, helped by information from the oil and gas industry, the surprising history of the Euphrates has been uncovered, with researchers discovering that two of its tributaries once emptied into the Eastern Mediterranean, as discussed here.
The big fact
1,740 miles – the length of the Euphrates as it winds its way through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and merges with the Tigris to form the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Arabian Gulf.
Jargon buster
El Nino: a cyclical event that leads to higher sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in warmer overall conditions globally. Copernicus, the EU's climate change service, has said that this year's El Nino will be especially strong, potentially resulting in record temperatures, extreme rainfall and droughts. El Nino alternates with an opposite phenomenon, La Nina.
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