I had hoped my generation would change

18 year old Myriam from Lebanon participates in the MS ActionAid Denmark ”Tracing Climate Responsibility” project in Denmark. Her hope is to be able to raise awareness about climate issues in her home country.

The climate changes has made the snow in the Lebanese mountains melt much earlier than before. At the same time experts predict that a rise in temperatures will reduce available water in Lebanon by at least 15 per cent in the future.

"The vast majority of Lebanese people don't think about climate changes, I fear. Most people in Lebanon are only interested in politics, religion and material goods"

Myriam Saad from Lebanon is only 18 years old, but her pessimism seems as old as time itself.
“I had hoped my generation would change, but everything is even worse now”, the young girl explains.
Myriam Saad was one of the 24 young participants that MS ActionAid Denmark in the Middle East and North Africa sent to Denmark in the beginning of August to participate in the MS sponsored project “Tracing Climate Responsibility in Denmark”. The idea behind the project was for the 24 young people to hitchhike through Denmark in order to find out whether the Danes – who are hosting the international climate conference, “Cop 15” in Copenhagen this December – are taking their climate responsibility seriously. But also to find out how the climate changes are affecting Denmark.
In one of the weeks Myriam also participated in the climate camp, Bright Green Youth, sponsered by Danfoss, MS ActionAid Denmark and Projectzero. At the camp she and 500 other young people from 41 countries discussed how to solve the climate problems facing the globe now and in the future.   

The snow is melting
In Lebanon Myriam has been volunteering for the international environmental league, IndyAct, for almost a year now.

“ I feel that as an educated citizen I should engage as much as possible in society issues”, the young woman explains.

She has participated in campaigns calling for animal rights and in a campaign against smoking. But Myriam fears that the issue of protecting the environment and reduce the effect of climate changes is going to be much harder to raise awareness about, even though the Lebanese can already see the first effects of the climate changes now.

“The summers are much hotter than before, and we have a lot of fires in the Lebanese forests now, because everything is so dry. And the snow in the mountains is melting a lot earlier than earlier”, Myriam explains.

A war torn country

According to Myriam the main problem lies in Lebanon's bloody past which still casts long shadows in the Lebanese society of today. From 1975 to 1990 Lebanon was engaged by a civil war between various religious groupings in the country. More than a 100.000 Lebanese were killed in the fighting. And even though the civil war has long ended, Lebanese politics and thinking are still very much influenced by the wounds of the past.
“Even though people are quite well educated here in Lebanon, older people, who lived during the civil wars, are not trying to stop their children from becoming fanatics”, Myriam explains.

Toxic waste threatens water supplies 

In 2006 Israel attacked Lebanon and bombed numerous factories in the country. The consequence was that toxic or hazardous ashes, oils, heavy metals, industrial chemicals and sewage from the damaged sites contaminated both sea and land, threatening the Lebanese drinking water supply and the public health in general.

And according to experts on climate change Lebanon will face even more problems in the future. According to the latest Arab Human Development report from 2009, an increase of just 1,2 centigrade would reduce available water in Lebanon by 15 per cent because of change in rainfall patterns and evaporation.

“There are already water problems in some areas of Lebanon now”, Myriam says.

Learning from other people's experience

Myriam now hopes that she can gain more experience with climate issues during her visit in Denmark.

“I would like to learn more about climate change, and would like to see people from other countries who are also into this issue - hear their point of view”, the young girl explains.
She hopes that the international climate meeting in Copenhagen in December will produce viable results, even though she has her doubts.

“Many countries are more concerned with poverty and wars. Therefore, it will be hard for them also to concentrate on climate. But let's hope”.

No matter what, she will do what she can to encourage her own country to do more for the climate. “Nothing has happened the last twenty years. But we will try to make it change”, she says.