Environmental Awareness in the Middle East

With all that's been going on in Egypt over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about how they might view or treat environmental issues (i.e. do they have ENVT classes over there?). While the industrialized nations like the US and China certainly contribute the most to pollution, the Middle East is a major source of our oil, so it would stand to reason that they must have some sort of environmental awareness or movement going on. So I googled "environmental awareness in the middle east" and came across a children's book being launched all around the Middle East entitled Omar's Goats. Author Kathy Hoopmann actually made the children's book from an environmental teacher's manual and it's meant to send a strong message to children in a very simple way (kind of like the children's propaganda books from the Holocaust, but in a good way this time). The book is endorsed by the Madares Al Ghad [MAG] program, which seeks to establish a coherent and respectable k-12 school system in the United Arab Emirates and a few other participating Middle Eastern countries. This link tells you more about MAG:

http://cliftonchadwick.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/the-schools-of-tomorrow-show-results-today/

And here's one for Omar's Goats:

http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=185&page=localnews&title=Omar’s%20Goats

I must say it is very reassuring to know that the grass roots environmental movement is taking place on the "opposite end of the world." I am a huge believer in education being the best way to prevent disaster and promote progress because things as simple as children's books make lifelong impressions on the kids who read them.

I also delved into "sustainable agriculture in Egypt." Didn't find much except for that Egypt is developing better methods of dry land farming to account for its arid climate, lack of arable land, water scarcity, water quality, and population growth. Experts say that MENA (Middle East + Northern Africa) countries' dilemmas (famine, disease, war, etc.) are almost all traceable to resource issues, so sustainable agriculture applied to dry land farming would be a godsend to the area. Perhaps the "fertile crescent" will be fertile again one day.