Public awareness necessary to save the environment

“We are very susceptible to climate change and desertification. So we need to be careful and do a proper management to stop and at least reduce the rate of desertification otherwise in the near future we would not have a good situation in terms of natural resources,” Adjunct aAssociate Professor of University of South Australia Dr. Ali Hasanli said.

“Nowadays technology can be very useful in this field. As you know climate system is a complex which includes very complicated processes and interactions that some of them are not known for us, if we use well advanced software, historical data and have good advance model then we can project the effect of this process and manage it better. Historical data is another gap because we don’t have access to historical precise data. We can’t manage without any measurement, monitoring and understanding,” Dr. Ali Hasanli added in an exclusive interview with ISNA.

Dr Hasanli is also Emeritus Professor of Shiraz University, Iran. His interest and academic experience is in water engineering, water sensitive urban design, recycled wastewater reuse and environmental management, sustainable irrigation management, salinity management, climate change and adaptation strategies for water and environment.

“So I would like to emphasize on public awareness which is very important issue. People should understand what’s going on. Government and institute and universities should try more to transfer this knowledge to people and then all together we can act to control the issues.”

"Participation of people can be very helpful. Governments cannot be able to handle this problem alone so it could be quite useful if local people do not cut the trees, do not do the deforestation, conserve and protect the environment."

“I visited many countries and I think Iran is fortunately working well in this field, although we still need work match. Iran’s government, academy and some agents that are involved in environment, natural resources and forest management are aware and doing well. But the extent of desertification and the effect of climate change are growing fast so we need much more work,” he insisted.

“One of the important thing is that climate change is not a regional thing but it is widely extended so we need to have regional collaboration otherwise if we close the door and just focusing on small area then our action would not be affective. So I can say collaboration of regional agents could be very important particularly about dust storm which is very challenging issue that we are facing with it,” he said.

He emphasized Iran is so susceptible to desertification because of its geographical location so not only in terms of erosion but in terms of water scarcity and soil solidity and dropping water quality and our exploitationof ground water level, in any aspects Iran moving toward desert area so we need to be careful and that day is good day to try gather all researcher and scientists and local people and those who are interested to share experience and explain the issue and try to raise the publicawareness about this challenging issue.

This is a summary of the news: http://en.isna.ir/news/96030603403/Public-awareness-necessary-to-save-the-environment