Climate change may make Middle East and North Africa uninhabitable

Rising sea levels, increasingly severe storms and deadly heat waves may imperil the region in coming decades, scientists and studies say

Dr Benjamin Cook, a NASA scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Middle East Eye that the region is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

“The MENA region and the Mediterranean can expect reduced rainfall, increased intensity and occurrence of droughts, and much more severe heat extremes,” he said.

“The whole region is already highly sensitive to drought because of the limited water resources, and this area is a place where we really expect the drought-related impacts of climate change to be particularly important. Sea level rise is likely to have a big impact anywhere along the coast, especially on cities and settlements that are right at sea level,” he added.

Cook warned that “the further we move into the future, and the stronger the warming, the clearer and stronger all of these impacts will be”.