Rise of Islamic State, Middle East conflicts deliver cleaner air unintentionally

Jos Lelieveld, the study’s leader and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, explained why this was happening. Since 2010, nitrogen dioxide emissions fell by 4%/yr.

The investigation of nitrogen oxide levels, which is generated by burning of fossil fuels, presented a complex and unpredictable picture. In addition, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry researcher from Mainz, Germany, also says, “Each of these countries has an individual story”.

The findings suggest that it may be hard to accurately project the human impact on climate change and the environment without considering unexpected short-term societal changes. Since 2008, nitrogen dioxide decreased by 40% over Athens.

Using satellite data Lelieveld says he’s found that the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East is drastically decreasing the level of air pollutants across the region.

Armed conflict that have been in play in the Middle East about five years now have actually led to making the air in the region cleaner for everyone. According to the scientists, while levels of the gas grew rapidly in Middle East cities such as Cairo, Tehran, Damascus ad Aleppo, in the stable 2000s, they proceeded to a drop off about the time of the Arab spring.

In Lebanon, for example, an influx of Syrian refugees has increased the amount of nitrogen dioxide released into the air.

Unfortunately, the Middle East is not the only region in the world affected by economic recession and upheaval owing to war, although geopolitical changes appear to be more drastic than elsewhere. This increase in power consumption let to an increase in nitrogen oxide emissions in the Kurdish north and the south of Iraq from 2005 to 2014. Most strikingly, the researchers wrote, a 50% drop in oil exports since 2010 reduced sulfur dioxide emissions over the Persian Gulf, “in particular near the main Iranian oil tanker terminal Jazireh Ye at Kharg Island”. One other instance of migration impacting air pollution ranges, the workforce notes, is over elements of Bagdad, the place the Islamic State has been lively-air pollution ranges have been falling, however rising in close by safer locations.

Monitoring levels of nitrogen oxide emissions from space can be used as a “thermometer” of crises on Earth, perhaps offering insight into broader patterns of conflict and unrest Dr. Lelieveld told the New York Times,. But in this case, they study authors concluded, “it is tragic” that some of the improvements “are associated with humanitarian catastrophes”.

It is no surprise that nitrogen oxide emissions are changing with the economic performance of many countries.

Prof Lelieveld said that “large changes of NO2 have occurred” in the Middle East in a “unique worldwide”. The drop in pollutants was particularly noted beginning in 2010.

But the data – published in the journal Science Advances – is also educational, and may help scientists better predict how geopolitical events and economic trends will affect air quality and global emissions.