Global Warming And The Lebanese

The Beirut Spring

With such a small industrial production, does it matter if the Lebanese care about global warming?

So today is blog action day, and the topic is climate change. I really don’t know what “action” the people behind this day are talking about. What I really care about is our role as a tiny nation, whose minuscule green gas footprint is so small it hardly registers. Do we, as Lebanese, really need to take part of this great debate?

When it comes to global warming, the Lebanese are divided into three categories: The preachy (”do you know that your gas-guzzling Hummer is going to kill us all?”) , the apathetic (”Global warming? Whatever dude”) and the skeptic (”Global warming is a hoax man, I can’t believe you’re falling for this”)

What I don’t see is people asking: How can we benefit from this worldwide scare and put Lebanon at the forefront of action to find a solution? (and cash in on it)

I can hear what you’re thinking: But we’re a small country, we can hardly make a difference. But that’s exactly where you’d be wrong. It is precisely because we are a small country that we can try out new ways to power our lifestyles. America and China are too big, too industrialized to use their countries as labs, but Lebanon? with our pathetic electricity supply, we really have nothing to lose.

If you think I’m talking pie-in-the-sky, I invite you to look at our enemy down south. Israel, a country with a similar size and climate to ours, is putting itself at the forefront of research to fight global warming. Do you know that Israel will be the world’s first country to use electrical cars on a wide scale?

Renauld-Nissan needed a small country to test what an all-electrical-cars market would behave like. They needed a government that would install electrical filling stations all over the country, entrepreneurs that would make money out of the venture, and scientists that would keep improving the efficiency.

It is a failure of our nation, of our society, of our politics, that Renauld-Nissan –whose CEO Carlos Ghosn has Lebanese roots– chose Israel, not Lebanon as a battleground against global warming.

(Photo credit)

Please also take your time to see what my blogger friends had to say for this global action day: Lilliane, Rami, Maya, Chantal, Joe , Darine, Hummus, Cafethawra

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Tarek is the founder and chief researcher at Youngberry, a youth research and marketing firm dedicated to the region. Tarek founded interactiveME.com and previously worked as Manager at Flip Media (Interactive Agency), Bayt.com (Job Site) and Consulting House Qatar (Consulting firm). He is researcher and writer on internet & disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship, and youth culture.