Ch Ch Ch Changes

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I have seen the climate changing here in the UAE and the effects of climate change since I first came here in the late '80s. I've watched the wadi tracks being turned into blacktop and wadis such as the East Coast's Warryah and the great Hatta Wadi turned into graffiti-splashed rubbish tips and I've watched as the many natural pools that dotted the Hajar mountains were drained by farmers using stinking pumps that leak oil and benzine into the waterways.

I've seen the desert becoming increasingly dotted with clumps of vegetation further and further out from the towns so that now you have to strike deep into the dunes before you see unbroken sand and I've watched the mountains being torn down to build megaprojects while villagers complain of disease, dust and unpredictable water flows. I've witnessed the water table plummet as natural underground waterways of the UAE have been depleted.

I've seen dead coral and coastal spills, turtle beaches in danger and helped to clear rich mangrove creeks clotted with reeking rubbish. I've stood on long strands as fishermen leave hundreds of sand sharks to gasp their last, dotting the long shore with their white-bellied bodies. I've watched in horror as huge, ecologically disruptive, building projects promote the proximity of migratory, and protected, flamingos.

I do recommend taking part in this survey, linked here. It's part of Richard Wagner's Doctoral Thesis, at the Vrije University in Amsterdam and is being supported by EDA, the Emirates Diving Association. It's a short, well-structured survey that should take no longer than ten minutes of your time.