johns bell and zada discuss cairo’s annual black clouds that are in part due to farmers in the nile delta burning rice straw after harvests.
i spent some time in beijing last summer which is one of the few cities in the world with comparable pollution problems to cairo and attended a number of greening the beige events while there. that were being organized there:
Greening the Beige (GtB) is a collective for artists and performers that celebrate eco-minded thinking. The aim of GtB is to foster community awareness regarding eco-positive and responsible city living, while at the same time connect creative thinkers, socially responsible organizations, and other supporters for a “greener” Beijing.
cairo it seems could do with a similar group. interestingly in beijing the effort was almost exclusively driven by beijing’s engaged expatriate community (which reminded me of dubai where it’s by and large the expats that push things forward). of course beijing has reached the stage where it can afford to think about secondary problems like pollution (the olympics was a massive impetus as well) whereas cairo has a long list of more primary challenges.
the interesting thing to note is that a significant difference could be made by simply stopping the farmers’ rice straw burning habits – an example of the many policy low lying fruits that somehow do not get taken care of in egypt.