Climate Change Overview: EGYPT

Nowadays, scientists generally agree that human-made climate change – the effect of greenhouse gas emissions from things like cars and factories – is what has caused a constant increase in sea level and warm weather. However, the impacts of such things, the socio-economic impacts on less economically developed nations, is ignored far too often. Egypt, a nation riddled with fear and terror, with an unstable government and constant revolutions and military coups, is already not faring well. With a 12% unemployment rate and with 27% of its population below the poverty line, the last thing Egypt needs is an external force driving it's people further into the ground. Egypt's, a country that rests besides the Mediterranean Sea, two main income sources are agriculture and tourism: two things that climate change will specifically impact.
​
As crops are destroyed by the sea and the weather becomes so unbearably hot that to drives tourists away, the world will see as Egypt, along with many other struggling nations, descends into chaos. Rising sea levels are affecting the Nile River delta, the triangle where the Nile spreads out and drains into the sea. It's where Egypt grows most of its crops. According to the world bank, Egypt is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. All along the Sea's waterfront, the Egyptian government has erected barriers in an attempt to prevent flooding caused by ever-stronger winter storms. There's no beach in Egypt anymore since the sand washed away years ago. Many scientists predict a sea level rise of a further two feet by the end of the century. Some historic buildings are already crumbling, as salt water seeps into the bricks. Entire neighborhoods could be submerged. And who is this affecting? Nations that can barely afford to sustain themselves under normal conditions. Experts say that the effects of hotter weather, including reduced rainfall, would cut agricultural productivity by 15 to 20 percent – a huge blow to a country already struggling to feed its people.

---