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On June 30, 2021, fans spray water vapor mixed with air to cool pedestrians in Baghdad’s street during a heat wave.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
Baghdad is already very hot. And it’s likely to get even hotter.
A ReportAccording to the European Union Institute of Security Studies (EUISS), the average daily temperature in Baghdad of 120 degrees will rise from approximately 14 per year to over 40 over the next two decades.
According to the study, the Iraqi capital will be the most affected by global warming, as it is already experiencing longer heat waves and higher peak temperatures.
Baghdad’s July 28th, 2020 record was set at 125.2 degrees. The temperature dropped to 124 the following day.
Baghdad’s city government has a habit of declaring “heat holidays” in summer to order residents to stay home.
“When it reaches 50 degrees (122 F), we already stay at our home,” Razak AbdulZahra Mubarak (70), one of the many street vendors in Baghdad’s Al Maidan square. “We don’t need to be told by the government to get out of sun when it gets hot.”
Baghdad’s Al Maidan square is basically an outdoor flea marketplace. Mubarak and other vendors sell used clothes, fake designer watches and knives on the sidewalk, as well as computer parts.
Mubarak is seated under a faded umbrella while he looks at the second-hand shoes he’s trying sell. He says, “Each year it gets hotter and hotter.” “There isn’t any rain. And even winter is becoming very short. He used to only take his beach umbrella out in the summer, but now he takes it out all year.
Razak AbdulZahra Murad, 70, is a street vendor at Al Maidan Square in Baghdad. Mubarak is seen sitting under a faded umbrella while he sells secondhand shoes. He says, “Each year it gets hotter and hotter.” “There is no rain. And even winter has become very brief.” He used to only take his beach umbrella out in the summer, but now he takes it out all year.
Jason Beaubien/NPR
Basim Mohamed darweesh, who lives across the street from a huge parking lot, has several vintage watches, some cell phones, and a pile on a folding desk of jewelry. He claims he cannot work at the market after noon, even in the colder winter months.
Darweesh, 56, says that the midday sun makes her head boil. “I must pack my things and leave.”
A neighboring vendor said Darweesh doesn’t always leave the area as quickly as he would like. Darweesh has been ill from heat strokes several times in the past year. To revive him, Darweesh’s fellow vendors had him dragged into the shade of an apartment.
Darweesh insists that he has no other choice but to do this work, despite the extreme heat.
“We are like fish. He said, “If you go out of the water, you will die.” “There’s no other place to go.”
Some estimates show that the global temperature rises steadily, but that Iraq is warming twice as fast. studies.
Basim Mohamed darweesh, a Baghdad street seller, has several old watches, several cell phones, and a pile full of jewelry on a table. He claims he cannot work at the market after noon, even in the cooler winter months. “The midday sun makes me boil,” he said.
Jason Beaubien/NPR
Baghdad reached 120 degrees last June, as the city’s 7 million residents were left without air conditioning and fans due to massive power outages. Frustration at government’s inability of responding to heatwave caused anti-government protests which eventually led to new elections.
“People tend to think that climate change is something that will happen in the 2030s,” says Dr. Michael A. Smith. It’s already happening,” says Florence GaubDeputy director at the European Union Institute for Security Studies. Based in Paris.
Gaub is one among the authors of the StudyThe Arab world’s impact on climate change
Climate change is accelerating, and big cities around the globe could see dramatic rises in temperatures as a result of the “urban heat islands” effect. Cement landscapes trap the sun’s heat and keep it close to the ground. Hot air is also pumped into the streets by air conditioners, cars, and other machines.
Gaub describes a city suffering from urban heat island effects as “a body that has fever and can’t sweat”. There is no escape from the heat.
She says Baghdad will be “even hotter than any other place in Iraq.”
Baghdad’s hotter parts will only make matters worse. One StudyIraqi researchers last year discovered that peak temperatures in different areas within the capital varied by as much 30 degrees Fahrenheit on the same day. Some areas of the urban landscape heat up more than others, especially in downtown, which is dominated by high-rise cement offices buildings. Also, an area south of Baghdad, near the gas flares from an oil refinery, heats up more than other parts.
Hot summer scene in Baghdad, July 7, 2021
Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Gaub suggests that better planning, more green space and planting a few more trees can all help to offset the effects of climate changes in Baghdad.
“But this tragedy of Iraq,” she said. “Not so much the degree to which climate change affects it, but that there is a way to address this challenge. But there is so much mismanagement that Iraq will become a hostile environment for humans down the road.
Dhirgham alobaydi, head of Baghdad University’s architecture department, says that Baghdad will become more hot in the coming years because of a variety factors, including uncontrolled growth.
Alobaydi explains that Iraq has basic zoning and construction regulations, but these rules are frequently ignored.
“The fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Baathists” [in 2003]Alobaydi states that this allowed most people to build what they want.”
Alobaydi, driving through what were once orchards south of the Tigris River points out a huge construction site that is being built. largest shopping mallIraq. It will boast 5 million square foot of commercial space and be almost as big as the Mall of America, the largest mall in America.
A Baghdad shopkeeper sells children’s inflatable tubs during severe heat waves on June 30, 2021.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
A vast expanse is of bulldozed dirt just past the mall. The former farmland is now being divided into housing lots.
Many of these plots are empty. Some are being developed. The lots are covered by buildings.
Alobaydi describes the cement box design as “kind of what we call a container home” and says it has all the flair of an industrial shipping container.
There are no parks, gardens, or parking areas. The only thing that is there are two-story brick and cement walls rising straight up.
Alobaydi explains that Iraqis living on a tight budget are building this type home to maximize their interior living space, so they can accommodate as many relatives as possible.
In the process, they are turning what was once farmland orchards into bricks and concrete that traps more heat. Even worse, the Iraqi electricity grid is very unstable, so the family won’t have air conditioning in the summer heat unless they can afford one.
Alobaydi explains that when power goes out in Baghdad, which it always does in Baghdad at the moment, it will be a disaster. “They won’t have the energy to stay awake for more than an hour.” The heat will not be regulated by anyone, and there won’t even be greenspace for the developers to use as parks.
An electrician controls an electric switchboard connecting homes to privately-owned generators in a Baghdad suburb on June 30, 2021, as the national grid was experiencing outages due to severe heat waves.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
Alobaydi believes there are many things that could be done to make Baghdad more comfortable. A breeze can be funneled between buildings by narrow streets. Sidewalks can reduce the number idle cars. Traditional Iraqi architecture features houses that are set back from the street and front gardens that allow for trees. He says that to combat rising temperatures, Iraqis should rebuild their cities and houses as they did in the past to help them cope.
What if they don’t change?
Florence Gaub, a researcher at the EU, stated that “Iraq will face some difficult years ahead.”
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