Unit 1: AFGHANISTAN

Recap:

My research topic for the Afghanistan project was current environmental issues, and I learned so much that it will be hard to condense it into a single paragraph.

Well, first of all, Aghanistan has terrible air pollution. Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city, has awful pollution and ahs been declared seven times more polluted than is safe for its residents, mainly centering around factory emmisionsand trash and sewage in the streets. Conditions are horrible, with many people in hospitals, and all needing to wear masks over their faces when they go outside! In addition, there have been terrible earthquake in rural regions and those affected were not able to receive adequate aid as fast as they should have. Now, the land itself is in a bad condition. Once lush lands of vegetation have been reduced to deserts by means of wars or deforestation. There are also at least 33 different endangered species. However, the news is not all bad-there are plans to build Afghnaistan's first National Park in the Hindu Kush region, which will bring a new light to this dark and stereotypically sinister country.

Revisit:

The situation does not seem to have imporved much, if any, since August. According to Afghanistan's offical website, while Afghan officials are perfectly aware of the situation, they do not have the money or assistance to make significant changes, mainly due to their current need to focus attention on the war. similar issues are noted at the article Afghanistan: Evironmental degredation in a fragile ecological setting, in which the issues of Afghans overusing the land are taken into account. Apparently, desertification is mainly due to overfarming the land and using natural resources, such as trees and oil and such. All these problems could have been avoided if proper measures to avoid overusage had been taken. It looks like it will take quite awhile to get Afghansitan truly environmentally healthy again.

Reflect:

Considering the environmental challenges facing Afghanistan, I think there is some chance they will be able to become more unified. Once they have the money and such to focus on environmental issues, they will need to join together. Eventually, if they begin working together to clean up the environenment with activities such as clearing out smoke, planting forests, cleaning water supplies and working on building the National Park, they will soon learn cooperation and acceptance of each other, which will be the first steps toward becoming a unified people!