Sewage Systems, Oil Spills, and Oil Fires in Iraq Essay -- Iraq Baghda

Baghdad, Iraq is located on the continent of Asia at a latitude of thirty-three degrees north and longitude of forty-four degrees east near the doldrums. The air in Iraq is typically warm and dry because it is located where air diverges between the Hadley and Ferrel cells. The climate in Iraq consists of hot and long summers that last from May to October. During the summer, temperatures regularly exceed one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. There is no rainfall and the humidity is low. The temperature begins to cool down in October. December, January, and February are the coldest months. There are occasional frosts during these months. There is also rainfall. Winters in Iraq are customarily cool and moist in comparison to the warm, dry summers.1 The rain that occurs in the winter is unpredictable and cannot be depended upon to irrigate crops. The main natural disaster in the area is flooding. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood unpredictably at harvest time, or ri ght before the harvest time.2 This flooding ensures a continually unstable environment with fertile areas near the rivers and sub-desert areas away from the rivers. The flooding and receding rivers have changed the position of the gulf shoreline along with the fluctuation in sea level. 4 The Tigris and Euphrates rivers have a lot to do with the well being of the region in which Iraq is located. Today the Tigris River is severely polluted. Raw sewage runs throughout this river. The fertile marshlands that once existed have either been destroyed or have dried up due to human interaction. The air in Iraq is polluted due to oil fires resulting from broken oil wells. Iraq, which was famous for its state of the art medical care is now in disarray. The po... ...ulf War. London, U.K.: Greenpeace, 1991. Committee of Officials. Kingdom of Iraq: An Introduction to the Past and Present. Baltimore, MD, USA: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1964. Green, Matthew. â€Å"Languid Tigris Waters Mask Iraq ’s Pollution Menace.† Planet Ark. 13 July 2004. 10 November 2004. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25984/story.htm. Helms, Christine Moss. Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1984. Pollack, Susan. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden That Never Was. New York: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1999. Recknagel, Charles. â€Å" Iraq Wetlands Disappearing.† Green Nature. 15 June 2001. 10 November 2004. http://www.greennature.com/article498.html. The Iraq Water Project. The Iraq Water Project. 1999. 10 November 2004. http://www.iraqwaterproject.com/intro.htm.