The Department of Geology, in cooperation with the Development and Continuing Education Unit at the College of Science, University of Baghdad, held a panel discussion entitled “Iraq’s Skies and The Alarming Rise in Air Pollution” under the patronage of the Dean of the College, Assistant Professor Dr. Raed Falih Hassan, in the presence of several students, teachers, and environmental professionals.
The purpose of the panel discussion was to highlight Iraq’s environmental problems considering the high sulphur levels in the capital Baghdad, ways to restore its environmental purity, address the growing pollution phenomenon and find future solutions.
The lecture was given by environmental specialists to discuss the implications of Iraq’s climate change phenomenon, as the capital was classified according to the United Nations ranks the world’s fifth worst affected by this worsening phenomenon. Reviewing the factors behind the high rates of air pollution in many Iraqi cities, particularly the major ones population, such as overpopulation due to large-scale rural migration and the spread of slums in the periphery of cities, identifying ways to cope with this pollution and reducing its dangerous effects, by increasing green spaces and belts within and around the capital, tighter control of environmentally damaging and air-contaminated gas and vapour residues from factories and vehicles infrastructure systems that are already obsolete and consumed and need to be modernized, restored and built.