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https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/environment-and-energy/environmental-challenges-in-the-uae

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Environmental threats

The challenges to the natural environment today are immense. The UAE faces the impact of rapid development and the effects of climate change and global warming. Protection of environment and sustainable development are key topics which receive great attention from the UAE Government.

The UAE's rapid economic development made the country face serious environmental challenges that arise from the high pace of population growth, the increase in the demand for energy and water and the fast-paced urban development accompanied with high level of GHG and other emissions in the UAE.

According to the Living Planet Report 2010 by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (PDF, 3 MB), the UAE was rated number one in the world for having the biggest ecological footprint. The ecological footprint is a measure of a country's sustainability that compares the use of natural resources per person per capita, which is expressed by a unit of bio-productive land called the 'global hectare' (gha).

Key environment threats include:
Invasive species
Invasive species are a key factor with negative effects on the UAE's biodiversity. Many species enter the region as a result of increase in commercial activity and through illicit trade in wild species. Some plants that can bear the high temperature and salinity have been admitted to the country to be used in the cultivation of forests and landscaping within cities, while other species have been admitted as personal possessions.

Foreign species expect to cause serious consequences on wildlife, in particular, and the environment in general. There are many migratory species and wild animals that use certain areas of the country to spread from. These species include sea turtles, dugongs, birds of prey and sharks. These species, just like other wild animals, are exposed to various risks that threaten their existence.

Carbon footprints

On a per-capita basis, the UAE's energy, water and carbon footprints are amongst the highest in the world as the hot and dry climate requires a high amount of energy and import of many goods that cannot be produced in the country.
Limited water sources
The UAE's natural freshwater sources are rare and limited to groundwater. The government is increasingly resorting to desalinated water, which has been produced using excess heat from electricity generation. This has caused impact on the marine environment from discharging highly concentrated seawater to the Arabian Gulf, etc.

Overfishing

Marine life faces a number of threats such as over-fishing. Marine species including fish and coral are also increasingly affected by climate change. The UAE has been reliant on fisheries as main sources of diet but the stress on marine habitat is increasing.

Read UAE Aquaculture Guide (PDF, 1.5MB).
Waste generation
The UAE's per-capita waste generation is among the world's highest, the majority of which ends up in landfills. These pressures have motivated the government to take effective policy actions and to build scenarios and coordinated strategies to reduce any significant negative environment impact and to protect biodiversity and ecosystem.
Air pollution
Keeping the ambient air quality within required standards has been one of the main challenges to the environment authorities in the country. Pollution is largely affected by human activities, the emissions from fuel combustion for energy, water and transport and industrial activities.
Land degradation and desertification
Man-made factors such as population increase, human activities that degrade the quality of soils and land utility and consumption systems, play a major role in increasing land degradation and desertification. Drought and over-exploitation of natural resources are the main factors that cause desertification.

The increasing pressure on natural resources, water resources and urban encroachment on arable land, along with the intense use of pesticides and fertilisers and overgrazing are contributing to the deterioration of soil.

Desertification, land degradation and drought are global concerns affecting the lives of millions of people and pose serious challenges to sustainable development. They aggravate economic, social and environmental problems such as poverty, ill health, food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity, reduced resilience to climate change and forced migration.

The UAE developed the National Strategy to Combat Desertification 2014-2021 which was aligned with the global efforts to fight desertification. It also issued many decisions, projects and initiatives at the national level that would limit desertification and land degradation.

Read more about combating desertification in the UAE.

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Environmental challenges | The Official Portal of the UAE Government

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Invasive species, carbon footprints, limited water resources, overfishing, waste generation, air pollution and land degradation and desertification are posing an environmental threat to the UAE.

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Peru's principal environmental problems are air pollution, water pollution, soil erosion and pollution, and deforestation. Air pollution is a problem, especially in Lima, due to industrial and vehicle emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources totaled 26.1 million metric tons in 1996. Water pollution is another of Peru's environmental concerns. Its sources are industrial waste, sewage, and oil-related waste. The nation has 1,746 cu km of renewable water resources with 86% used to support farming and 7% used for industrial activity. Only 87% percent of city dwellers and 62% of the rural population have access to pure drinking water. The nation's cities produce about3.0 million tons of solid waste per year. Soil erosion has resulted from overgrazing on the slopes of the costa and sierra.

The National Office for the Evaluation of Natural Resources is the principal policymaking body for resource development, while the General Department of the Environment, part of the Ministry of Health, deals with control of pollution problems; water, forest, and wildlife resources are the province of the Ministry of Agriculture. Numerous environmental protection measures have been passed, but enforcement is lax and hampered by inefficient management and scarce fiscal resources. A major environmental challenge for Peru in the 1980s had been opening the selva for agricultural development without doing irreparable harm to the ecology of the Amazon Basin.

In 2001, 46 of the nation's mammal species and 64 of its bird species were endangered. About 653 of its plant species were also endangered. Endangered species include the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, black spider monkey, puna rhea, tundra peregrine falcon, white-winged guan, arrau, green sea turtle, hawksbill turtle, olive ridley turtle, leatherback turtle, spectacled caiman, black caiman, Orinoco crocodile, and American crocodile.

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Peru's principal environmental problems are air pollution, water pollution, soil erosion and pollution, and deforestation. Air pollution is a problem, especially in Lima, due to industrial and vehicle emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources totaled 26.1 million metric tons in 1996. Water pollution is another of Peru's environmental concerns.

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Skeletal remains of a 43 million-year-old four-legged whale that lived on land and in the ocean have been discovered.

Scientists have discovered the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown amphibious four-legged whale species in Egypt that helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.

The newly discovered whale belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that falls in the middle of that transition, an Egyptian-led team of researchers said in a statement.

Its fossil was unearthed from middle Eocene rocks in the Fayum Depression in Egypt's Western Desert - an area once covered by sea that has provided a rich seam of discoveries showing the evolution of whales - before being studied at Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre (MUVP).

The new whale, named Phiomicetus anubis, had an estimated body length of some three meters (10 feet) and a body mass of about 1,300lb and was likely a top predator, the researchers said. Its partial skeleton revealed it as the most primitive protocetid whale known from Africa.

"Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology," said Abdullah Gohar of MUVP, lead author of a paper on the discovery published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The whale's genus name honours the Fayum Depression and species name refers to Anubis, the ancient canine-headed Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife.

Despite recent fossil discoveries, the big picture of early whale evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery, the researchers said. Work in the region had the potential to reveal new details about the evolutionary transition from amphibious to fully aquatic whales.

With rocks covering about 12 million years, discoveries in the Fayum Depression "range from semiaquatic crocodile-like whales to giant fully aquatic whales", said Mohamed Sameh of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, a co-author.

The new whale has raised questions about ancient ecosystems and pointed research towards questions such as the origin and coexistence of ancient whales in Egypt, said Hesham Sellam, founder of the MUVP and another co-author.
This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission

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Skeletal remains of a 43 million-year-old four-legged whale that lived on land and in the ocean have been discovered. Scientists have discovered the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown amphibious four-legged whale species in Egypt that helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.