“متن فارسی را به انگلیسی ترجمه کنید:”

“Translate the Farsi text to English:”

The pristine and beautiful Abbas Abad forest is drowning in garbage.

In these days, there is a lot of talk about the environment and its preservation, which itself can be a sign of the critical nature of this issue in our country. But before delving into the discussion of its correctness or incorrectness, it is necessary to clarify our definitions and remind ourselves of the difference between this phenomenon and the concept of nature. The difference between the environment and nature is that the definition of nature includes a set of natural, biological, and non-biological factors that are considered exclusively; while the term environment is described from the perspective of human interactions with nature. Therefore, in the discussion of the environment, we are mostly faced with the impact of human behavior on nature.

After this brief definition, let’s see where our country’s capacities and inherent position in nature are and then examine how we have utilized these facilities and capacities of our country’s nature, and in fact, what has been our approach towards the nature around us?

Perhaps for many Iranians who have witnessed serious environmental crises in our country, it may not be believable that Iran’s nature has unique capacities and prominences on a global level. The writer refrains from repeating common quotes such as “Iran has four seasons” or “the quality of the Caspian Sea beaches” or “the coral reefs of Kish Island” and only mentions two examples as a handful of samples. Iran has a diverse climate, with 11 out of 13 recognized climates in the world present in the country. Close to 8,000 plant species or units have been identified in this country, of which approximately 1,800 are native. This number of plant species is equivalent to the plant species found throughout the entire continent of Europe. (1).

And in the face of this abundance of natural wealth and geographical luck, where does our position stand in terms of preserving the environment in the world? In this regard, undoubtedly we have not only heard numerous news, but we have also experienced existing crises at the cost of damaging our health, skin, flesh, and bones. Again, as a handful of examples, we can mention numerous incidents of desertification. According to the latest report on environmental performance indicators, prepared by Yale University, the position of Iran has dropped from 67th in 2008 to 78th in 2010 and 114th in 2011 among 132 countries. Annually, nearly forty thousand citizens of Tehran die due to air pollution, which is four times higher than the death rate from AIDS. On the other hand, with the drying up of Lake Urmia and the conversion of 390,000 hectares of its lands into a desert, which has been called the largest desertification event of the

After giving Iran a yellow card (warning) and a two-year deadline, UNESCO has removed this park, which was also one of the most beautiful geoparks in the world, from its World Heritage List. In short, the situation has become so dire that it has even raised the voices of government officials. According to research centers, “severe air pollution in major cities, heavy clouds of Arab dust in the country’s sky, accumulation of oil pollution and agricultural toxins on the coasts of the sea and rivers, continued destruction and devastation of Iran’s wetlands, endangered wildlife, destruction of protected forests, along with thousands of other environmental problems, show that Iran’s environmental management has become even worse in recent years.” What is even more interesting is the confession of Mr. Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, the head of the Environmental Protection Organization under Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government, that “Iran is one of the top ten countries in the world that destroy the environment.”

The summary of the statement is that Ahvaz is known as the most polluted city in the world, and Tehran ranks among the top 10 unlivable cities in the world. In other words, Tehran has surpassed cities like Damascus, which is caught in a civil war, and ranks 131st out of 140 cities. According to one expert, if we study the historical periods of Iran, from ancient times to the present, I can confidently say that Iran has never been on the brink of an environmental disaster like this before.

But who is responsible for this tragedy? There is no doubt that on one hand, the authorities are to blame. According to Deutsche Welle, the budget for the environment in Iran has been reduced by a total of 30% in the proposed budget for 1392. This decrease comes at a time when environmental problems in Iran have reached unprecedented levels and Iran’s position in terms of preserving the environment in the world has greatly declined. According to Kamal al-Din Pirmozhen, a member of the Environmental Commission of the Parliament, not only has the Environmental Organization not presented any new plans in the new bill to reduce air pollution and revive Lake Urmia, but the budget for preventing air pollution has also decreased by 39% compared to last year.

Despite all this, in this year’s month of Bahman, when a plan was proposed in parliament to reduce air pollution, it did not receive the necessary votes; an event in which both members of parliament and the government played a major role. This is while forty years ago, the government of Iran at the time took the issue of the environment seriously. For example, in 1973, the Ramsar International Convention was formed with an emphasis on preserving the rights of wetlands. Another environmental activity that can be mentioned is a treaty that Iran signed with Iraq and Saudi Arabia for desert reclamation, which helped stabilize desert soil and prevented, for example, sandstorms from reaching Iran from Saudi Arabia. However, we know that all of these actions were forgotten in the past decade and the country is now facing a tsunami of dust and polluted dust.

However, it is important to emphasize that in creating an environmental crisis, not only government officials are to blame, but also the shortcomings and negligence of the government should be considered as part of a cultural poverty that has engulfed the entire country, and sadly, many ordinary people also play a role in it.

As an example, it is not hidden from anyone that despite the water crisis in Iran, our consumption pattern as Iranians is far from the global standard. Most of us Iranians, who often accuse the Western world of excessive consumption and talk about Western consumer culture, knowingly or unknowingly ignore the fact that in developed countries, industrial production is consumed with care and resources such as water, energy, and fuel are used efficiently and even frugally, which is unbelievable for us.

Another example – apart from the disposal of municipal garbage trucks in nature by the municipality and the improper disposal of waste, which is a detailed discussion in itself – is the dumping of waste in nature by people, which leads to the destruction of the environment during the Nowruz holidays with even more urgency. Hooman Najafi, one of the tourism experts, had said about this: “If out of the approximately 70 million population of the country, only five million people travel during Nowruz and each of these individuals throws fruit peels or other waste out of their car, and this happens twice a day, 10 million pieces of waste are left in nature daily…” (2) Another similar case is the issue of household waste separation. The writer remembers several times in different areas of Tehran, the municipality spent time and resources on experimental projects to encourage citizens to separate paper waste from other waste, but despite the encouragement and preparations, these projects were unsuccessful due to the lack of cooperation from the majority

“Love is the most beautiful feeling in the world.”

The improved sleeping boxes paid for the cleaning of a part of Tehran from cigarette waste.

But let us allow ourselves to be a little optimistic and appreciate some actions for promoting environmental conservation. One of these actions is a great initiative that, in addition to improving cardboard beds, cleaned up the route from Tajrish Square to Valiasr Intersection of cigarette waste on Tuesday, March 13th.

Furthermore, recently a news has been spread on social media as one of the good events of these days. According to this news, during the trip of the head of the Environmental Organization to Qazvin province, the director of environmental protection of this province, in the welcoming ceremony of Ms. Ebtakar, instead of sacrificing a sheep, made an interesting initiative and released a bird. (3).

He spoke about this action, saying: “I suggest that planting trees and releasing birds that are confiscated from poachers should replace the sacrifice of animals. The writer has wished that this proposal first be discussed among government officials and then through cultural education, media, speakers, and artists, it becomes a culture among the general public.”

In addition, it had been reported in the news that a group of veterans and disabled individuals of the country took part in a symbolic movement of swimming in Lake Zerivar in Kurdistan and through this action, they have demanded attention and preservation of the environment in this region. (4) The numerous marches that take place in various parts of our country for the protection and preservation of the environment are good signs that such civil concerns are emerging among a portion of the people. The main point of this speech is that the environmental crisis is serious and instead of blaming the government and being passive, we should all strive to promote a culture of environmental protection. Protecting the environment is not only the duty of the government or authority; it is the duty of all citizens and one of the signs of sustainable development.

1- For more information, visit the news-analysis website of the ecosystem.

2- Instead of advertising without any benefit, media should promote not littering in nature, ISNA news agency, 5 Ordibehesht month 1388.

3- Let’s replace these actions with “sheep slaughter”, ISNA news agency, Thursday, February 23, 2014.

4- Let’s all find Zariwar together, Kurdpress, 24 Esfand 1392.