Middle East peace process might be blocked, the path remains open to building trust by achieving progress on the environment in 2022. Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians can unite to fight our common climate-change Armageddon.
First, some background. For many Middle Easterners, life outside is already unbearable during the long summer months. Turning again to those climate models, the number of days with high summer temperatures is predicted to increase by 50% by the end of the century. Our governments are already struggling to cope. They fail to provide the most basic services of water, electricity and food for too many in our region.
Inspired by the participation of young people in efforts to clean up the Jordan river, Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian local leaders have come together. One of our proudest moments was a meeting at which mayors from all communities held hands and stood in their swimming trunks in a cleaned-up portion of the river. The mayors are not best friends.