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New Life for Iraq’s Wetlands

If we agree that Al Gore has done more than anyone else to alert the world about the perils of global warming, can we at least allow that one of the unmitigated benefits of the intervention in Iraq has been the restoration of that country's wetlands? The Guardian carries a story on the ecological revivification of "Eden":

By 2003, more than 90% of the Mesopotamian wetlands, dubbed the Garden of Eden, had been lost, and reduced to barren salt pans. Experts feared that the region, home to an ancient people considered the heirs of the Babylonians and Sumerians, would vanish by 2008.

Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years.

The objective here is to combine the accoutrements of modern life — satellite television, wireless Internet, etc. — with the traditional Marsh Arab mode of subsistence. 

Do you suppose the engineers and scientists at work on this ambitious project are in line for a Nobel Peace Prize of their own? I'm feeling un-cynical today, so I'll say, "Sure." 

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