Iran’s Environmental Degradation – OpEd – Eurasia Review

Iran is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, with dwindling water resources, rapid deforestation, desertification, overgrazing of rangelands, and pollution that chokes its cities. This problem, if left unchecked, threatens not only Iran, but also the stability of the region and the world. Iran’s environmental status these days include air pollution, pesticide pollution, soil depletion and erosion, water scarcity and pollution, natural resource loss, lack of appropriate waste management, lead poisoning, and desertification. Environmental policy regulations and how to implement is described under the previous regime and the clerical regime, however, no implementation of those regulations exist. 

Iran is challenged with many interrelated political, social and natural crisis including environmental degradation, unemployment, poverty, and population growth. Sustainability is being undermined in every aspects of environmental issues at the cost of future generations. 

Iran with a population of over 80 million, the country is having difficulty in maintaining its current infrastructure, housing, food, and educational facilities. Population growth leads to increased demand for infrastructure and resources. The regime additionally is faced with extreme uprisings of various sectors of the society demanding Iran’s  “Freedom and Water”. 

The effects of climate change in Iran have already caused internal political unrest and, if unaddressed, threaten further to inhibit the country’s economic, social health, and destabilize an already turbulent region. Toxic air, lack of water, and desertification of agricultural lands have the potential to prompt massive movements of populations fleeing to find more sustainable homes and livelihoods

Today, Iran with abundant oil reserves, natural gas, copper, lead, and  other raw material may be permanently dependent on food imports. Here, exchanging natural resources for food and technology has time and resource limits. Iran has signed many international environmental agreements and has enacted detailed environmental policies and regulations, but actual management and enforcement is lacking.

The air quality in metropolitan Tehran and some other major cities across Iran has gradually become unbreathable for past decades,  and in recent years, the pollution index reaching dangerously high levels for elders and others with respiratory illnesses.

The Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures levels of air contamination, has seen an alarming upturn in the capital of Iran in recent weeks, crossing the threshold of 200 or more, deemed “heavily polluted.”

There are various pollutants in Iran’s air. The most commonly measured are: particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and ozone (O3).

Particulate matter (PM) is defined as fine inhalable particles that are suspended in the air, regardless of the size of the particle. The two most common…