Last week I watched a documentary that focused on the effects of global warming on the environment of the North African nation of Tunisia. I have to say that overall I found the documentary rather depressing, with abandoned homes and dead plants taking up quite a lot of screen time during this documentary, but I assume that was the whole point. To get the world to see the effects of global warming on a rather improvised nation like Tunisia. The documentary starts by talking about how the previous government of President Ben Ali, who was overthrown in a revolution in 2011, initially downplayed the effects of global warming. Then the government announced that they would work to address the issue of climate change, but still little improved. A kind of mascot was introduced in a camping by the government to stop the global warming, but it did little and was seen as a giant ugly rat, as called by a member of the Tunisian parliament.
The biggest issues resulting from global warming that were clear to me was the rising level of the sea around the various coastal areas in the country. In one example, there is an ancient Roman ruin that is right next to the water and it appears that in a few years, with the rising sea levels, it may go underwater. There are also a number of wells that used to be full of water that people could use. Now, however, they are all empty of water and instead used as trash disposal. This was related to the decrease in water availability in the nation. The previous government was also criticized for allowing the construction of a number of hotels along the coastline that employed large pools and waterslides, in a country that was already going through a tough time getting a steady supply of water.
The biggest issue that I saw, however, was the rapid advancement of desertification in the country. Many accounts of once beautiful gardens being overrun by huge masses of sand seemed like the main theme of the whole documentary. Entire houses were literally shallowed up, with many families becoming homeless as a result. One woman stated that she had tried to remove the sand, even going as far to calling a bulldozer to assist. This was unfortunately not enough and the home had to be abandoned. Roughly 63% of all of Tunisia’s land was at risk of desertification. The only solution that was really apparent in the documentary was the construction of sand barriers. A government official showed plans to build the barriers, which were planned to go on for many miles. At first I wondered how such an improvised nation that had gone though a revolution not too long ago would afford such a project. Then I saw what the “barriers” looked like. One guy took what appeared to be long palm leafs from trees, dug a hole, and then put the palm leaf facing upward. He repeated this until he started to have a kind of barrier erected. This was somewhat surprising, as I used to build stuff in the sandbox back in elementary school that was similar to this. The barrier did not appear to be more then 5-6 feet tall at max. Nonetheless, if it gets the job done and slows sand expansion, then it is a job well done.
Overall a well made documentary that seemed to cover all the angles of the current climate crisis that Tunisia finds itself in. Hopefully things will change for the better. But being a pessimist and at best a realist, I see little evidence that will happen.
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