Political disturbance and armed conflict in the Middle East since 2010 have had the unintended consequence of making the air cleaner.
Researchers say that in countries like Syria and Iraq, levels of air pollutants have fallen dramatically.
The amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air over Damascus has fallen by up to 50% since start of the civil war.
Read the full article here.
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According to BBC News' Environment correspondent Matt McGrath's report, air has become cleaner in the Middle East, thanks to the political instability and military conflict in that area.
This sounds really odd, but I read the article and realized that the quality of improvement in the air was not uniformly across all regions in the Middle East, but specifically to areas where people were driven away from their homes. However, for areas where people have relocated to, such as refugee camps, the level of pollutants had increased instead.
Such data could give food for thought to politicians while they debate the optimal population size their countries could host, not solely from the economic perspective (more people equals more manpower for the jobs that drive the GDP), but also from the environmental aspect (more people equals more need for housing, transport, food, activities that will take away green areas that absorb carbon dioxide).
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