Blog Action Day Aae09 addresses climate change.

By Yasmine Abu TarboushBlog Action Day is an annual event that brings bloggers all over the world together by posting about the same issue on the same day. The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of an important cause or issue, and get the world to discuss it. As blogs are occupying a significant spot, the issues that are chosen to be discussed on this day widely spread amongst the Internet community.This year the issue is AoClimate ChangeAo, with the world being is disarray as to how best tackle the issue, taking into consideration the differing attitudes of top industrial nations. Last year, the theme was on Poverty; efforts were focused to spread the word so that bloggers would propose solutions or speak out their minds. In 2007 the event addressed the Environment; bloggers have done many things including coming up with innovative ideas and experiments that would contribute to the eco-system. AoBlog Action DayAo was founded by Collis & Cyan TaAAEeed in the summer of 2007. With the support of their team in Australia plus many volunteers, they recruited thousands of bloggers to write about the issue of Environment on October 15, 2007Aumaking the first Blog Action Day an immediate and quite startling triumph. Up till now, around 13,600 sites and 18,085,076 readers from 156 countries have joined Blog Action Day 2009. Among the blogging participants, were the British and Spanish governments, as well as the White House.Jordanian bloggers were also present in the international event; renowned Jordanian blogger Bater Wardam told the Star, AoJordanian bloggers joined this global effort by adding more than 20 posts about climate change; amongst these bloggers was Minister of Environment Khalid Irani who posted his contribution on 7iber.com.AoAoThough Jordanian blogs can spread knowledge and raise awareness of Climate Change, their impact is still not fairly profound due to their relatively low penetration within the community,Ao he added. According to Wardam, most of the posts on Climate Day were in English, while it seemed that bloggers who post in Arabic were out of the scene, as blogs have not yet been established as a means to raise awareness among the public in most Arab countries. Nevertheless, the collective effort of bloggers at least has managed to spread the message within the circle of blog readers which is getting wider by the day.Blogging has become an influential communication tool that is breaking free from restrictions of long-established forms of media and it has the growing power of networking and campaigning. Wardam explained how blogs will contribute enormously to social, economic and political causes, as well as environmental ones with time; but for now they have revolutionized the networking potential among people of different backgrounds. Blogger Naseem Tarawnah said, AoJordanian blogs provide a space that is not commonly available in Jordan for an issue like climate change to be discussed; they provide room for discussion in addition to engaging in advocacy and raising awareness of an issue that mainstream media tends to downplay.AoAccording to Tarawnah, posts on Climate Change increased by 500% on Blog Action Day, which proves that blogs are championing causes that matter, as the issue has been tackled worldwide.AoSuch an issue might be highlighted for a short while on TV or in newspapers, but soon it will fade away, whereas online discussions and posts live on; upon googling climate change, discussions hosted by a blog will instantly come to the surface,Ao he added.TarawnahAAEs blog AoBlack IrisAo has gained an overwhelming popularity among Jordanians; he considers it Aoa platform where people can come together to discuss local issues we encounter in our country, our region and the entire worldAo. AoBlogs are designed to highlight a bloggerAAEs opinion; therefore my posts reflect my views, but they are also a great opportunity to start a discussion and a healthy debate in relation to local issues or global ones such as climate change,Ao Tarawnah asserted.It has been a significant year for Climate Change, as the cause is getting quite a buzz; along with Blog Action Day, the Copenhagen meeting of the Parties (COP15) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in December.The summit is going to discuss several issues in relation to climate change including: Industrialized countries reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases, the role of major developing countries in limiting the growth of their emissions, help needed by developing countries to engage in the process of reducing emissions and adapting the impacts of climate change, and how to finance and manage it. Meanwhile, environment professor Awni Taimeh stressed that climate change is a very important issue, since it concerns not only Jordan or the region but also the entire globe. AoWe have noticed by studying the soil that Climate Change has been taking place for thousands of years but its recent rapid pace is what arouses concern,Ao he said.AoObviously the decline in rainfall is one of the most crucial issues of climate change, as there was a 25% decrease in rainfall in the past 30 years which of course affects the cycle of plants and eventually it is affecting the crops and agriculture in general,Ao he added.Taimeh explained how it is not only the quantity of rain that is changing, but also the type of rain. AoRain is altering from even distribution into a stormier pattern which is causing soil to erode, thus harming plants and causing desertification.AoMoreover, he said that Aoit is not only rain that is being affected by this major change, but it is also the groundwater supplies; some predict that we are about to witness more drastic climatic changes as temperatures rise, which will cause water in the soil to evaporate and so all living things will be affectedAo. Taimeh said that it is about time climate change is highlighted and discussed in Jordan thoroughly, because it is causing the cycle of life of plants to get shorter which mainly affects the agricultural produce. Meanwhile, there are recent studies which show an increasing fear that icebergs and cold regions would also suffer immensely from climate change that could cause the ice to melt, thus threatening the lives of animals, plants and even people. AoWe are all facing this issue, no matter how the climate differs from one place to another,Ao concluded Taimeh. Farm owner Alwan Alawneh said that crops are really affected by climate change year after year. AoStrong seasonal winds are affecting pollen, and rain delay is causing plants that rely on rain to fade away earlier or not be as fresh and fully grown,Ao he declared, adding that Aoone of the most affected crops is olive which Jordan is relying on big time, as rain came late this year and the very hot summer weather caused some damageAo

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