The last of the Marsh Arabs

The article mentions Wilfred Thesiger; I'd just chime in with a quick recommendation - both 'The Arab Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' rank among the best travel/exploration books I've ever read.

Quite unlike most of his contemporaries, Thesiger goes out of his way to live with and understand the people he encounters, rather than trying to impose his own morals and standards on them.

I haven't read The Marsh Arabs in years; think I'll try to locate it on my shelves tonight...

It's evocative and beautifully written, though mostly sad news.

“This is the purest water anywhere in the marshes,” Abbas says. Carp dart around and kingfishers and gulls fly overhead. There are at least 15 species of fish in the Hawizeh, and over 150 species of birds found throughout the marshes, including four that are endemic and eight that are globally threatened. Some, like the Basra reed warbler, survived the draining of its habitat against the odds, breeding in pockets of remaining reedbed before returning, Phoenix-like, after the re-flooding.

"Early settlers worked this ground to grow crops and domesticate animals; eventually, around 6,000 years ago, agriculture led to urbanization. These early cities — Eridu, Uruk, Ur and others — relied heavily on the natural resources of the marshes and were strung along waterways and latticed with canals to give access to the plains, the Gulf and to one another. " this people weren't arabs as far as I know arabs came 1500 years ago. I know language is not ethnicity but the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures are dead for long time. the story is s still sad but its the same story every where

I am so impressed by those photos. Those are stunning and so perfectly relevant.

This documentary is worth a watch if you can find it: Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq (BBC).

https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Miracle_in_the_Marshes_...

So today green energy isn’t green?

Yesterday hydroelectric good. Today hydroelectric bad. Kind of like eggs.

It is remarkable how thoroughly and swiftly we have scarred this world.