Libanonin ympäristöliikehdinnän taustaa: The background of the environmental movement in Lebanon, خلفية الحركة البيئية في لبنان

During the last thirty years there has been an increase concerning the public awareness and knowledge about environmental questions in general and the state of the Lebanese environmental situation in particular. The environmental movement in the Middle East, and the questions related to it, such as climate change and contamination, has largely received its inspiration from the global environmental movement. Characteristic for the modern environmental history in Lebanon is its rapid weakening. The civil war almost completely destroyed the environmental work that had been built from the 1960s onward and the situation did not improve in the 1990s during the neoliberal politics led by Rafiq Hariri that promoted strong state-led policies, elite-controlled sectarianism, and donor influence.