rolf wroteWell you and me, we were taught how to behave, weren't we? So maybe others can be taught in the same way, that is the idea.
In the long term, taking care of the environment pays off.
I don't know if people realize, we are near Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia. They have have beautiful nature, beaches, mountains, good climate, good food, history.
Just like us.
But they take care of this and get a lot of tourism. Plus they are in the EU which makes everything easier.
How will Lebanon attract tourists? We won't. Some will come, but they're like 5% of the potential tourism that we could have if the environment was properly taken care of.
We are not the only country blessed with a nice climate, mountains, etc. Others will take advantage and take care of their blessings, and invest in it. If we don't, then we will just be left in the dirt, and it would be well deserved.
We don't have that many resources, nor are we very competitive on the industrial and agricultural fields, compared to other countries such as Syria.
The only thing that is left is knowledge, banking. Well if banking was so advanced in Lebanon we would have half-decent online banking, and instant free transfer, like they have in Europe for example.
The knowledge economy has a global market. Offshore banking, offshore IT, support, many of these things can be outsourced across the globe nowadays, with internet. So are we competing with Dubai? India? Good luck with that!
Lebanon has an economy, however I'm not sure this country is going anywhere interesting like this.
About tourism - forget about it for 5-10 years. And not because of pollution, it is reasons where lebanon cannot change anything.
First - gulf countries if much more poor now due oil prices and war expenses, second - due war in syria situation in country wont be calm for this time.
Business, banking and etc is also very hard question, Lebanon are smartest country in arab world and benefitting from that, but arab world quickly becoming poor due oil prices and as it is being dragged in war conflicts, same as tourism. It might be a time to search new markets, but rules of game totally different there. If some handmade device can be sold to gulf easily, who has same rules of game, in europe/us/asia they will say go away if you didn't complete all certifications, documentations and other boring routine that businesses in lebanon didn't got used to do. And some of this certifications will check your agricultural produce for... contamination caused by pollution. And recycled plastics, as well, as i checked, dont have even necessary marking about plastic type, and who knows how many harmful compounds in them. And so on...
Why maybe worth giving bad idea about ecological fines to government, but for sake of clean environment important - because lebanese is drinking polluted water and breathing polluted air and business rules might change, produce made in polluted environment noone will buy. But again, Lebanese people should decide.
Because governments often use such things to pressure relatively clean businesses who dont pay enough bribes, and leave operating those who is polluting, but paying to their pockets well.