My target audience is policymakers in Lebanon, a country part that is part of the Mediterranean region.

Most policymakers in Lebanon are not aware of the severity of climate change and the impacts it might have on the environmental stability of the country. The Turn down the heat: Why a 4C warmer world must be avoided report highlights the impact of climate change on the Mediterranean region. In a projected 4C world, regions such as the Mediterranean will likely experience summer months to be warmer than the most extreme heat waves presently experienced. For example, the warmest July in the Mediterranean region could be 9C warmer than todays warmest July (World Bank, 2012). The region is also likely to experience downward precipitation trends during its winters. It has experienced 10 of the 12 driest winters since 1902 in just the last 20 years (Hoerling et al. 2012). The Mediterranean is considered a hotspot where wintertime precipitation has been declining largely because of increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing (Hoerling et al. 2012). Both the increase of temperature and drop of precipitation could increase the spread of pathogens and vector borne diseases such as tick species that can transmit Mediterranean-spotted fever, Lyme borreliosis (Gray et al., 2009). Few initiatives have been put in place on a regional scale to mitigate climate change, or adopt regional adaptation measures. I would like to convey to policy makers, the need for increased research on climate change in Lebanon and around the Mediterranean area, to closely monitor the impact of climate change and compare the observed phenomena to the projected ones. Both the IPCC report and the report produced by the World Bank highlight the vulnerability of the Mediterranean region facing climate change. I strongly believe that these facts should be dealt with seriously and policy makers should be urged to dedicate some funding for climate change. The primary investigations done in Lebanon show that little research is dedicated for climate change in universities or research centers. These types of research usually depend on external funding in Lebanon. The next steps are to tackle policy makers with a brief brochure addressing the potential severe impacts of climate change in Lebanon and the entire Mediterranean region. We note that the

country is facing major environmental problems such as the lack of proper wastewater management and the lack of solid waste management policies, which are often given a priority by policy makers, leaving climate change as a secondary, unimportant issue. The media is questioning the impacts of climate change in the country, as this winter has been particularly dry, with rain and snow being below the annual average. The media is a powerful ally in addressing climate change and could play a key role in increasing the pressure on policy makers. REFERENCES Hoerling, M., Eischei, J., Perlwitz, J., Quan, X., Zhang, T., & Pegion, P. (2012). On the Increased Frequency of Mediterranean Drought. Journal of Climate, 25, 21462161. Gray, J. S., Dautel, H., Estrada-Pe.a, A., Kahl, O., & Lindgren, E. (2009). Effects of climate change on ticks and tick-borne diseases in europe. Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases, 2009, 593232. doi:10.1155/2009/593232. 4C Turn down the Heat. Why a 4C Warmer world must be avoided (2012), World Bank, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics