The politicians and leaders of our world are squandering their time, energy and resources over trivial conflicts, power struggles and pursuing goals that are not conducive to global peace and sustainable development. Nations across the globe are suffering as a result of poverty, economic predicaments, political turmoil, the unstoppable stream of global warming, water and food insecurity, growing pollution of the air, oceans and forests, natural disasters and many other hardships that befall the human society. Even so, meaningful steps are not being taken at the right time and wisely, and the future continues to seem bleak.

Even though I don’t want to sound unnecessarily skeptical and maintain that the world leaders have not addressed these concerns seriously, I should frankly admit that what they’re doing is not enough, and their investment on their own areas of interest overrides the time, effort and capital they devote to finding solutions to these critical problems.

I don’t maintain that the onus is simply on the leaders’ shoulders to find solutions for the difficulties that have complicated our lives and endangered our wellbeing. We, as the people, also have responsibilities and need to live up to our commitments. We cannot sit back idly and wait for the politicians to solve all the problems with a magic wand and realize full-fledged sustainable development in our societies in a jiffy. We need to pay our share of contributing to the advancement of the global community, tackling the crises unfolding every day – from those that affect our environment and natural resources, to those which destabilize our democratic institutions and claim innocent lives – and playing a role in making the world a better and safer place to live.

However, there’s one asset that both the leaders and the people need in order to make effective and workable decisions, and when this asset is taken away from them, the emergence of perplexity and repeated mistakes will be triggered. The asset I’m talking about is “knowledge” and “information.”

One of the problems with some of our world leaders is that they make decisions simply without meticulously studying the sources that give them credible and authentic information. They jump to the conclusion at the outset, and prefer quicker decisions to discreet ones. Decision-making without what I’d prefer to call “informedness” is a big disaster. Most of the times, the leaders don’t have skilled and agile advisors to brief them about what they can’t afford the time to get from the reliable information sources. These advisors are either in the dark themselves or lack the adequate professional credentials, relevant education and honesty to be good advisors.

A few instances from my home country. The the ceaseless contamination of Anzali Lagoon, a coastal lake of salt water, protected under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and the gradual disappearance of Lake Urmia, described as Iran’s most famous lake – which at its full size was the largest lake in the Middle East, I think are the direct result of insufficient coordination, poor planning, and most importantly, absence of  useful information which could have saved these natural heritages if provided in a timely manner.

Anzali Lagoon

Anali Lagoon, protected under the Ramsar Convention, is approaching demise, as the local factories discharge wastewater and chemicals into it ceaselessly and illegally. There are also some unauthorized construction plans underway around the lagoon. It was once the habitat of several rare species.

As the Lake Urmia has been shrinking over the years, the local authorities and experts were apparently hibernating and never raised the concern of the drying out of this lake with the government officials. They didn’t give out the critical “information” needed for taking action and failed to highlight the exigency of what was happening to this large body of water. The result is that this lake has lost 90% of its water since early 1970s.

Lake-Urmia

The desiccation of Lake Urmia is one of the most unfortunate environmental disasters of Iran in the recent years, caused by mismanagement and the lack of sufficient, effective knowledge-sharing and communication on the desperate situation of the largest salt-water lake in the Middle East. It’s now simply a vast salt-white barren land.

Just recently, the mayor of Rasht, the capital of Guilan Province at the southern coast of Caspian Sea – the city I come from – surprisingly ordered that 37 trees planted along a 2-kilometer avenue at the heart of the city be uprooted so that a new lane could be constructed for the express buses. The municipality workers, without the endorsement of the Department of Environment, flocked to the street and pulled the trees out of the ground with bulldozers during the nighttime. Experts say some of these trees were as old as 75 years.

Trees-uprooted-Rasht

The mayor of Rasht ordered that 37 ancient trees along the Imam Khomeini Street be uprooted overnight so that a new lane for express buses could be built. He didn’t know that many of these trees were as old as 75 years.

When the mayor of a city as large as Rasht, with more than 900,000 inhabitants, is not well-aware of the importance and historicity of the trees he is going to eradicate, it’s inevitable that he makes such a hasty and irresponsible decision. I’m confident that he made the decision without any consultation with his advisors, and without even knowing that what types of trees were going to be targeted. Here is where “knowledge” and “information” have a role to play. So, the first conclusion: our decision-makers and leaders are not sufficiently informed and not equipped with relevant information to take wise actions and serve the interests of the community.

Astoundingly, there were no rallies or demonstrations in the city after the 37 ancient trees were uprooted overnight. Only a few people took some footage of the remnants of the trunks and posted them to their social networking pages. We can draw the second conclusion here: the people sometimes lack the sufficient knowledge about the significance of what happens to them; otherwise, in this particular case, they would realize that uprooting 37 trees is just the tip of the iceberg, and a starting point for further betrayal to their resources and environment. If we had some general information about the historical and environmental significance of these trees, which should be protected direly, we wouldn’t be indifferent to such catastrophic choice made by our administrators.

Information and data not only lift people out of poverty and better the life for all of us, but influence our destiny and determine the future of our globe. Let’s initiate a campaign to urge our leaders not to take any decision without properly studying all the circumstances surrounding the outcomes, and gathering dependable information on whether or not their decisions will lead to the realization of sustainable development. Let’s set a #datarevolution in motion!