Najat Saliba … A World Expert in Environmental Pollution

Najat Saliba … A World Expert in Environmental Pollution
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Najat Saliba … A World Expert in Environmental Pollution

Najat Saliba … A World Expert in Environmental Pollution

Najat Saliba, an atmospheric chemistry specialist and a top environmentalist, who was chosen by BBC to be in its list of 100 women in 2019, has inspired many Lebanese villages and towns to protect the environment.

In 2021, she launched the Environment Academy and carried out many projects in cooperation with municipal councils to resolve environmental problems.

Saliba said she has worked with the municipalities of Damour, Mazraat Yachouh, Salaata and others to resolve water related issues and garbage problems.

She has earned a Ph.D. (1999) from the University of Southern California and before that a M.Sc. (1994) from California State University, Long Beach.

“When I moved along with my parents from Damour to Beirut, I realized how nature interacts with people. So I started studying atmospheric chemistry,” she tells Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Studying chemical reactions in the atmosphere is very difficult … There are a lot of challenges,” she says.

When she returned from her studies in the United States, she realized how people were unaware of the pollution surrounding them. She also faced the challenge of convincing people to carry out her research and raise awareness on the problem.

Asked what it feels like to be on BBC’s list of 100 women in 2019, she told Asharq Al-Awsat: “It’s a confirmation of the responsibility I am assuming and shows that what I am doing is being followed up internationally.”

She called for putting women in the right jobs and giving them opportunities to have leadership positions.



These Canadian Rocks May Be the Oldest on Earth

A close-up view of metagabbroic rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, that are 4.16 billion years old is seen in this photograph released on June 26, 2025. (Jonathan O'Neil/Handout via Reuters)
A close-up view of metagabbroic rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, that are 4.16 billion years old is seen in this photograph released on June 26, 2025. (Jonathan O'Neil/Handout via Reuters)
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These Canadian Rocks May Be the Oldest on Earth

A close-up view of metagabbroic rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, that are 4.16 billion years old is seen in this photograph released on June 26, 2025. (Jonathan O'Neil/Handout via Reuters)
A close-up view of metagabbroic rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, that are 4.16 billion years old is seen in this photograph released on June 26, 2025. (Jonathan O'Neil/Handout via Reuters)

Scientists have identified what could be the oldest rocks on Earth from a rock formation in Canada.

The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has long been known for its ancient rocks — plains of streaked gray stone on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec. But researchers disagree on exactly how old they are.

Work from two decades ago suggested the rocks could be 4.3 billion years old, placing them in the earliest period of Earth's history. But other scientists using a different dating method contested the finding, arguing that long-ago contaminants were skewing the rocks' age and that they were actually slightly younger at 3.8 billion years old.

In the new study, researchers sampled a different section of rock from the belt and estimated its age using the previous two dating techniques — measuring how one radioactive element decays into another over time. The result: The rocks were about 4.16 billion years old.

The different methods "gave exactly the same age,” said study author Jonathan O'Neil with the University of Ottawa.

The new research was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a collapsing cloud of dust and gas soon after the solar system existed. Primordial rocks often get melted and recycled by Earth's moving tectonic plates, making them extremely rare on the surface today. Scientists have uncovered 4 billion-year-old rocks from another formation in Canada called the Acasta Gneiss Complex, but the Nuvvuagittuq rocks could be even older.

Studying rocks from Earth's earliest history could give a glimpse into how the planet may have looked — how its roiling magma oceans gave way to tectonic plates — and even how life got started.

“To have a sample of what was going on on Earth way back then is really valuable,” said Mark Reagan with the University of Iowa, who studies volcanic rocks and lava and was not involved with the new study.

The rock formation is on tribal Inukjuak lands and the local Inuit community has temporarily restricted scientists from taking samples from the site due to damage from previous visits.

After some geologists visited the site, large chunks of rock were missing and the community noticed pieces for sale online, said Tommy Palliser, who manages the land with the Pituvik Landholding Corp. The Inuit community wants to work with scientists to set up a provincial park that would protect the land while allowing researchers to study it.

“There's a lot of interest for these rocks, which we understand,” said Palliser, a member of the community. “We just don't want any more damage.”