Residents of Yerevan woke up today to a foggy cloud of haze hanging over their pink city. People are complaining that it’s hard to breathe.

Seyran Minasyan, from the Monitoring Group at Armenia’s Ministry of the Environment (I find the title Ministry of Nature Protection stilted and restrictive), says that dust from the Arabian Desert has reached Yerevan.

Now, Yerevan has for years been known as suffering from a smog problem along the lines of Los Angeles. The two cities are located in a depression and the exhaust fumes from autos and manufacturing collect, creating a smog like substance, that hangs like a cloud overhead irritating the eyes and respiratory system.

Readers might find it discomforting to know that there are 522 commercial operations registered in Yerevan that spew out environmentally hazardous fumes.

 The fact that there are over 250,000 vehicles registered in Yerevan, a city of one million with ever shrinking green spaces, only exacerbates the problem. Public transportation in Yerevan, so heavily dependent on exhaust spewing antiquated minivans, is another long neglected issue that must finally be addressed.

It seems that nature is slowly taking its revenge on this city that has seen fit to flout all basic environmental norms.