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Earth Science

Facing Unbearable Heat, Qatar Has Begun To Air-Condition the Outdoors (washingtonpost.com) 183

Posted by msmash from the climate-change dept.
It was 116 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade outside the new Al Janoub soccer stadium, and the air felt to air-conditioning expert Saud Ghani as if God had pointed "a giant hair dryer" at Qatar. From a report: Yet inside the open-air stadium, a cool breeze was blowing. Beneath each of the 40,000 seats, small grates adorned with Arabic-style patterns were pushing out cool air at ankle level. And since cool air sinks, waves of it rolled gently down to the grassy playing field. Vents the size of soccer balls fed more cold air onto the field. Ghani, an engineering professor at Qatar University, designed the system at Al Janoub, one of eight stadiums that the tiny but fabulously rich Qatar must get in shape for the 2022 World Cup. His breakthrough realization was that he had to cool only people, not the upper reaches of the stadium -- a graceful structure designed by the famed Zaha Hadid Architects and inspired by traditional boats known as dhows. "I don't need to cool the birds," Ghani said.

Qatar, the world's leading exporter of liquefied natural gas, may be able to cool its stadiums, but it cannot cool the entire country. Fears that the hundreds of thousands of soccer fans might wilt or even die while shuttling between stadiums and metros and hotels in the unforgiving summer heat prompted the decision to delay the World Cup by five months. It is now scheduled for November, during Qatar's milder winter. The change in the World Cup date is a symptom of a larger problem -- climate change. Already one of the hottest places on Earth, Qatar has seen average temperatures rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above preindustrial times, the current international goal for limiting the damage of global warming. The 2015 Paris climate summit said it would be better to keep temperatures "well below" that, ideally to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F).

[...] To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors -- in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. "If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively," says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development. Yet outdoor air conditioning is part of a vicious cycle. Carbon emissions create global warming, which creates the desire for air conditioning, which creates the need for burning fuels that emit more carbon dioxide. In Qatar, total cooling capacity is expected to nearly double from 2016 to 2030, according to the International District Cooling & Heating Conference. And it's going to get hotter.
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Facing Unbearable Heat, Qatar Has Begun To Air-Condition the Outdoors More

Facing Unbearable Heat, Qatar Has Begun To Air-Condition the Outdoors

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  • So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by leonbev ( 111395 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @09:54AM (#59322074) Journal

    It seems like the ultimate solution to this problem is to build giant climate controlled domes or underground bunkers in the Middle East in order to protect their residents from these deadly 120+ degree F heat waves. I'm sure that the oil barons can afford to build them, but I'd be worried for everyone else in the region.

    • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Train0987 ( 1059246 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:02AM (#59322102)

      Or maybe don't live in the desert. Just a thought.

      • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:4)

        by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:33AM (#59322210)

        Well then that would bring about climate refugees [wikipedia.org] which is something that's been talked about as an effect of climate change. So that's definitely an option if we've got a viable relocation point to send them to. However, that is the issue, there isn't a relocation point to send entire nations of the Middle East to. It is easy to just say "don't live there", the more difficult question to answer is, "then where should they live?" Just something to think about.

        • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by stinerman ( 812158 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:48AM (#59322480)

          It is easy to just say "don't live there", the more difficult question to answer is, "then where should they live?" Just something to think about.

          Many people think that's easy to say. "Where should they live" is also another easy question to those same people. "Not here" is the answer.

          If you think people are going to give anything up re: standards of living because of climate refugees, I suggest you turn on a television. Many, many people are willing to let others die.

          • It is easy to just say "don't live there", the more difficult question to answer is, "then where should they live?" Just something to think about.

            Many people think that's easy to say. "Where should they live" is also another easy question to those same people. "Not here" is the answer.

            If you think people are going to give anything up re: standards of living because of climate refugees, I suggest you turn on a television. Many, many people are willing to let others die.

            The reality is that they should live where there are compatible cultures. Putting them in a Western country is a poor fit. Putting them in something 'more like home but with better climate' is the best answer.

        • Qatar has not a high population, you could sent them to Arizona, if they prefer desert, or Oregon, and you would not feel a difference.

          • no, not Oregon -- please. it's bad enough we have to deal with refugees from California.

        • And the answer will be "I don't care, just not here."

          Then, when the issue gets so bad that the people answering are affected, they'll act surprised when other people don't want them resettling in those other people's lands.

      • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Informative)

        by xfade551 ( 2627499 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:47AM (#59322278)
        Qatar is WORSE than a desert. It has the sandy barrens of a desert, plus it's a peninsula that sticks out in the middle of the Gulf, so you get horribly high humidity, too. I've been a lot of places in the summer that are terrible as far as heat and/or humidity goes (Arizona, the American South, Korea, Afghanistan, Oman, Kuwait) but Qatar was by far the most miserable. The thermometers read 140F (60C) in the shade, and the humidity was freakin' condensing in places you wouldn't really expect it to! (Yes, I know the "world record" is 137F or something like that, but weather station standards have to be met to vie for a record, meaning having vegetation, not sand or pavement, below the thermometer, but there isn't much vegetation in Qatar)

      • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:07AM (#59322338)

        Or maybe don't live in the desert. Just a thought.

        There are many people living in places in the world where you will freeze to death without heaters. In fact cold kills 20 times more people than heat.

        https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]

        So maybe don't live where it snows either?

        • Good point but there is a big difference in that you can still go outside when it's cold by dressing up, whereas there is nothing comparable for heat.

          I have a cooling vest for motorcycling that you soak in water which provides some cooling as it evaporates, but it leaves a lot to be desired in effectiveness and convenience.

          • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:4, Informative)

            by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:57AM (#59322512)

            Good point but there is a big difference in that you can still go outside when it's cold by dressing up, whereas there is nothing comparable for heat.

            Unfortunately some people dress for cold and still freeze to death outside so nothing is perfect, but that does seem like a potential winner - personal cooling suits.

            Quick Google finds Veskimo, and this; https://www.indiegogo.com/proj... [indiegogo.com] among others.

            I have sat in our stadium in my down filled jacket and watched football being played on a snow covered field. Maybe we can bribe FIFA to come here one day.

          • Insulation works both ways.
            Or why do you think arabic woman are covered in cloth (which people here mix up with religion) and sheiks wear that long cloth or traditional japanese cloth is "so big"?
            Traditional japanese high class dresses are specifically designed to let air through and ventilate the body.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by spun ( 1352 )

        So who do they sue for damages, given that others actions as well as their own have rendered their home uninhabitable? I don't know, but in the next twenty years, we are going to find out. Lawsuits based on climate change damages will become very commonplace in the near future, and any lawyer just entering the field would do well to specialize in that type of law.

        • Qatar is the highest CO2 producer per capita ... there is no one they can/could sue.

          • CO2 is what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by spun ( 1352 )

            Given that they are not 100% of worldwide CO2 output, they are not 100% at fault for global warming. No one is. They might sue, and also be sued by others. Honestly, who knows how it will all shake out. But one thing is virtually guaranteed: a lot of money will change hands.

      • If your whole country is a desert, what do you suggest? Are you opening your borders to allow some climate refugees (albeit rich ones) to come in?

    • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:22AM (#59322164)

      Phoenix Az experiences 115 frequently through the summer and has had record temps of 122, with other Az cities recording temps of 128

      What do we do about it? Mainly stay in the AC as much as possible, but the city has a proposal to create more 'urban shade'

      As a person who takes a daily walk, the shade is nice, and when they add misters to it, it is pretty comfortable

      Basic advice, if you don't like the heat, get out of the desert

      • I'd hazard a guess that there are a lot more people without air conditioned residences or without residences at all in these places.

        • I think you would be wrong, oil nations have way more per capita wealth than any American city

          • Re:So, when do we start building the domes? (Score:5, Informative)

            by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:44AM (#59322268)

            Yep:

            Per capita wealth Qatar ($124,930)
            The small Middle Eastern country often ranks as one of the richest countries in the world per capita. Qatar's population is approximately 2.27 million, giving it a total GDP of approximately $124,930 per person and making it the richest country in world as of 2017, according to the IMF.

            • They better be saving and planning. Oil isn't going anywhere in 50 years, and may still be around in 75 but a century from now they're going to be hurting for customers.

            • Is that "per capita wealth" the amount of money that the average citizen possesses or is it the total amount of money divided by the average number of citizens?

              If the former then, yes, they are wealthy. If the latter, then you could have one person with $12,483,100 and 99 people with $100. The "average citizen" wouldn't be wealthy, but the rich citizens would be tipping the scales making it look like everyone is wealthier than they really are.

    • I wouldn't expect an oil baron to invite the unwashed masses into his temperature controlled dome.

    • It seems like the ultimate solution to this problem is to build giant climate controlled domes or underground bunkers in the Middle East in order to protect their residents from these deadly 120+ degree F heat waves.

      Air conditioning and solar energy are a natural match. Doesn't even need to be large scale like a giant dome. Qatar is rich enough to buy all the air conditioners & solar panels it needs. Whether that makes it ok to live in a (HOT) desert is an entirely different question imho.

      • Air conditioning and solar energy are a natural match.

        No, they aren't. Go look up the "duck curve" that happens when people tried to address the problems of increased air conditioning use with solar power. It is exceedingly common on hot days for the heat to keep rising as the sun fades. The hot air from where the sun is shining bright will come into areas where the sun is fading because of the sun driven winds.

        Sure, some solar power wouldn't hurt but it is far too easy to overdo this. Solar power by itself can be relatively inexpensive but the need for st

        • The primary factor to supporting air conditioning in hot environments is proper insulation

          If you do not introduce hot air into the house (i.e. kids/dogs running in and out) during the day, then it is a trivial amount of energy to keep a cool house cool

          For example, my cousin works in air conditioning and lived in a condo with his brother. They both were out of the house all day and the condo remained cool and their power bills were low since nobody was going in or out of the house (also, he had installed a s

    • They're already doing that. Entire neighborhoods [msheireb.com] are going up with covered, airconditioned streets.

  • Didn't RTFA, but where does the heat go? It has to go somewhere. It's just a heat transfer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

      It's air conditionning. Heat goes out, cold goes in. No need to RTFA for this.

    • Didn't RTFA, but where does the heat go? It has to go somewhere. It's just a heat transfer.

      Good News! You need only RTFS.

      And since cool air sinks, waves of it rolled gently down to the grassy playing field.

      Up. The hot air goes up.

      Qatar, the world's leading exporter of liquefied natural gas...

      All that CO2 from burning the LPG, it goes up too. Then sort of hovers there for a long time.

      Yet outdoor air conditioning is part of a vicious cycle. Carbon emissions create global warming, which creates the desire for air conditioning, which creates the need for burning fuels that emit more carbon dioxide.

    • where does the heat go? It has to go somewhere. It's just a heat transfer.

      Was thinking the same thing. If they're cooling it down inside the stadium, then they're heating up the area outside the stadium (or wherever they transfer the waste heat.) Plus you generate a little bit of extra heat, from the compressors and such. So a net negative for Qatar?

  • Climate change? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zak3056 ( 69287 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @09:59AM (#59322090) Journal

    The change in the World Cup date is a symptom of a larger problem -- climate change.

    Yes, because deciding to hold the world cup, a summer event, in the middle of the fucking desert had nothing to do with it.

  • Air-condition the outdoors?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:03AM (#59322106)

    This is a really stupid idea, since it's counter-productive as the summary says.

    What they should do instead is install extremely long pipes to send their hot air to Canada during our winter period so we can heat up our houses.

    • Finally, a sensible plan.... I will take some of that hot air in Minnesota too.... I am not ready for winter :(

    • Disney World has air conditioned out door areas since the 70's.

      • So global warming is Disney's fault?

        • Humorously politicians won't blame Disney (or us, for buying oil to shove in our huge SUVs and drive all over the fucking place). They will blame the oil companies for selling it to them/us because they are an easy target and it's easy to rile the rabble against them and put all the blame on them, just like it's easy to blame "Big Bad Pharmaceutical Companies" for the opioid crisis.

          Blame someone unlikable, it's the American Way.

        • I didn't say anything about global warming. Just responding to a statement that a/c'ing the outside was stupid- pointing out it's a decades old practice.

      • Maybe not the outdoors specifically, but I've definitely walked around Disney World and felt a cool breeze coming from inside a store. You duck into the store to escape the heat for a few moments and while you're there maybe buy a few things. It's a very effective technique to boost sales during hot weather.

        • I've been there several times over the past 40 years. They "condition" out door air by some of the eateries, I don't remember which ones exactly, but remember noting it seemed an odd but welcomed practice. Florida in July/August can be most unpleasant outside.
    • You're being (potentially?) funny, but: If we had room-temperature superconductors plus near-perfect thermal insulation, you could do that.. just sayin'..
    • Not pipes -- balloons! Hot-air balloons! Start with 99 red ones and then scale up from there.

  • FIFA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:03AM (#59322108)

    It was 116 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade outside the new Al Janoub soccer stadium

    And yet FIFA thought Qatar would be a great place to host a World Cup. Between that and imported, essentially slave labor (at one point supposedly dying at a rate of 1 per day) it's already shaping up to be a boondoggle. They even had to move the event to winter to cut back on the heat. And I wonder how a Muslim country is going to handle legions of soccer fans/hooligans who expect a literal sea of beer with their soccer matches.

    Oh well, FIFA execs got some nice bribery payments out of the deal.

    • Re:FIFA (Score:4)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:30AM (#59322194) Homepage Journal

      And I wonder how a Muslim country is going to handle legions of soccer fans/hooligans who expect a literal sea of beer with their soccer matches.

      Most of them won't be able to afford to go, and they can deny the rest visas for their prior football violence convictions.

      Oh well, FIFA execs got some nice bribery payments out of the deal.

      This is why following professional sports today is a sign of a lack of a moral compass. AFAICT, they are all corrupt from stem to stern. Whether it's the NBA kowtowing to China, or FIFA stroking oil barons in the middle east, or basically anything whatsoever done by the IOC anywhere in the world, it's all sleazy AF.

      • The IOC should have kept Samaranch. He was the quintessential evil Bond villain, the guy even had a fitting name. A perfect fit for the role of chairman of a deeply corrupt organisation. All he lacked was a fluffy white cat (but perhaps he kept it hidden...)

    • And yet FIFA thought Qatar would pay really juicy bribes to hold a World Cup.

      FTFY. HTH. HAND.

  • It's NOT a symptom of climate change... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YuppieScum ( 1096 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:04AM (#59322116) Journal

    ...but of the massive, endemic corruption at the heart of FIFA (the world governing body for football) that led to the World Cup being held in Qatar at all.

    How could anyone possibly be surprised that an Arabian desert in the middle of summer might be too hot to play football?

    • ...but of the massive, endemic corruption at the heart of FIFA (the world governing body for football) that led to the World Cup being held in Qatar at all.

      How could anyone possibly be surprised that an Arabian desert in the middle of summer might be too hot to play football?

      It's right up there with Winter Olympics being held in Beijing.

      • That was not in summer.
        And Beijing is quite far north in relation to Qatar. (And 7000km away in a different climate anyway)

        • That was not in summer.
          And Beijing is quite far north in relation to Qatar. (And 7000km away in a different climate anyway)

          It's too hot to have a summer event in Qatar. It's not cold enough to have a winter event in Beijing. The point is the corrupt selection process for international events ends up picking inappropriate venues.

      • It's right up there with Winter Olympics being held in Beijing.

        I believe that was the summer olympics.

        You're thinking of Sochi in Russia.

        • It's right up there with Winter Olympics being held in Beijing.

          I believe that was the summer olympics.

          You're thinking of Sochi in Russia.

          Look up Beijing 2022.

    • LA is a desert too you know. Didnt prevent the 1996 world cup though yeah lot of heat exhaustion cases in both players and spectators. US only talks about corruption when it gets outbid int he corruption stakes.

      • There have been plenty of scandals in FIFA, but I don't think either of the instances noted (Qatar or USA locations) indicate corruption. FIFA tries to pick the places that will have the most positive impact on FIFA. As with many things, they tend to use the metric of dollars generated (at once or over time) to calculate that impact. In 1996 FIFA was keen to try to make football a thing in the USA (pretty convincingly the world's largest economy at the time). Huge numbers of people in the country played

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          There have been plenty of scandals in FIFA, but I don't think either of the instances noted (Qatar or USA locations) indicate corruption. FIFA tries to pick the places that will have the most positive impact on FIFA. As with many things, they tend to use the metric of dollars generated (at once or over time) to calculate that impact.

          Supposedly groups within Qatar, including the Qatari government, agreed to pay FIFA hundreds of millions of dollars because they expected that a Qatari World Cup actually wouldn't draw in the money for FIFA that a World Cup in other locations would. Qatar isn't a big soccer country. In fact, news reports from a few years ago reported that they would actually pay migrant workers in Qatar $1 an hour to sit in the stands during matches for their top league so the stadiums wouldn't be empty.

    • Errr no. Sorry to break your anti FIFA corruption rant, but outdoor climate has never been a consideration of where to host the World Cup.

    • Well, it's both. Climate change is what's making it hotter and hotter in Qatar (and other places), but corruption at FIFA is what made the Qatar heat an issue for the World Cup.

  • If there was no oil... (Score:3)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:06AM (#59322120) Homepage

    .. would anyone actually live there bar a few fishermen? It seems a perverse area of the planet to live in and yet some people even go to work in that area out of choice, not because they got sent. Beats me why when there are so many nicer parts of the world you could choose.

  • AC in stadiums is nothing new (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @10:20AM (#59322160)

    The Arizona Diamondbacks included AC in their then-new stadium roughly two decades ago. I don’t know if they were the first.

  • Let's bribe everyone so the World Cup can be held at Qatar. The heat is no problem, we'll just cool the whole stadium. .. you don't want to know what else they're doing with the money.

  • seems fitting that the 4th largest greenhouse gas producing country (per capita-behind Kuwait, Brunei & Niue) , and one that has become incredibly wealthy in the process should... fry

  • When it fails... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:01AM (#59322320)
    When it's 125F outside, what do you think is gonna happen when there's a power outage or a major equipment failure?

    This is probably one of the few things that will actually make humanity get off it's ass and do something about AGW. We need temps to get so extreme that a power failure isn't an inconvenience, but an event that causes large numbers of people to either cook or freeze to death. In the thousands or tens of thousands. Either this or weather that's so extreme that it renders cities unusable. Think city-busting hurricanes.

    Until then, business as usual.

  • There, fixed the title for you.

  • It is such an arid desert,simple swamp coolers, ( passing air through water misters) would cool the air significantly. But, fresh water is also very scarce there.

    I saw a new technology based on dessicants to create dry air, and then use swamp coolers to cool the air. The dessicant sounded some strange material, but turns out it is simply salt solution, that dries the air. But it also heats the air. So, if space is not a concern, one can pass air through salt water solution and dry it, send it through radi

    • This video [youtube.com] is a good example of this. The beauty of this method is that the heating part of the circulation cycle can be moved to either be done by solar outside, as opposed to having everything done by a compressor. The dessicant part doesn't just dry things, but aids greatly in the compressor cycle with cooling as well.

      The main improvement of this is that not all the energy used to move heat from one area to another has do be done via electricity. Having a solar "cooker" to put heat in where it is need

  • Scale (Score:3)

    by chuckugly ( 2030942 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:41AM (#59322448)

    So a few degrees extra heat, say 130f instead of 127f is really the thing that pushed it over the edge and made the builders decide to include air-con? Really?

    How about maybe someone saw this and figured they might be able to make a few political points by linking it to a hot (no pun intended) issue? Yeah, more likely.

  • From the fine article:

    While climate change inflicts suffering in the worldâ(TM)s poorest places from Somalia to Syria, from Guatemala to Bangladesh, in rich places such as the United States, Europe and Qatar global warming poses an engineering problem, not an existential one. And it can be addressed, at least temporarily, with gobs of money and a little technology.

    In other words, we solved the problem of global warming.

    What produces the greenhouse gasses? What are these greenhouse gasses? Well, it's mostly CO2 from fossil fuels, and most of the rest also comes from burning fossil fuels. This can be broken up into four roughly equal sources, electricity production, transportation, industry, and other. Let's look at how we solved this problem.

    When it comes to electricity production we solved this problem with onshore windmills, hydroelectric d

    • From the chart on that page you might be misled that solar PV is affordable. It is not. It requires far more storage than wind because it peaks big at noon and then disappears completely at night.
      The dumb ass again.

      You don't need storage for either solar or wind.

      The power plants that NOW produce power are still available at night when your new solar plant has no sun ...

      Why is the world full with idiots like you ... it is beyond me.

      • You don't need storage for either solar or wind.

        The power plants that NOW produce power are still available at night when your new solar plant has no sun ...

        Sure, whatever, and how much does that cost to run?

        It takes hours, or perhaps days, to get a steam plant hot enough to produce power if allowed to cool down. Regardless of where the heat comes from, be it coal, natural gas, or fuel oil. To keep it hot costs money for fuel. Fuel is being burned and no power is produced for sale, because solar collectors are providing the power. The one exception is geothermal, that can be kept hot without fuel, but there's still costs with that other than fuel.

        The altern

  • Probably a swamp cooler, not an air conditioner (Score:3)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday October 18, 2019 @12:10PM (#59322576)
    Since as others have pointed out, it's counter-productive to air condition the same air you're using as a heat sink for your air conditioner (net effect is to make the air hotter). A swamp cooler [wikipedia.org] simply adds moisture to the air. The process of evaporation absorbs heat energy (why sweating helps you cool down), decreasing the temperature of the air. You may have seen it in boardwalks in Las Vegas or Arizona - a fine mist of water sprayed into the air, which cools the air as the water evaporates.

    It's a misnomer to call this air conditioning though. A swamp cooler increases the humidity - both because it's evaporating water into the air, and because cooler air can hold less water vapor so its humidity would go up even without additional water being added to it. An air conditioner also dehumidifies the air. The dehumidification is why it's called air conditioning, not air cooling. The AC cools the air below its target temperature so that the humidity exceeds 100% (something a swamp cooler can't do), and the water vapor condenses out (why you often see water dripping from AC units). Then it heats the air back up to the target temperature (using hot incoming air) before releasing it into the room.

    TFA author probably chose to use the incorrect term because like most journalists they're probably technically incompetent, and "air conditioner" brings to mind a big power-sucking unit. A swamp cooler is often just a mesh with water dripping down it, with a fan blowing air over it. Or sometimes just a water pipe with tiny nozzles to eject the water as a mist. In the U.S. they're commonly used in restaurant kitchens, where the power consumption of an air conditioner attempting to offset the heat energy added by the ovens and stoves would be cost prohibitive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dtmos ( 447842 ) *

      Unfortunately Qatar, being on a peninsula jutting out into the Persian Gulf, is very humid, as well as being very hot. Swamp coolers wouldn't work well.

  • and only need to cool and shade it as much as there is SUNLIGHT... and you cool it with *FOSSIL FUELS*??

    I do not have to explain how insanely stupid that is, do I?

  • You get desert conditions. Climates change. Once it becomes unsuitable, perhaps its time to move on. No where to go? Well, then that brings us to the most undesirable (but truthful) aspect of climate change, food shortages, and other resource issues: people will die.

    The Earth will continue on for another 5 billion years, but there was never a guarantee that any humans, let alone ALL the humans would be supportable. Some humans will have to die off. It sucks, but that's the truth.

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