Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFacing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors
Source: Washington Post
2°C: BEYOND THE LIMIT
Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors
By Steven Mufson
Photos by Salwan Georges
OCT. 16, 2019
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Qatar is one of the fastest warming areas of the world, at least outside of the Arctic, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate data scientist at Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit temperature analysis group. Changes there can help give us a sense of what the rest of the world can expect if we do not take action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
While climate change inflicts suffering in the worlds 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.
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 its going to get hotter.
By the time average global warming hits 2 degrees Celsius, Qatars temperatures would soar, said Mohammed Ayoub, senior research director at the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. In rapidly growing urban areas throughout the Middle East, some predict cities could become uninhabitable.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/climate-environment/climate-change-qatar-air-conditioning-outdoors/
mopinko
(70,078 posts)w built in/attached solar panels. it is absurd to do it any other way at this point in time.
they exist. they have them for rv's.
i dont use ac, except to keep my finished basement dry. and that is not often.
i would love to have ac, but w/o solar, yet, it wont happen.
IndyOp
(15,515 posts)spend money at the market.
Cartaphelius
(868 posts)masters, Qatar has more money than sense.