Imagine you are part of a billion-dollar project that promises to reinvent the concept of cities, technology, and urban life, until one day, scientists begin to point out that the construction of this project could cause problems. And we are not talking about small problems, but they could impact the very climate of the region… This is the situation that the NEOM project finds itself in now – it seems that difficult times are ahead.
First of all, what is the NEOM project?
It is almost certain that we can say that the NEOM project is the most innovative (and expensive) on the planet. This is because it involves the construction of a megacity in the desert of Tabuk province, in Saudi Arabia. Its budget is estimated at 500 billion dollars (we told you it was expensive, didn’t we?). But of course, the plan is not to build a simple modern city, but rather an entire ecosystem with artificial intelligence, flying cars, a floating city, and even a ski resort – it really does seem like we will see movies from the future come true through it.
The highlight of this project is called The Line, which is nothing more than a linear city 170 km long, with two mirrored buildings 500 meters high that were designed to house up to 9 million people. In addition to that, NEOM also includes structures such as Oxagon, a floating port city, Epicon, a tourist and technology center, and Treyam, a resort at sea.
Do you think they stopped there? None of that, the project still has promises of zero carbon emissions, 100% renewable energy, and total integration with nature. It really is a movie scenario, an almost utopian project, because the reality behind all this has already started to face some challenges… and they are about to become big problems.
What problems can NEOM cause?
This news about the project is recent. It was only recently that a scientific voice within the project raised an alarm: Donald Wuebbles, a professor at the University of Illinois and climate consultant for NEOM. He revealed that the city may be creating an unprecedented climate phenomenon.
“Part of my concern was what impact The Line and these [projects] would have on the local environment… you start to affect the local climate and weather”, said Wuebbles
What did he mean by that? Well, for him, basic natural factors like these can be affected:
- Rainfall patterns may shift.
- There may be an intensification of sandstorms.
- And there may be an amplification of winds, which can be very dangerous.
It is important to note that some cities around the world already cause these problems. However, in NEOM the scenario is even more extreme, due to the massive use of concrete, the mirroring of facades, and even the estimated consumption of 20% of the world’s steel (this is just for The Line, which could even cause the failure of this city as we see in this news).
NEOM’s impacts may go beyond the impact on natural phenomena
As if the situation were not already worrying enough, other impacts, besides the environmental ones, are worrying society. We are talking about the social and ethical costs that it can cause. Why? Well, to make way for this city, local tribes like the Howeitat are being forcibly removed. Recently, more than 40 people were arrested for resisting the removal, and an activist, Abdul-Rahim al-Howeiti, was killed after protesting.
And it doesn’t stop there, some experts even say that the NEOM project, as a whole, is in trouble after a major discovery: they found a secret building on an island worth US$2 trillion with a somewhat enigmatic purpose. It seems that other allegations of corruption, racism, and misogyny are emerging against this project.
