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Gulf Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Gulf Insider
Neom Adviser Warns Saudi Megacity Could Alter Weather Systems
A climate scientist working as an adviser on Saudi Arabia's Neom project has warned that the new city could change local environments and weather systems, including the path of wind and sand storms. The $500+ billion megacity – which organizers claim will be 33 times the size of New York City – is planned to include a 170km straight-line city, an eight-sided city that floats on water, and a ski resort with a folded vertical village, amongst other grandiose projects. Donald Wuebbles, a researcher atmospheric physics and chemistry who advises Neom, told the Financial Times that he frequently raised concerns about how the project could impact the climate.'Part of my concern was, what impact is The Line and those [projects] going to have on the local environment… you start affecting the local weather and climate,' said Wuebbles. He added that the potential damage could include things that have 'not been studied enough', including changes to rain patterns and the amplification of wind and storms in desert areas. The megacity is being built in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia, much of which has a dry, desert climate. The Line is touted to include two mirrored buildings that are nearly 500 meters tall running along a portion of the straight-line city, according to designs uncovered in 2022. Wuebbles said that other questions he raised included emissions from the use of cement and a slow transition away from combustion engine construction vehicles and machinery. Neom budget cuts Wuebbles, who is at the University of Illinois, said academics were commissioned by Neom to study his concerns, but that the findings were not shared with him. He said the sustainability advisory committee, which he sits on, was told during a recent meeting that the climate concerns were escalated to a 'higher priority' since the abrupt departure of Nadhmi al-Nasr, the former chief of Neom. A second member of the advisory team, who wished to remain anonymous, affirmed to the FT the issues raised by Wuebbles. Neom said that it was a responsible development company and sustainability was one of its core priorities. Last week, the CEO of Neom launched a 'comprehensive review' of the project, in what appeared to be belt-tightening partly due to falling energy prices. Every building needs a roof – and ours spans 2.3Km. Trojena's Ski Village takes design to extraordinary heights. The world's largest skiable rooftop is a marvel of engineering and breathtaking architecture to provide a glimpse into the future of adventure. — TROJENA (@NEOMTROJENA) May 1, 2025 One person familiar with the review told the FT that the scope of several projects surrounding Neom was being reviewed due to 'an environment of limited resources'. As part of the review, the sustainability advisory committee's future is being reconsidered, according to Wuebbles. 'The whole operation has been slowed down by six to 12 months,' he said. Click here to read more Also read: Musk, Fink, Zuckerberg Set For Saudi Arabia's 'MAGA In The Desert' Conference To Attract U.S. Investment
Middle East Eye
06-05-2025
- Business
- Middle East Eye
Saudi Arabia: Neom climate adviser warns megacity could alter weather systems
A climate scientist working as an adviser on Saudi Arabia's Neom project has warned that the new city could change local environments and weather systems, including the path of wind and sand storms. The $500bn megacity - which organisers claim will be 33 times the size of New York City - is planned to include a 170km straight-line city, an eight-sided city that floats on water, and a ski resort with a folded vertical village, amongst other grandiose projects. Donald Wuebbles, a researcher atmospheric physics and chemistry who advises Neom, told the Financial Times that he frequently raised concerns about how the project could impact the climate. 'Part of my concern was, what impact is The Line and those [projects] going to have on the local environment . . . you start affecting the local weather and climate,' said Wuebbles. He added that the potential damage could include things that have "not been studied enough", including changes to rain patterns and the amplification of wind and storms in desert areas. The megacity is being built in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia, much of which has a dry, desert climate. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The Line is touted to include two mirrored buildings that are nearly 500 metres tall running along a portion of the straight-line city, according to designs uncovered in 2022. Wuebbles said that other questions he raised included emissions from the use of cement and a slow transition away from combustion engine construction vehicles and machinery. Neom budget cuts Wuebbles, who is at the University of Illinois, said academics were commissioned by Neom to study his concerns, but that the findings were not shared with him. He said the sustainability advisory committee, which he sits on, was told during a recent meeting that the climate concerns were escalated to a 'higher priority' since the abrupt departure of Nadhmi al-Nasr, the former chief of Neom. A second member of the advisory team, who wished to remain anonymous, affirmed to the FT the issues raised by Wuebbles. Saudi Arabia scales back Neom plans to focus on World Cup and Asian Games Read More » Neom said that it was a responsible development company and sustainability was one of its core priorities. Last week, the CEO of Neom launched a 'comprehensive review' of the project, in what appeared to be belt-tightening partly due to falling energy prices. One person familiar with the review told the FT that the scope of several projects surrounding Neom was being reviewed due to 'an environment of limited resources'. As part of the review, the sustainability advisory committee's future is being reconsidered, according to Wuebbles. 'The whole operation has been slowed down by six to 12 months,' he said. The Saudi government has been accused of forcibly displacing members of the Howeitat tribe, who have lived for centuries in Tabuk province, to make way for the $500bn city. At least 47 members of the tribe were arrested or detained for resisting eviction. In April 2020, activist Abdul-Rahim al-Howeiti was shot dead by security forces shortly after making videos protesting against his eviction to make way for the megacity. Last year, Middle East Eye reported that Saudi security officers were ordered to use lethal force to kill people who resisted eviction from areas earmarked for the city, according to a former Saudi intelligence officer. Senior executives leading the project have also been accused of racism, misogyny and corruption.
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Cuts Funding and Staff for Flagship Climate Report
The Trump administration has cut funding and staffing at the program that oversees the federal government's premier report on how global warming is affecting the country, raising concerns among scientists that the assessment is now in jeopardy. Congress requires the federal government to produce the report, formally known as the National Climate Assessment, every four years. It analyzes the effects of rising temperatures on human health, agriculture, energy production, water resources, transportation and other aspects of the U.S. economy. The last assessment came out in 2023 and is used by state and city governments, as well as private companies, to prepare for global warming. The climate assessment is overseen by the Global Change Research Program, a federal group established by Congress in 1990 that is supported by NASA and coordinates efforts among 14 federal agencies, the Smithsonian Institution and hundreds of outside scientists to produce the report. On Tuesday, NASA issued stop-work orders on two separate contracts with ICF International, a consulting firm that had been supplying most of the technical support and staffing for the Global Change Research Program. ICF had originally signed a five-year contract in 2021 worth more than $33 million and provided around two dozen staff members who worked on the program with federal employees detailed from other agencies. Without ICF's support, scientists said, it is unclear how the assessment can move forward. 'It's hard to see how they're going to put out a National Climate Assessment now,' said Donald Wuebbles, a professor in the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois who has been involved in past climate assessments. But, he added, 'it is still mandated by Congress.' In a statement, a NASA spokeswoman said that the agency was 'streamlining its contract providing technical, analytical and programmatic support for the U.S. Global Change Research Program' to align with President Trump's executive orders. She added that NASA planned to work with the White House to figure out 'how best to support the congressionally mandated program while also increasing efficiencies across the 14 agencies and advisory committee supporting this effort.' The contract cancellation came a day after The Daily Wire, a conservative news website, reported on ICF's central role in helping to produce the National Climate Assessment in an article titled 'Meet the Government Consultants Raking in Millions to Spread Climate Doom.' ICF did not respond to a request for comment. The cancellation was first reported by Politico. Many climate scientists were already expecting that the next National Climate Assessment, due in 2027 or 2028, was very likely in trouble. Mr. Trump has long dismissed climate change as a hoax. And Russell Vought, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote before the election that the next president should 'reshape' the Global Change Research Program, since its scientific reports on climate change were often used as the basis for environmental lawsuits that constrained federal government actions. During Mr. Trump's first term, his administration tried, but failed, to derail the National Climate Assessment. When the 2018 report came out, concluding that global warming posed an imminent and dire threat, the administration made it public the day after Thanksgiving in an apparent attempt to minimize attention. 'We fully anticipated this,' said Jesse Keenan, an associate professor at the Tulane School of Architecture who was an author of a chapter of the National Climate Assessment on how climate change affects human-made structures. 'Things were already in a very dubious state,' he said. The climate assessment is typically compiled by scientists around the country who volunteer to write the report. It then goes through several rounds of review by 13 federal agencies, as well as public comments. The government does not pay the scientists themselves, but it does pay for the coordination work. In February, scientists had submitted a detailed outline of the next assessment to the White House for an initial review. But that review has been on hold, and the agency comment period has been postponed. Ladd Keith, an associate professor at the University of Arizona specializing in extreme heat governance and urban planning, had been helping to lead the chapter on the U.S. Southwest. He said that while outside scientists were able to conduct research on their own, much of the value of the report came from the federal government's involvement. 'The strength of the National Climate Assessment is that it goes through this detailed review by all the federal agencies and the public,' Dr. Keith said. 'That's what makes it different from just a bunch of academics getting together and doing a report. There are already lots of those.' Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, said the assessment was essential for understanding how climate change would affect daily life in the United States. 'It takes that global issue and brings it closer to us,' Dr. Hayhoe said. 'If I care about food or water or transportation or insurance or my health, this is what climate change means to me if I live in the Southwest or the Great Plains. That's the value.'
