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I wonder how much use there is in putting a lot more effort into any of those countries. My angle is climate change. There is a record-breaking heat wave going

I wonder how much use there is in putting a lot more effort into any of those countries. My angle is climate change. There is a record-breaking heat wave going on there right now, with temperatures close to making human life impossible. Outlook: Getting a lot worse. They already have water shortages. The population still is growing. The trouble in Syria is said to have been caused with a mismanaged big drought as a major contributing factor. We would have to create infrastructure for AC-based indoor living in the entire region and beyond on a grand scale, or only for some and see the rest of the population live in a vegetative state during much of the year. If climate change and the predictions are real anything less is futile. Basically, the entire region is becoming Arizona - without AC for most people, much higher humidity directly at the Gulf, with even less freshwater and many more people who also are much poorer. Just a dark thought: Maybe there simply is no solution. The climate problem is independent of all the human problems, so solving them, already seemingly impossible, would not even help much with this new issue growing stronger.

intended 10y ago
> infrastructure for AC-based indoor living in the entire region and beyond Thats a huge amount of constant power and infrastructure, which is just not going to be built. Easier to build an underground city with high ceilings and taking advantage of physics than managing to give AC to everyone in the region, which is to say both options are extremely difficult and require pre-existing infrastructure. And this still doesn't solve the problem of what precisely people will do for work in the region
- pjc50 10y ago
  > underground city with high ceilings and taking advantage of physics Ancient Iranian architecture was quite close to that, which you may be alluding to: http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm What people will do? Well, same as everywhere else, everything from agriculture to software. It's more a question of how many of them the local agriculture can support. The number of people who've fled Syria is more than its entire population was in 1950. Similar applies to places like Yemen. Malthusianism may not apply globally, but it can certainly bite locally.
  - tim333 10y ago
    Or there's solar powered aircon https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/wall-split-type-Energy-Saving-Solar_60210162402.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.03OzpA https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/wall-split-type-Energ...
  - saiya-jin 10y ago
    saw those built in places like ancient city center of Yazd, they sure had the heating/cooling figured out. even saw a photo of ice storage building (looked a bit older). I mean, storing ice in the middle of the desert. no wonder persians were called 'educated arabs' in the past.

intended 10y ago

> infrastructure for AC-based indoor living in the entire region and beyond Thats a huge amount of constant power and infrastructure, which is just not going to be built. Easier to build an underground city with high ceilings and taking advantage of physics than managing to give AC to everyone in the region, which is to say both options are extremely difficult and require pre-existing infrastructure. And this still doesn't solve the problem of what precisely people will do for work in the region

pjc50 10y ago
> underground city with high ceilings and taking advantage of physics Ancient Iranian architecture was quite close to that, which you may be alluding to: http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm What people will do? Well, same as everywhere else, everything from agriculture to software. It's more a question of how many of them the local agriculture can support. The number of people who've fled Syria is more than its entire population was in 1950. Similar applies to places like Yemen. Malthusianism may not apply globally, but it can certainly bite locally.
- tim333 10y ago
  Or there's solar powered aircon https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/wall-split-type-Energy-Saving-Solar_60210162402.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.03OzpA https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/wall-split-type-Energ...
- saiya-jin 10y ago
  saw those built in places like ancient city center of Yazd, they sure had the heating/cooling figured out. even saw a photo of ice storage building (looked a bit older). I mean, storing ice in the middle of the desert. no wonder persians were called 'educated arabs' in the past.