Global Warming, Region Cooling

I listened attentively to a friend giving his theory on the effects of global warming on the Middle East. Of course we’ve heard of rising sea levels inundating Bangladesh, crazily hot summers in Europe, more typhoons and storms, etc. as a result of global warming. I’ve even watched ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ which made as if the world is coming to an end soon unless we act now. Anyway, I’m not going into the long story of the global warming issue. But what I’m really interested in is how it affects the Middle East. Of course, I’ve no data or statistics for this region, so I’m just relying on a Pakistani IT guy who has some theory of his own.

According to him, the global warming phenomenon has a reverse effect on the Middle East – does it mean we are having a global cooling here? Well… from his experience, the summers are no longer so hot in this part of the world compared to say 10 years ago. Well, at least it did not top 50 degC in Abu Dhabi this year or last year. Ok… perhaps it did make it to 49.5 degC but the point is it’s still not 50degC yet! And he further mentioned that the winters are getting colder and colder nowadays. I’ve made a check on the UAE metereological records and the MIN temperature recorded in Fujairah was 4.5 degC during the last winter. Apparently, the winters now are cold enough that you will freeze to death unless you have some proper warm clothing. His experience told him that this was not the case 10 years ago.

He also expounded on the necessity to have proper drainage system now because it’s raining more in recent years. Only recently has the government been building some kind of drainage system. In the past it was not necessary since there was hardly any rain. Nowadays, heavy rainfall and flash floods are becoming common during the winter. That’s true – I’ve seen pictures of flooded Sharjah and Al Ain. And it’s true that the drainage is grossly insufficient here. But then again, the drains (if any exists) are always clogged with sand especially after a sandstorm – so I don’t see how they’ll help to drain the rainwater. For the record, it tends to rain after a sandstorm!

So while the rest of the world is worried about global warming – maybe there’s a respite of sorts for the Middle East. That is if the words of my Pakistani friend are to be trusted! A cooler winter, a not-so-damning-hot summer and a bit more rainfall may just be what this region needs to be a bit more habitable.