The UAE,one of the ten driest nations on Earth, with the help of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, is studying whether to build a mountain to increase rainfall. The mountain is designed to  trigger cloud formation and much-needed rainfall. Rising water demand in the country, combined with the effects of climate change, takes a toll on a total annual rainfall that averages just 75 millimetres. Hence the heavy use of expensive, energy-hungry desalination plants.

Generating clouds by blocking air flow with a mountain won’t make water appear magically out of nowhere, but will alter where moisture collects and falls. Rainfall patterns will shift. Somebody else may lose out.  This could affect other countries on the Arabian peninsula, the Middle East in general. Rainfall changes in already precarious environments wouldn’t go unnoticed, and may spark conflict in an unstable area.

Even if the UAE builds a mountain, the larger climate problem remains. What’s more, oil-rich nations in the region face a double-whammy: temperatures reaching levels beyond those human civilisation can handle, alongside the imminent end of the fossil-fuel economy.

This could be a late-in-the-day  attempt by the UAE to stave off unbearable heat by cashing in on the fact that oil is, for now, still in demand around the world.  (precis of an article by Jamais Cascio  Institute for the Future, published in the New Scientist).

Already too high a birthrate for the available resources,  lack of jobs, climate change and water problems are roiling the Middle East.  But we have seen nothing yet.  When the heat becomes unbearable and food un-growable the urge to get to a more moderate climate that has water will, unfortunately for all, be  immense.  The UAE mountain is simply moving the checkers around the board.