What kind of country is Qatar?
The 22nd FIFA World Cup has made Qatar the focus of people’s attention across the country and around the world. But what kind of country is Qatar outside of the game?
tropical climate
Like many countries on the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar has a tropical desert climate, hot and dry. The four seasons are not very obvious, and summer is from March to October, which is the longest season of the year. Among them, the temperature is the highest from July to September, up to 45°C, and the winter (November-February) is cool and dry, with an average annual precipitation of less than 100 mm.
Why is Qatar so hot? To answer this question, we must first know that the equator is the area on the earth that receives the most intense solar radiation, but the equator is not the hottest place in the world. Because the air here is in upward convective movement, it is easy to form clouds and cause rain, and a tropical rainforest landscape has been formed here for many years.
Where is the hottest and driest place in the world? The answer is near the Tropic of Cancer, the well-known Sahara Desert, the Colorado Grand Canyon, and the arid region of West Asia where Qatar is located.
Near the Tropic of Cancer, this subtropical high-pressure belt stretches across its north and south. As long as the global region is controlled by it, the airflow will become a strong sinking movement. The sinking airflow will become warmer due to adiabatic compression, and there will be persistent sunny and hot weather. . Qatar is controlled by the North Africa-Iran subtropical high pressure for a long time throughout the year, so it is not difficult to understand that it is sunny and hot.
Interestingly, for our country, the Yangtze River Basin is also near the Tropic of Cancer, but the subtropical high pressure only affects our country from time to time in summer and autumn, causing sunny and hot weather, and has little impact at other times, so there will be no yearly drought and less rain here.
The impact of such a sunny and hot climate is first reflected in the color of the buildings. The buildings in West Asia and North Africa are obviously mostly white and earthy yellow. The architectural style is strongly influenced by Islamic culture, and they are basically small square houses. Due to the low rainfall in the area, the houses are all flat-roofed and do not need sloping roofs.
Secondly, in terms of clothing, wind, sun, sand and sand protection are the basic requirements of local clothing, so men’s clothing is mainly white robes. Especially near the desert area, where the men’s headscarf is very long, and when necessary, the neck, ears, nose, and mouth can be tightly wrapped to resist the wind and sand.
water is more expensive than oil
Qatar is an Arab country in southwestern Asia. It is a peninsula with an area of 11,521 square kilometers, extending north to the Persian Gulf, with a coastline of 563 kilometers and bordering the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to the west.
In terms of land area alone, it is not even as large as Tianjin in my country. In the entire Gulf region, only Bahrain is smaller than Qatar. The land area is small, so the Qataris still challenged the sea. Like Dubai’s Palm Island, Qatar spent US$9 billion to reclaim land from the sea to form an artificial island of about 400 hectares.
It is such a “small place”, but it relies on rich oil and natural gas resources to make a lot of money. The per capita GDP is as high as 120,000 US dollars, making it one of the richest countries in the world.
In the Persian Gulf, according to different statistical calibers, 55% to 68% of the world’s recoverable oil reserves and more than 40% of the natural gas reserves are buried here.
Qatar’s wealth basically comes from its rich oil and natural gas resources, especially natural gas resources. On January 1, 2019, Qatar’s remaining proven natural gas reserves were 24.7 trillion cubic meters, accounting for 12.5% of the world, ranking third in the world, ranking third in the world after Russia and Iran, and ranking first in the world in oil reserves 13th place.
After storing the desalinated seawater, it will greatly benefit the agriculture and industry of the entire country of Qatar. It can not only extend the industrial chain and value chain, but also improve the ecological environment and the ecological value of seawater desalination. While meeting people’s daily production and living needs, it can also achieve scientific and sustainable economic development.
Qatar’s oil and gas resources are mainly concentrated in the northern gas field, mainly referring to the North-South Pars oil and gas field, with a total area of about 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers in the north are located in Iranian waters, known as the South Pars gas field; the remaining 6,000 square kilometers in the south located within Qatari waters. According to estimates by geologists, the total natural gas reserves of this gas field are about the largest known natural gas field in the world, accounting for about 19% of the world’s total recoverable natural gas reserves, and the recoverable rate of natural gas is about 70%.
In stark contrast to it is water resources, where not only the lack of surface natural water sources, but also groundwater resources are very scarce. The lack of fresh water resources is extremely detrimental to the development of industry and agriculture in Qatar, and almost all the water resources needed by the country come from seawater desalination.
In Qatar today, fresh water obtained through desalination of seawater has exceeded half of the country’s total fresh water consumption, and is the most important drinking water for local residents; fresh water obtained through sewage treatment accounts for a quarter of the total fresh water consumption, which is Important industrial and agricultural water use in Qatar.
After storing the desalinated seawater, it will greatly benefit the agriculture and industry of the entire country of Qatar. It can not only extend the industrial chain and value chain, but also improve the ecological environment and the ecological value of seawater desalination. While meeting people’s daily production and living needs, it can also achieve scientific and sustainable economic development.
pride
Howe is the common impression given to people in the West Asian countries where Qatar is located. It is true that these countries rely on abundant natural resources, and their per capita GDP ranks among the top in the world.
No, Qatar’s investment in this World Cup is beyond everyone’s imagination. The first is to invest 6.5 billion US dollars to build 7 world-class stadiums, and at the same time renovate and expand an old stadium. The Lusail Stadium built by China has firmly occupied the C position and has become a new landmark of the country.
In order to avoid the “invasion” of sunlight as much as possible, the Education City Gymnasium, one of the eight venues, is designed as a sparkling diamond. The rhombus-shaped facade has super high sunlight reflectivity, making it dazzling and eye-catching; the site is also built slightly lower than the ground to control the temperature inside the site.
The venue is not only designed to cool down to the greatest extent, but the air-conditioning system in the venue is also working at full capacity. Seven of the eight World Cup stadiums have installed this cooling system. Ventilation vents are installed around the football pitch and below the spectator stands, through which cold air is continuously blown during matches.
In the past 10 years, Qatar’s expenditure on organizing the World Cup has reached about 300 billion U.S. dollars, which is about 26 times that of the 2014 Brazil World Cup and 21 times that of the 2018 Russia World Cup.
The main stadium is built in China; all kinds of souvenirs come from Yiwu… It can be said that Chinese manufacturing can be seen everywhere in this World Cup, except for the national football (men’s football).
It is worth mentioning that on October 19 this year, two Chinese giant pandas “Sihai” and “Jingjing” arrived at Hamad International Airport in Doha, the capital of Qatar, by special plane. These two giant pandas will live in Qatar for the next 15 years. This is also the first pair of giant pandas welcomed in the Middle East. The Qatar government has also carefully built a giant panda house, which is fully functional, equipped with nursery rooms, treatment rooms, food preparation rooms, bamboo fresh-keeping rooms, security monitoring rooms, etc.
In order to cope with the local high temperature and hot desert climate, the inside of the panda house uses air conditioning and humidification systems to precisely control the temperature and humidity suitable for panda life, and can also simulate the changes of the four seasons.
Gentlemen of geography, this is the real technology and hard work.
According to the data, the current giant pandas are leased for the main purpose of research and breeding. Each giant panda needs to pay a rent of 1 million US dollars per year. The lease period is generally 10 years, and the lease can be renewed upon expiration.
Abundant energy has enabled Qatar to create a miracle of the rise of a small country. Sports are making this country the focus of world attention.
Long way to go for carbon neutrality
It can be seen from many reports that whether it is a stadium or a commercial street, the amount of money Qatar spent on this World Cup can be described as astronomical, which is why netizens ridicule “rich and willful”.
Indeed, the one-time investment in simulation, experimentation, material selection, equipment, etc. of green buildings seems to be significantly higher than that of ordinary buildings.
However, whether we are discussing the economics or environmental benefits of buildings, we must look at the entire life cycle of the building, rather than just focusing on a certain stage.
If we convert the saved energy consumption, resources, carbon emissions, extra income (such as increased business hours, etc.), and resource recovery benefits into money during the decades or even hundreds of years of green building operation, it is calculated as one A total ledger of the whole life cycle, then the green building is not as expensive as you think.
Most studies believe that the additional benefits generated during the life cycle of a green building are ultimately far greater than the initial additional investment.
Compared with money, it is actually more difficult to balance the impact of carbon emissions on the global climate.
Although the stadium’s air-conditioning system provides a comfortable environment for athletes and visitors, this measure has also raised concerns about energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Abbas Chamseddine, a structural engineer at the Qatar World Cup Stadium, believes that the air conditioning system of the World Cup stadium will undoubtedly cause waste.
Even if it can provide more or less help during winter competitions, outdoor air conditioning cooling systems are unlikely to become mainstream.
Zeke Hausfather, a climate data scientist at Berkeley Earth, said: “Qatar is one of the fastest warming regions in the world outside of the poles, and if we don’t take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the rest of the world will Regions may not escape a similar fate.”
In fact, the organizers of this World Cup have long set the goal of hosting the first “carbon-neutral” World Cup, and they have indeed made great efforts in architectural design, clean energy, and green transportation. Efforts and innovations have been made in many aspects such as resource recycling and reuse.
But on the whole, the carbon emissions consumed by the event should not be underestimated.
You may not think that, according to the “Qatar World Cup Greenhouse Gas Accounting Report” released by FIFA in 2021, the largest part of the carbon emissions in this World Cup is not from the air conditioning of the stadium, nor even from the construction of the stadium with much larger carbon emissions link.
It is estimated that the carbon emissions from the construction of the stadium accounted for only about a quarter of the event’s total carbon emissions.
So, what is the link that brings a lot of carbon emissions and is not environmentally friendly?
It is the travel transportation of participants, spectators, staff and volunteers, especially for long-distance international flights. It is estimated that transportation is responsible for about half of all carbon emissions.
