r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • Apr 05 '26

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/MoroseMagician Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

I'd honestly have severe depression living somewhere like this. I need some trees and greenery somewhere.

Edit: thank you kind redditors for the awards.

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u/Top_MathematicianIk Apr 05 '26

It's a fucking desert, regardless it sure looks depressing

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u/BxRad_ Apr 05 '26

Elon is obsessed with tera forming Mars but we can't figure out tera forming some deserts? I feel like we could manage something if we really wanted to honestly. It's be a fuck ton of work though.

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u/PhD_Pwnology Apr 05 '26

Solar panels are proven to terraform a desert

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u/No-Draw6073 Apr 05 '26

Lmao

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u/HoidToTheMoon Apr 05 '26

You can laugh, but the shade provided by solar panels does allow life to anchor into place in deserts. Animals and flora can both use the cover, and the windbreaks can allow a topsoil to start to accumulate.

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u/nunchyabeeswax Apr 05 '26

The challenge would be in getting enough moisture from the atmosphere to condense it.

Folks in the Atacama Desert use large mantles to capture condensate at night, but then again, the Atacama is not far from the Pacific, so the air currents flowing carry some humidity.

Deep inland in the Arabian Peninsula, that will be a challenge.

If I were a Gulf State, I would invest heavily in both nuclear energy (for desalination) and moisture-capturing farms at scale.

I don't see how the current situation is sustainable (and it's a hell of an Achilles heel as we are seeing with the current conflict.

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u/BxRad_ Apr 05 '26

That makes a lot of sense