Global warming in saudi arabia - Research Paper Example

This paper will analyze the major cause of global warming in Saudi Arabia, its impacts, some mitigation measures that should be taken and the response of the country towards climate change policies. Introduction Saudi Arabia, one of the hottest and driest countries in the world, is approximately situated between East longitudes 37 and 56 and North latitudes 17 and 31. The average yearly rainfall in the Kingdom ranges from 80 mm to 140 mm apart from the southwestern mountains. Utmost summer temperatures frequently go beyond 45 degrees Celsius while virtual humidity is very low and skies are usually clear.

These increases in the maximum temperatures are as a consequence of global warming (Alkolibi, 225). Depledge indicates that Saudi Arabia’s attitude on climate change is plainly established on its fears over the likely negative effects of climate change lessening policies on its economy. They fear that these measures will sharply reduce their export thereby affecting the economy. These fears are expected, since Saudi Arabia relies heavily on the oil sector, which accounted for 77 percent of government incomes in 2002.

Due to this, oil exporters are the most shown to endeavor to cut greenhouse gases, and will be likely to bear costs higher than those of the mitigating developed countries will. This is because being an oil producing country, there is a lot of combustion taking place in its industries, thus increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (12). Despite being a major oil producing country, Saudi Arabia also has a banging population; 29 million people and growing at a rate of 2 percent a year.

This means that the country has pressure since this population is not able to sustain its present standard of living on the declining oil revenues. In order to maintain this population, pressure is mounted on the oil resources thus emitting more carbon in the atmosphere. In turn, this accelerates global warming in the country thus making it hotter and drier. Watchdog groups and western diplomats allege that the Saudis realize that a global accord to regulate carbon emissions is possible and they are trying to suspend it as long as possible (McEvers, 14).

McEvers further states that most of the people in Saudi Arabia do not consider climate change as a big concern despite the country experiencing very high temperatures (11). Moreover, there are a number of weather-related catastrophes in the nation for instance sandstorms, long-term droughts and frequent severe floods. These are the adverse effects of global warming in the country yet the population is ignorant about it. Furthermore, projections indicate that most of the country’s cities located at the Coasts are likely to be submerged in a few decades to come (12).

Low rainfall and high temperatures plus high inconsistency of both factors greatly affect agriculture in the country. This is because these conditions lessen soil moisture, damage the soil by mechanical weathering and augment evapotranspiration. These conditions have a damaging effect on water accessibility and agriculture and depict Saudi Arabia a very poor country in terms of agricultural production and water resources (Alkolibi, 225). A quantitative estimation by the British Hadley Center GCM experiment forecasted that climatic change in consequence of global warming is anticipated to lead to reduction in agricultural food production in dry regions situated in the lower latitudes. This