Why Arid Cities Should Stick Together
In a hotter, drier world, hundreds of cities now face desertification and drought. To help them adapt, Qatar’s Earthna Center has proposed an Arid Cities Network.
A man walks amidst a heavy sandstorm in Doha, Qatar, on April 15, 2025.
Photographer: Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Last month, a sandstorm in Iraq turned day into night, blinded drivers in a thick orange haze, grounded flights, and left thousands with respiratory illness. The gusty waves of dust, swept around more intensely than many could remember, penetrated every possible crack in the physical realm, clogging up everything from kitchen vents to car engines to computer processors.
The nightmarish phenomenon, known as the haboob in Arabic, joins the growing roster of violent weather patterns exacerbated by climate change, from wildfires and mudslides to hurricanes and flooding. Though sandstorms have been around for millennia, scientists believe they are intensified by warming temperatures and drought, which creates more dry particulates that the wind can pick up and hurl around the landscape — much the way warmer ocean temperatures provide greater fuel for tropical storms. Observers note both an increase in ferocity and frequency.