Australian Atheists Forum

The impact that The Line megacity in Neom could have on birds has been named among the most pressing conservation issues for 2024.

Planned for nine million people, the planned city in Saudi Arabia was highlighted in the Trends in Evolution & Ecology journal as one of 15 key issues of concern for global biodiversity conservation in 2024.

"It is likely to pose a substantial risk"

In the piece, titled "A horizon scan of global biological conservation issues for 2024", the journal pointed to the scale of The Line along with its planned mirrored facades as a risk to migratory bird species.

"Although marketed as being sustainable, its dimensions (500 metres high, 200 metres wide, and 170 kilometres long), design (including mirrored facades and, potentially, roof-top wind turbines), and east–west orientation at the head of the Red Sea mean it is likely to pose a substantial risk to migratory species, particularly passerine birds."
Render of The Line's mirrored facades

Human rights organisation ALQST has reported that three men forcibly evicted from the Neom site in Saudi Arabia have been sentenced to death.

Saudi Arabia and London-based ALQST reported that Shadli al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim al-Huwaiti and Ataullah al-Huwaiti had been sentenced to death earlier this month.

According to ALQST, the three members of the Huwaitat tribe were sentenced after being "forcibly evicted and displaced to make way for the Neom megaproject", which is planned for the northeast of the country.

While developers have said they hope much of the Neom project will be completed by 2039, lately, things haven’t been going so smoothly. The hugely ambitious sci-fi-tinged dreams that have animated the project seem to be dying while being replaced with more realistic plans. Here’s what’s been happening with the project over the last several months, as the Saudis have struggled to advance their floundering new desert metropolis.

Click through to get the latest on the brewing disaster in the desert or just keep scrolling if you’re on mobile.

As the Saudis hunt for cash, the city’s planners were recently forced to drastically scale back the original size and scope of the development. Bloomberg reported in early April that the city, which developers have said is expected to stretch 170 kilometers, will not be finished anytime soon. A source close to the project told Bloomberg that officials only expect to build about 2.4 kilometers of the city by 2030. As The Guardian notes, that’s a shocking reduction of 98 percent.