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WHEN I told people I was going to Saudi Arabia to do some reporting, many assumed I was visiting Neom, or some variation on “that weird city in the desert”. I wasn’t. I went to report on a project called Deep Climate, which is researching human adaptation to extreme conditions, such as the brutal heat of the Arabian desert. But I found out plenty about Neom, and some of the other changes afoot in Saudi Arabia, while I was at it.
I first heard about Neom in detail in 2021 at COP26, where its executive director of energy, Jens Madrian,…
