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Turning the Desert Green in Qatar
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Turning the Desert Green in Qatar

2013 · EN · STATUS: [ STREAMING ]

Qatar sits on some of the world's largest gas reserves and almost none of its own fresh water or arable land, and this film follows the country's attempt to fix both problems with money and engineering. Cameras visit desalination plants turning seawater into drinking water, solar-powered greenhouses growing vegetables in climate-controlled bubbles, and research facilities testing crops that might survive the open desert without them. Engineers and officials explain the reasoning: if Qatar can prove these systems work at scale, poorer desert nations without oil wealth could eventually copy the technology cheaper. The film keeps returning to the obvious tension in that plan, since everything shown here runs on capital only a petroleum state can afford, from imported soil to energy-hungry cooling systems. Interviews with scientists and planners weigh the country's food security ambitions against the cost, and the question of whether Qatar is building a genuine model for arid regions or an expensive showcase that only works because of gas money.