Is climate change responsible for the transformation of the Arabian Peninsula from meadows and rivers into a barren desert?

Weather of Arabia - Sinan Khalaf - Climate change is a phenomenon that has today become the world's main concern, and the most prominent topic of discussion in the media. It is primarily responsible for all the floods, droughts, and significant rises in temperatures that the world is witnessing, and all of this is attributed by experts to the rapid increase in rates of Pollution resulting from human practices and the burning of fossil fuels. Is climate change primarily responsible for the radical shift in climate in the Arabian Peninsula?

Is climate change responsible for drought in the Arabian Peninsula?

Anyone who looks into the history of the region sees beyond doubt that the Arabian Peninsula was once meadows, rivers, and forests full of animal and plant diversity tens of thousands of years ago, and this is what was proven by a team of researchers from the University of Oxford, when they found an elephant tusk. A giant of the extinct mammoth species in the Al-Nafouth Desert in Saudi Arabia! It dates back more than 300 thousand years, and the length of the tusk reaches 2.2 meters. Researchers believe that the elephant weighed between 6-7 tons and was 3.6 meters high at the shoulders.

Tropical animals that lived in the Arabian Peninsula!

The matter did not stop there, as multiple fossils were found of different types of tigers, rhinos, turtles, and other living creatures and animals that only live in forests and jungles. Perhaps the strangest thing found was the bones of a hippopotamus, which only lives near lakes. And rivers! This indicates that the desert of the peninsula was full of water pools and lakes.

We mention here that all of these discoveries are consistent with what the Lord of all creation told us in the noble hadith: “The Hour will not come until there is much commotion and until the land of the Arabs returns to meadows and rivers.” The word “return” is a clear indication of the green paradise and meadows that the land of the Arabs used to have. It also indicates that drought and drought were present in the time of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and that drought and drought were the prevailing climate in the Arabian Peninsula at that time, that is, before the industrial revolution and the discovery of fossil fuels! ..So is climate change the cause of drought in the Arabian Peninsula?

The answer is definitely “no.” The main reason for the drought of the Arabian Peninsula is due to the end of the effects of the ice age, or what is known as the Quaternary period, which began 1.6 million years ago and ended 10,000 years ago. This is consistent with geological research and surveys that confirm A river with a length of 1,200 km used to divide the Arabian Peninsula into two halves. It originates from the Hijaz mountain range near the southern parts of Medina and extends to the valleys of Al-Rumah and then Hafar Al-Batin all the way to Kuwait. It dried up only 9,000 thousand years ago, that is, immediately after the end of the ice age.

How did the Ice Age transform the Arabian Peninsula into meadows and rivers?

During the Ice Age, the effects of which ended 10,000 years ago, the bitter cold crept from the Arctic southward towards both Europe and America, and approached greatly the Arabian Peninsula, and turned into one of the most moderate regions in the world in terms of temperatures and rainfall. The years are a green paradise crossed by rivers and in the middle by lakes, in which various forms of life creep.