The tragedies that occurred in the course of the year gone by have been right at the edge of an apocalypse. And though we successfully made it to 2021, there is no denying the degradation humanity and nature has suffered in the year gone by.
Currently, the gateway town to the earth's largest desert was covered in snow. And it looks like terrifying masterpiece.
An amateur photographer, Karim Bouchetata, was passing the small town of Ain Sefra in 2017 when he decided to capture the thin blanket of snow over bright red sand dunes of the Sahara desert.
The rare and sublime photographs capture the rare event that has taken place after 37 years. Karim Bouchetata said that the snow lasted for about a day and formed fascinating whirling patterns wherever the slopes were too steep for it to settle.
He told The Telegraph, "Everyone was stunned to see snow falling in the desert, it is such a rare occurrence. It looked amazing as the snow settled on the sand and made a great set of photos."
Ain Sefra, founded as a French garrison town in 1881, experienced a traffic-stopping snowstorm in 1979. The town lies within a vast arid landscape on the border of Morocco and Algeria. The dry region has lately been experiencing extreme temperature drops during winters, where it has gone as low as -10.2 degree Celsius.
Here are few other images by Karim Bouchetata of Ain Sefra covered in snow.
Most people understand climate change to be a definite warming of the weather. Ice caps melting and flooding of coastal cities and island nations, have been making headlines throughout the year. However, events in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Algeria have brought up the aspects of climate change that were not expected by the general populace.
Come 2018, the desert of Ain Sefra is covered in a blanket snow again. Ignoring the alarming nature of the weather, publications are dwelling on the absurd beauty of it. The consecutive snowfall raises even more concern over the changing climate, which is altering the course of nature.
In January and November 2016, Saudi Arabia witnessed its first snowfall in 85 years and though the images of the event went viral on the internet, it didn't seem to draw necessary attention to the issue at hand.
There were also torrential floods in Saudi last year that destroyed a number of settlements, flooded roads, blocked tunnels and overturned vehicles. Since flooding in desert regions is a completely unexpected disaster, the ineffective drainage systems worsened the situation of the streets and blocked connecting roads between different cities.
The extreme climate change happening over the decades has worsened living conditions for people in every part of the world. And especially with the catastrophic events (earthquakes and tornado that rattled continents) of 2017, it is entirely possible that humanity has reached a point of no return.
The images of a desert covered in snow do look sublimely beautiful, but there is a profound tragedy in the picture of an eco-system transforming for the worse. It's imperative that we begin our education about the intricacies of climate change, and take steps that, if not transform, then help mitigate the consequences of centuries of environmental abuse.