The Line. A hundred miles of mirrored glass that stands five-hundred metres tall and two-hundred metres wide. It sits in the desert. The only civilisation nearby is the Red Sea and mountains. There are no cars. You exist. You work. You die. There is no way out.

Except, of course, the developers of this project would have us believe that such a development is liberating. If you’ve looked at the site from the link provided, some of you may see what I see if you know your Judge Dredd.

Megacity One.

I don’t care how this is presented. All I see is a prison to lock up human beings and give them an illusion of a better life so they don’t have to accept the fact they’re stuck inside a huge wall with nothing around them but sand, sea and rock. Yes, there are trees proposed inside this thing. But will anyone be allowed outside to access a forest?

The blurb says 40% of the world is available by air within six hours. How do inhabitants get to the airport?

Trains will take people end-to-end in 20 minutes. What happens when they break down? They’re in a wall. Are there service lines like with underground railways? The site from developers NEOM does little to address any real-world questions on just how liveable this dys/utopia will be. How about maintaining social order? Where do police go? Will they even have police? What kind of jobs will people have? Would you be allowed to leave?

People will have all their needs met within a five-minute walk. Great way to use convenience to segregate people and create divisions whilst having already isolated them.

An idea of the future for so-called ‘Neomians’ is granted by NEOM itself. I’m quite sure many people would be concerned about living in a country known for its human rights violations. According to The Guardian –

“while the area would be a special economic zone, it would still be part of the kingdom and “subject to all rules … related to security, defense and border protection.”

Subject to Saudi Law then. Muslim Law. I give a small snippet from the Foreign Travel advice section of the UK Government website:

“Penalties for the possession of, or trade in alcohol are severe. Both result in prison sentences. Do not arrive in Saudi Arabia under the influence of alcohol.

If you bring medication with you, carry a doctor’s prescription.

Importing pork products is forbidden.

The possession of pornographic material, or of illustrations of scantily dressed people, especially women, is prohibited.

Electronic devices may be screened by customs officials on arrival and departure.

The punishment for smuggling drugs includes the death penalty.

Photographing government buildings, military installations, and palaces is not allowed.  You should avoid photographing local people. Binoculars should not be brought into Saudi Arabia and may be confiscated at the port of entry.

It’s illegal to hold 2 passports in Saudi Arabia. Second passports will be confiscated by the immigration authorities if they’re discovered.

You should carry a photocopy of your passport for identification. Make sure you have included emergency contact details.”

Some of those rules are alright even a venture into healthy territory. Others? Extreme. And people will be inside a wall subjected to such rules.

Back to social order. Let’s say there’s a disagreement that gets heated. In an ordinary city, there’s a decent chance of it getting seen. How about in a city that’s as tall as a skyscraper? How easy would it be for murder and mayhem to take place? Did I mention there’s a river at the bottom? Sorry. Waterways. Still, from 500 metres up, you can throw someone over and they’ll just make a little plop. If the waterways connect to natural groundwater caverns underground, you can resolve your issues just by pushing someone off of one of the many barrier-less bridges.

And the talk of being environmentally-friendly and preparing the country for ‘climate change’? Please. They’re building a 100-mile, 200 metre wide, 500 metre tall border that cuts right across the country. A solid, insurmountable border for land animals that seek to move North-South or vice versa. And birds? They’ll have to negotiate a huge reflective obstacle to which they will unlikely be able to discern the glass from the sky and fly straight into it. If they do avoid an unintended death, they may end trapped inside the walls and not know how to get back out. So, there could be thousands of birds stuck inside, desperate to get out and end up highly stressed because, in a big artificial landscape, those birds won’t have access to the food they need. Then what? You have exotic birds that, if they remain trapped, resorting to scavenger behaviour like pigeons, seagulls and crows in Europe do? How is that good for the ecosystem?

And what about insects? If people are allowed to travel outside then they may bring back foreign bugs which, in a traditional city, would either end up trod on or able to venture around and lead some kind of life. But stuck in a wall? Mosquitoes, spiders, wasps, flies, etc. With a proposed capacity of 9million people, the opportunity for disease, destruction and death is increased. Mass isolation with no real nature to go to. Just the artificially recreated version. The trees might be real but the landscape they’ll be planted in is such an abstraction, people will go mad.

On trees, there are no details on how The Line will cope with plants natural desire to spread out, sprout up and try and gain for nourishing sunlight for themselves. What’s the strategy for dealing with undesirable plants like Japanese Knotweed which will happily tear up the expensive flooring being put down. Or worse. The foundations.

And what happens when businesses go bust? Or someone wants to move property? How does that work? Or they need to do structural work. How does the machinery get in and move around? Is there an innovative solution for that other than helicopter the stuff in from the top?

Yes, it’s easy to sit here and ponder all this but the developers don’t have anything made available to the public that details how they will allow a population almost that of London to exist within, what is, an elaborate prison.

How is it powered? By renewables, of course! Because they’re so efficient just now at generating and storing all the energy required to power a leviathan of a city. Shame they didn’t think of swapping the glass panels out for solar ones. Might save a whole heap of birds from dying.

And what about those outside of The Line? If land animals are going to be stuck then what about the people at opposite ends of the country? How are they going to get around?

The whole thing spells disaster. Ecological disaster. Physical disaster. Mental, emotional, psychological, political, environmental. You name it, there’s a disaster waiting to happen in The Line.

This is what happens when Man starts to think he’s God. He thinks he can control Nature. Anyone who thinks they can enact their will against Nature and Planet Earth is a fool. It’s far bigger, older and more established. And there’s the small matter that Nature governs us. It’s what allows us to exist. Without, this planet would spin without a damned living thing on it. It would just be a spinning ball of rock, metal and gas.

So, The Line is a fools errand, in my view. One that will be deemed a success to the media, but, in reality, will most likely spell catastrophe for those that choose or are made to live there.

After all, when you’re stuck in between millions of tons of metal, concrete and glass, who’s going to hear the cries for help?

And who’s going to hear them silenced?