coastal development in the Persian Gulf

The persian gulf emirate of Dubai (UAE) has undertaken a series of multi-billion dollar coastal developments by government-controlled developer Nakheel. One features 3 man-made palm shaped islands, another project underway consists of the construction of 300 small islands (to be priced from $7 to $35 million) making up a world map, while a third will be a crescent-shaped island chain larger than Manhattan. The crescent project alone will create 5 square kilometers of artificial coral reef & a 850-kilometer waterfront. According to an article in today's Los Angeles Times (13 Oct 2005, part 1, page 1) "And in the waters just off the man-made coast, the world's most treasured scuba diving sites will be re-created: the Maldives, the Barrier Reef, the Caymans, the Red Sea." Growth of the new coral reefs will be aided by use of Biorock technology. In order to build these islands existing coral reefs already highly stressed by rising water temperatures & bleaching have been destroyed. A marine sanctuary was handed over to Nakheel as a construction site, oyster beds were smothered by silt, dugong habitat destroyed, fish & turtle stocks have decreased, and vast amounts of natural sea bottom altered. The developments are only 10 feet above sea level and will be highly vulnerable to climatic changes. Neighboring Bahrain & Qatar are following suit with developments shaped like seahorses and pearls.

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0823-tina_butler_dubai.html

http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050227.html

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?...ssid=26&sid=env

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7045326/

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7051051/

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_travel_story_s...0%3Fformat=html

"Breathing life into dying coral reefs"

http://gulfnews.com/Articles/print2.asp?ArticleID=120271

http://www.opendemocracy.net/xml/xhtml/articles/1903.html

Well - this is just another good example of how money eclipses good judgement...and unfortunately, there is no short supply of money in the UAE.

They will continue these developments and others until celebrities and wealthy businessmen quite buying the real estate that they "create"......

We should just boycott products exported from Dubai and the rest of the UAE, and start divesting from the area. That policy (although informal here in the US) worked pretty well for Apartheid and South Africa...

Time to get my bike out of the garage :-)

Cheers

James

(The above is a frustrated sarcastic comment and is not to be taken seriously under any circumstances)

I've spent time as a kid in Dubai and it's a sandpit. What they have built in the last 20+ years is amazing. Unfortunately, many areas have been destroyed by human activity. Land reclamation isa given. We'd have to add Japan (look at the Yokohama Airport) and SIngapore to the boycott list.

Still walking and riding isn't a bad idea, James. First we'd have to get the federal government interested in dropping oil prices so the OPEC don't have enough for their 150th generation of billionaires! LOL