Each new construction project now boasts a paragraph in its brochure about how it will “follow environmental best practice,” but even if these new measures do materialize, Dubai is a place built on the ideology and convenience of cheap, free-flowing oil. Its business model, particularly its ever-expanding tourist sector, is based on the premise that people will always be willing and able to fly long distances to get there. (Some airlines now euphemistically describe Dubai as both a “long short-haul” destination and a “long-haul weekend break destination.”) A new six-runway mega airport is being built to serve a predicted capacity of 120 million passengers a year.
LITTLE OPPOSITION
These latest plans for an artificially cooled beach may be causing ripples around the world, but why isn’t there more vocal opposition by environmentalists within Dubai?
The simple answer is there are no environmentalists in Dubai; not in the sense of a campaigning, placard-bearing activist that you might find elsewhere. NGOs are barely tolerated within the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
When I visited Dubai two years ago to investigate the environmental and social impacts of its tourism industry for a book I was writing, no one was willing to talk to me on the record, such was their fear of speaking out against the ruling class. The few environmental groups that do exist in Dubai rarely stray from a brief that seems largely limited to educating schoolchildren about the importance of recycling.
The one place where dissent does seem to be allowed — or is harder to police — is the Internet, where people can hide behind their anonymity. Discussion forums are a popular way to vent criticism about the direction Dubai is taking, as are blogs such as Secret Dubai Diary.
One recent controversy is that over Sammy the Shark, a young whale shark that was caught in the Arabian Gulf and transferred to the aquarium at the Atlantis Hotel, which opened last month with a £20 million (US$30 million) party and firework display. More than 16,000 people joined a Facebook group calling for its release, and one local newspaper started a campaign urging that the shark be returned to the sea. A local radio DJ has even been playing a “Free Sammy” interpretation of Michael Jackson’s Heal the World.
But while Dubai’s citizens fight for Sammy to be freed, its leaders refuse to be diverted from realizing their vision. At the UN climate talks, held in Poland earlier this month, UAE Minister of Environment and Water Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad gave a speech in which he spoke of the need for his country to consider using nuclear power to desalinate its fresh water. Well, how else are they going to keep those swimming pools filled and chilled?
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