Carbon Footprint

by Cindy

I had a friend ask us how "green" we are here in Dubai. I thought it was a good question so here are our thoughts and observations -

First and foremost, Dubai is a desert. There is no natural flora here, at all. There are parks and they are very nice but the government has to pour 250,000,000 gallons / day on them to keep them green - most of the water is desalinated water or gray water. The water out of the tap is desalinated but doesn't taste great, I think this is the biggest market in the world for bottled water. [On that note, a 20 oz bottle of water will cost you $0.36 which is nice from a consumer perspective.] I think this is the largest carbon footprint in the world, due to all of the AC we have here. We have six months that are miserably hot and humid (it was 102 degrees with 92% humidity this week and it is only March!) so there really isn't anyone who doesn't have AC. We have cheap gas and a lot of SUVs (along with all of the high end cars).

Wilderness? Yea, it is called the desert. See Exodus.

As for recycling, it is picking up steam. We do have recycling bins around campus and a few around town. There is a big recycling plant that has recently opened so I think you will see it move in a positive direction. The place is clean, very clean, which is really nice. The downside to the cleanliness is that we have foreign workers / laborers who clean everything. It is borderline slavery but definitely indentured servitude. They also take care of the parks so the parks are immaculant and always have flowers blooming. It is a very sterile looking place and part of that is due to everything being a light color because light colors reflect heat. I do often ask myself, whose wise idea was it to build a city in the middle of a dessert but I suppose people have done it all over the world...and even in America, Las Vegas is a very popular destination!

Here are some pics from campus to give you an idea of the flowers all over the place.