DESERT FANTASIES - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 141

As at most conferences, some of the best conversations took place outside the official
discussions. Several foreign nonprofit tourist operators complained of “green-washing” by
the hoteliers. During the lunch break Ashraf Faisal Hegazy, an architect who heads the
sustainability committee of his Dubai architecture firm said that the “green” standards in
the UAE were far too weak, “almost meaningless.”
“Their use of water, energy, their glass walls and air conditioning allowed under these
standards are all out of place in our desert,” he said. “And Abu Dhabi is allowing the build-
ing of more and more massive new hotels that strain the infrastructure.”
Hegazy argued that architects and engineers should apply lessons from the original
desert dwellers, building with pillars and screens that caught breezes and took advantage of
cool mornings and evenings without air-conditioning. “You don't need it—that was proved
in New Mexico,” he said.
About 20 miles outside of Abu Dhabi, a multibillion-dollar project called Masdar is at-
tempting to do just that but on a mammoth scale that has become the norm in the United
Arab Emirates. Promising to be the first carbon-neutral city in the world, the architects
and engineers are using modern technology and ancient urban desert design like narrow
streets and latticework screens that fight off the heat and glare of the sun. Eventually this
refuge should show the way to a desert life after the oil economy runs dry. Masdar is part
of the larger Masdar Initiative to develop alternative energy in the UAE, investing in solar,
wind and nuclear.
The poor environmental record of tourism in the UAE was rarely mentioned at the
conference meant to advertise that Abu Dhabi was intent on becoming known as a “green”
destination, however loosely defined. For the last three years, the UAE has had the worst
score in the Living Planet scientific report showing each nation's per capita “environment-
al footprint.” Produced by the World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London
and the Global Footprint Network, this survey measures the annual resources consumed
and waste produced. On the graph the UAE's carbon consumption stands as tall as the
skyscrapers that attract the tourists and pollute the country. What is most remarkable is
that this small desert nation consumes more resources per person than the United States,
which ranked fifth, or Saudi Arabia, its neighbor on the Arab Peninsula, which ranked
twenty-fourth.
What does that reckless consumption look like? You can find many of the problems
caused by that waste in the water. Dead fish in the rivers, ruined beds of coral, raw sewage
on the beaches, ever-saltier water in the seas.
The dead fish can be found floating in the Dubai Creek, victims of the pollution in the
river that flows through the city and celebrated as one of its tourist attractions. In 2009 the
number of dead fish exploded to more than 100 tons. Most were pulled out and buried in
overflowing landfills. Many were strewn along the beaches where the gulf flows into the
creek. The stench from the decaying fish was overwhelming; many were undersized and