Bubbles in the sand

I’m forever blowing bubbles
Property bubbles in the sand
They grow so fast, obviously can’t last
But why do I care, I still own the land
People keep on buying
I take all their cash
Oh, I’m forever blowing bubbles
And bubbles always crash

“Nowadays, ten months after the financial crisis came crashing in on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), nearly destroying its shiniest component, Dubai, hundreds of cranes and dredgers have yet to resume work. The Queen Elizabeth II, once the world’s smartest liner, due to become yet another posh Dubai hotel, is a sleeping quayside hulk. Nothing is happening on three of the most recently man-made islands shaped like palm trees off Dubai’s coast that were the latest flashy projects of Nakheel, the emirate’s shaky real-estate developer.”

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Looking at the Environmental Impact of Palm Jumeirah

UN scientists say that although the waters off Dubai’s coast will never again be what they once were, the Palm Jumeirah offshore structure is creating a new complex marine ecosystem despite years of disruptive construction work.

The United Nations University’s International Network on Water, Environment and Health, commissioned by the Palm developer Nakheel, compiled a report on the effects of the project.

They concluded that marine life is slowly returning to the coastline.

“They are developing into very interesting rocky reefs,” said the chief scientist behind the research, Dr Peter Sale, a marine ecologist.

Dr Sale is the assistant director of the United Nations University network, which has worked with Nakheel since early 2007. The goal of the collaboration is for the scientists to pursue a long-term environmental monitoring programme and a sustainable management plan for the waters surrounding Nakheel’s man-made islands.

Nakheel’s decision to build a series of structures along Dubai’s coastline has drawn criticism from conservationists opposed to the environmental cost of the projects, such as large-scale destruction of coral reefs and changes in water flows.

The Palm Jebel Ali, for example, is being built in a formerly protected area, the Jebel Ali Marine Sanctuary. The area was given legal protection in 1998 on the grounds that it housed one of the Gulf’s richest marine ecosystems, with 34 coral species and 77 species of reef fish. To mitigate the damage it has caused, Nakheel financed a scheme under which the Emirates Marine Environment Group, an NGO, transplanted corals elsewhere.

Despite initial positive results, the long-term benefits are still unknown.

Yesterday, the UN scientists acknowledged that the ecosystem that existed off Dubai’s coast has been lost forever.

“There are certainly going to be differences,” said Dr Ken Drouillard, associate professor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor, Canada, who participated in the study.

“Much more complex habitat characteristics were present in the past.”…MORE

Kite Surfing Takes Off in Jumeirah

While this week’s windy weather has hindered sailors, it has created inviting conditions for kite surfers.

On Sunday, several of the sport’s enthusiasts donned their wetsuits, inflated their long rectangular kites and headed out into the shallow waters off Jumeirah Beach.

Salem Al Adidi was excited to be back in the water, skipping across the waves on a small surfboard harnessed to the stiff breeze.

“For four weeks, we didn’t play because there was no wind,” Al Adidi said.

Alexander Jacques, a 14-year-old student, sat with other surfers, eating chocolate and sipping energy drinks before hitting the water.

It’s quite good,” he said.

The newly created land from man-made islands buttresses some of the waves from reaching the shore, keeping the aquatic avenues between the beach and reclaimed land relatively still.

The combination of calm water and strong winds is ideal for good kite surfing, the surfers said.

“For most of the people here, the stronger the better,” said one.

Strong winds don’t help boaters, though…SOURCE

If You Build It, They Will Come: Dubai’s Business Model

Soul

by Julia Dimon / Published February 27‚ 2008

Dubai is booming. It’s a city of cranes and construction — everywhere you look there’s another development, another architectural achievement, another world’s-biggest something in progress.

If Dubai builds it, tourists will come Dubai’s skyline is one of cranes and construction. Dubai is booming. It’s a city of cranes and construction — everywhere you look there’s another development, another architectural achievement, another world’s-biggest something in progress. With thousands of high-end villas, some 40 malls and five-star hotels, Dubai is a poster child for urban excess. It’s been dubbed the Vegas of the Middle East, and boasts the world’s best hotel, the world’s biggest man-made islands, and soon, the world’s tallest tower. Driving through the sprawl of development, it’s hard to believe that in the early 1970s, Dubai wasn’t much more than desert. Vision, ambition and limitless budgets have created a cosmopolitan city from nothing. Thirty years of lightning-speed development turned this small port into an economic hub, a tourist Mecca and a playground for the world’s rich and elite. From Gulf Coast sheiks to celebrities like David Beckham, the rich are stocking up on million-dollar villas like us regular folks do toilet paper. One of the most impressive real estate properties flying off the market today is the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island which was created in an attempt to expand the coastline and draw tourists. As the name would suggest, the island is built in the shape of a palm tree, with a suburb of expensive waterfront villas along its fronds.  The Palm Jumeirah is being hailed as the 8th Wonder Of The World. But this is Dubai for you, a place where marketing gimmicks take precedence over truth…SOURCE