Environment in the United Arab Emirates Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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In the Abu Dhabi of the 1950s, travelers described the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a “small dilapidated town.” Abu Dhabi-like most of the United Arab Emirates-was a completely different world just four decades ago. Modern Abu Dhabi and its sister emirate Dubai are glistening financial, commercial, transportation, and tourism centers. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have built massive, palatial malls, indoor ski rinks with artificial snow, artificial islands with seven star hotels, and one of the most modern and developed airports in the world.

Unlike most of the Middle East, which has stagnated economically since the 1960s, the United Arab Emirates-a loose confederation of different emirates, inherited “Princedoms” ruled by emirs or princes-has surpassed not only their Arab neighbors, but much of the Western world as well. The key source of this remarkable transformation seems obvious-oil. Vast amounts of easily-extracted oil continue to sell for massive profits in the West. Yet other nations, such as Libya or Nigeria, have benefited from massive oil profits without nearly the same economic success as the Emirates.

The Emirates achieved this success through a careful and planned policy of economic diversification and an open attitude to free trade and investment. Far from relying only on the revenues from oil, the Emirates from the beginning planned industrial projects, encouraged agricultural development on once barren desert, and hosted the latest innovations in technology. The leaders of the Emirates often provide tax havens for the development of lucrative, major industries and technologies.

Often, however, the almost lightening speed of development in the Emirates has led to significant and troubling environmental consequences. One early example of the unforeseen environmental consequences of unbridled development was the creation of gas refineries. Before the mid-1970s, most natural gas was simply burned away or underutilized in the process of extracting oil. To make the most of all petroleum products, Abu Dhabi built the Umm al-Nar refinery deliberately near downtown as a symbol of industrialization and progress. This was an environmental blunder as the plant used corrosive materials and chemicals that had a harmful impact on the immediate area. Although there have been recent changes, a similar disregard for public health and safety has characterized some other development and diversification projects.

The Umm al-Nar refinery is only one example of how the prestige associated with economic development was often more important than possible long-term environmental and social concerns. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the rest of the Emirates to a lesser extent, have learned the importance of image, symbols, and marketing in a globalized economy. The environment is often relegated to a secondary concern. As skyscrapers fill the skylines of Dubai, and as pollution and congestion increase, it is possible that the UAE will overburden its social and environmental resources, leading to the potential for profound crises-not only crises of social identity, but crises caused by seemingly unstoppable economic and environmental overstretch.

Bibliography:

Ronald Codrai, The Seven Skaykhdoms: Life in the Trucial States Before the Federation of the United Arab Emirates (London, 1990);
Christopher Davidson, The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival (Lynne Rienner, 2005);
Sulayman Khalaf, “Gulf Societies and the Image of Unlimited Good,” Dialectical Anthropology (v.17, 1992).