I've always been a little bit of a closet fan of the UAE - Dubai seems pretty awesome. But now I've been reading about a UAE project that definitely rivals the miniature earth island: MASDAR. In an interesting moderately large-scale application of modern eco-friendly design and ideas relating to Eisenberg's writing, Abu Dhabi is building a city that is supposed to be entirely eco-friendly. Some of the features include:
- complete reliance on solar energy and some other renewable energy forms (like wind)
- car ban: excellent mass transit and personal rapid transit systems instead
- multiple recyclings of water (greywater used for crops, etc)
- the largest hydrogen power plant
- low- or zero- waste: biological waste will be used as fertilizer
There is a lot of skepticism about whether this is actually a step in the right direction. For example, many of the people who work in the city will have to commute there. Although the city itself will have energy-efficient transit, the workers will still have to drive to the city itself. Furthermore, the city will be an island in a sea of eco-disastrous venues, such as a theme park and an aluminum smelter.
I, however, think that it's a great idea. For one thing, I think that there is still a lot of doubt in the back of peoples minds about whether or not we can really rely on other sources of energy. Also, this will be sort of a large-scale test: problems with running the eco-friendly city can be smoothed out for future use. I think that this is definitely a step in the right direction!
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