Dubai looking to go greener

It’s hard to remember that Dubai is actually a desert. Even though it has a coastline, the interior has always been an arid desert.

Of the sick amount of money that Dubai spends on having the tallest, biggest, best stuff, it also spends quite a bit on making the city green. (NB: I am going to try to write this without delving into the general environmental disaster that Dubai is nurturing).

There are numerous palm trees — that are fully grown in a greenhouse and replanted into the ground; lush green grass beautifying the main roads, and about 5 full fledge parks. All these are maintained by 24-hour underground water supply (desalinated water), and continuous automated sprinklers.

The trees are so identical (they probably have the same number of leaves), and the grass is so green and well-manicured that you cannot imagine that Dubai once used to be entirely a desert.

Dubai Municipality has just announced a plan to build 30 new parks in Dubai in order to raise the percentage of open green space from 1.4% to 8%.

How they do that will probably do more environmental damage than good, but it’s the best investment of resources I have heard of in Dubai for a long time.

[Via AMEinfo.com]