The Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). The building gained the official title of “Tallest Building in the World” at its opening on January 4, 2010. Photo courtesy of: © Denis Delestrac
Excerpts;
Unlike in some cities across the globe where unsightly pollution like empty Styrofoam cups, broken beer bottles and yesterday’s newspapers roll like tumble weeds down the street; Dubai residents are complaining of abandoned cars polluting road sides and parking lots…
Dubai’s Staggering Growth, NASA
To expand the possibilities for beachfront development, Dubai undertook a massive and controversial engineering project to create hundreds of artificial islands along its Persian Gulf coastline. Built from sand dredged from the sea floor, the islands are shaped in recognizable forms such as palm trees. The construction of the various islands off the coast of Dubai has resulted in changes in area wildlife, coastal erosion and alongshore sediment transport, and wave patterns.
A Picture of Earth Through Time
In the mid-1980s, when the Timelapse images begin, Dubai was a small desert city of about 300,000 people, overshadowed by nearby Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. What growth Dubai had experienced was mostly recent; in the 1950s it was little more than a village, with pearl diving its chief industry. Today, Dubai’s population exceeds 2.1 million, and the metropolis has asserted itself as the financial center of the Middle East. Explore a global timelapse of our planet, constructed from Landsat satellite imagery. Witness two palm trees and a map of the world appear as islands off the coast of Dubai.
Sand Wars, A Film Documentary, by Denis Delestrac
Sand: Most of us think of it as a complimentary ingredient of any beach vacation. Yet those seemingly insignificant grains of silica surround our daily lives. Every house, skyscraper and glass building, every bridge, airport and sidewalk in our modern society depends on sand. We use it to manufacture optical fiber, cell phone components and computer chips. We find it in our toothpaste, powdered foods and even in our glass of wine (both the glass and the wine, as a fining agent)! Is sand an infinite resource? Can the existing supply satisfy a gigantic demand fueled by construction booms? What are the consequences of intensive beach sand mining for the environment and the neighboring populations? Based on encounters with sand smugglers, barefoot millionaires, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous real estate developers and environmentalists, this investigation takes us around the globe to unveil a new gold rush and a disturbing fact: the “SAND WARS” have begun…
