While the Bush administration rushes to support big oil companies, oil
rich Dhabi, with 10% of the world's oil reserves, is investing in
renewables to be a world leader when the oil runs out!  From NPR this
morning:
In the desert of Abu Dhabi, a novel experiment in sustainability is under
way. 
Over the next decade, a city of 50,000 residents will be built from
scratch. And unlike any other city in the world, Masdar City will have no
carbon footprint. Once it's built, the city will be powered entirely by
renewable energy. 
But, the United Arab Emirates is an oil-rich nation containing
approximately 10 percent of the world's oil reserves. So why is Abu Dhabi
doing this? 
"The answer is simple," says Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future
Energy Co., the developers planning the city. "There are two reasons.
Number one, because we can. Number two, because we should. And because
this is a logical step and a natural extension for our involvement in the
energy markets."
In other words, when the oil runs out, which it eventually will, Abu
Dhabi wants to be ready to sell the world solar or wind or whatever
renewable technologies will be needed to supply people's energy needs. 
But there's another reason. 
"Abu Dhabi wanted to show that it's aware of its carbon footprint today,"
says Khaled Awad, the man in charge of building Masdar City. He says Abu
Dhabi has already committed $4 billion for the project and plans to raise
another $18 billion. 
This scale of investment is attracting attention. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology has signed on to help Abu Dhabi establish the
Masdar Institute, an institute devoted to research in renewable energy. 
It's also attracting attention in the architectural world. Foster and
Partners, an architectural firm based in London, has done the initial
design work for Masdar City. 
Ultimately, though, the project may come back to image. Nader Ardalan,
professor of architecture at Harvard University, says people in the
oil-producing world want to be considered in a different light. "They
want to not be viewed as Bedouins. They want to be viewed as people of
conscience and education," he says.
And in a way, many of the benefits of building Masdar City will flow to
the West, Ardalan says, because so many Western firms are contributing.
In addition, Masdar City will be a test bed for new technologies. 
"Mistakes will be made," Ardalan says, "and we'll be able to learn a lot.
And I think we can then transfer this back to America, which is sort of
funny because normally the transfer has been American technology, Western
technology going to the East."


      
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