Palm Doh!(r)

Ocean acidification...
Collapse of world fisheries...
Loss of polar habitat...
All these threats pale in comparison to the real ocean challenge of our time: Solving Dubai's beach shortage.

No, really!

In addition to its penchant for harboring acquitted, alleged pedophiles, the United Arab Emirate nation of Dubai hopes to boost its international standing in the eyes of the world's rich (and its UAE neighbors) by building a series of the largest artificial islands on the planet. Known as the Palm Islands, this self-described most exciting project on earth is nearing completion in 2010 and will house luxury residences, villas, and hotels. The Palms project is also a growing concern for environmentalists due to the extreme modifications being made to the local marine habitats.

Advertised as "being visible from the Moon," (it's at least visible from Google Earth) these human-made palm-shaped structures display 17 huge sand fronds framed by 12-kilometer protective barriers. When completed, the resort will sport 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, cinemas, and other facilities. One section of the development known as The World (seen third from left in the above image) is a collection of artificial islands arranged in the shape of a world map. The completed resort is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people.

Creating islands on this scale is no small feat. The entire process makes the beach nourishment projects of Miami look like play time in a sandbox. As a result of all the dredging and redepositing of sand for the construction of the islands, the historically crystal-clear waters of the gulf of Dubai have become severely clouded with silt. Construction activity is smothering patch coral reefs, and blanketing oyster and sea grass beds under two inches of sediment in some locations. Above water, disruption of natural longshore currents by construction threatens beach and dune habitats with unexpected erosion.

The profound underwater changes currently taking place as a result of construction are only dwarfed by the grandiose vision of Nakheel Properties, the developers behind this project. Plans for one palm island project, The Palm Jumeirah, includes an artificial diving park complete with four themed areas from which enthusiasts can choose. One area called Snorkler's Cove will feature imported marine life as well as an added incentive--a daily deposit of a single solid gold one-kilogram bar, worth US$15,629 at current gold prices. The remains of two fighter planes, jumbo jets, and seven barges have been dropped onto the sea floor in a bid to attract marine life and create an underwater theme park for divers. Project backers assert that such additions will actually help attract fish and other marine life by providing shelter and leading to reef expansion and community diversification (more on the reality of wrecks-to-reef schemes in a future post).

The health of coral reefs in the Arabian Gulf has been in a state of continuous decline over the past 50 years. Recent estimates of habitat loss are pegged at 35 percent. Increases in sea surface temperature and salinity have previously been attributed as the leading factors in reef habitat degradation, but the new pressures from dredging and sedimentation serves only to exacerbate the declining state of the environment.

Nakheel Properties concedes that its various artificial archipelago projects have indeed buried reefs and changed the environment, but argues that the company will try to alleviate and even reverse some of the detrimental effects by building artificial reefs upon completion of the islands. In other words, they have the technology. They can make the reefs better than they were... better, stronger, more laden with gold ingots. Nakheel has even hired their own marine biologist to monitor and rehabilitate damaged reefs. Call me Mr. Dubious VonSkeptical, but I can't imagine any environmental impact assessments produced by an in-house scientist will say anything contrary to the developers propaganda. And even if artificial coral reef growth can be stimulated, the fact remains that the coral community is contrived and will remain so. This project certainly did not lack the financial resources to work with nature from the start. Instead, natural coral reefs and associated marine habitats were deliberately destroyed.

All that appears to remain in its place is arrogance.