UAE essay
Arshdeep Gill

After achieving independence from Great Britain in 1971, the United Arab Emirates went through rapid industrialization , attempting to catch up to other world powers such as US and China. Under the leadership of Khalifa Bin Zayed AL Nahyan, who is the president of the nation, the UAE took tremendous steps to catch up to the rest of the industrialized world in terms of wealth and production, and although they have been successful at achieving industrialization, it has come at a price to the environment which has greatly suffered. Today Dubai, one of the major cities in the nation, is considered to be amongst the top cities in the world for its large carbon foot print on the environment and other negative factors it has on the environment. As the nation continues to grow at a rapid rate, politicians have recently become more concerned with the environmental factors that rapid industrialization is having on the nation and its citizens. The leading environmental issues on the nation are; rapid rises in non-renewable energy which is polluting the environment, marine dumping, and desertification. These issues have gotten attention on the international level, as more and more scientists have become concerned about the impacts of these issues on the environment. Over time more research has gone into developing new ways to reduce the effect of the environmental issues, and Information Technology is one important thing that has been considered in decreasing these environmental factors. In this essay I will be talking about the three major environmental factors that the United Arab Emirates is facing today, respectively in order of importance listed above, and how IT can play a major role on promoting environmental sustainability when it comes too decreasing the effects of these issues on the environment.

The biggest environmental issue that the UAE faces is rapid use of non-renewable energy sources over the last couple of decades. With a rapid rise in industrialization, the country has come to be more and more dependent on energy to meet its needs. Fifty five percent of the energy used a year is used up by UAE residents who use it in their households and other essential needs, and the rest is used for things like oil production and production of imports. In recent years, UAE has started to diversify its economy, instead of relying its economy completely on oil production they have started to import other products such as clothing, which is more bad news for the environment because this leads to more emissions into the environment not to mention the energy it takes to transport those goods half way around the world. UAE does not have any renewable water reserves so more energy is taken up by desolation plants which clean the ocean water for citizens to use in major cities like Dubai. This has been a major problem because it leads to more energy usage since these plants require a lot of energy to clean the vast amount of water used by citizens, not to mention the junk that they pump back into the ocean that comes out of the water which even further pollutes the marine environment. And if all this was not enough, another obvious impact of energy usage is people. As the economy becomes more industrialized more and more money hungry business men will be interested in a quick profit, and do not care about the environment or sustainability. Many of the workers across the nation use up large amounts of energy that is non-renewable, if Solar Power was used to run more of these businesses it would have less of an impact on the environment. This is the greatest environmental risk because it has a greatest impact on the environment since it leads to marine dumping and diversification.

Another environmental issue that UAE faces is marine dumping and pollution; this not only has an impact on the environment but also affects the habitat of the marine species that inhabit the water that is polluted, which kills off or messes with the balance of that marine habitat many time. When workers started developing the city of Dubai back in the day, they did not take into mind the sewerage system and drainage for the skyscrapers they were building, and as time has gone on this under developed sewerage system for these older buildings has resulted in much mishap. The drainage and dump coming from these older buildings is either dumped by trucks into the ocean or canals that lead to the ocean. This has a catastrophic impact on the environment because not only does it pollute the gulf on which the city is located, but also being a port city the pollution of the ocean affects the ecosystem of surround countries as well. Another factor of marine dumping is the water desolation plants, which pump the waste collected from dirty water back into the ocean. This environmental issue is listed second because it greatly affects the affects not just UAE, especially since it’s a port city, but it also affects the globe as a whole by putting species of animals that live in the polluted habitats at risk of endangerment.

Lastly another environmental issue that faces the UAE is desertification, which is the process by which fertile land becomes desert. Already located in the desert makes the country dry, however on top of that air pollution and the constant dumping of wastes in the ocean and landfills has also declined the amount of fertile land as it becomes dry and wasteful. This affects the country because it makes it more difficult to grow local food and that leads the country to import them from other countries leading to even more pollution to the ozone layer. In recent times national leaders have been more cautious of this issue as they have made attempts to make their own artificial forests and fertile lands by cleaning out ruined landfills. This has slightly helped the environment as it has made it more livable for many species of animals that were thrown out of their homes.

An information technology that will greatly benefit the vast amount of non-renewable energy that UAE is using is solar power energy. For a country that is developing and that highly relies on energy solar power energy it would be the perfect way to incorporate IT into helping UAE citizens living a more sustainable life style. Solar Power energy is a renewable source of energy so it does not have a heavy impact on the environment overall, does not cause any greenhouse gases and is much better for the environment because it is using energy from the sun rather than non-renewable energy such as oil or coal result in no pollution or harm to the environment. Many businesses and corporations in Dubai have already started using it. The government have even planned to launch $3.27 billion solar Energy park, with potential capacity of 1,000 megawatts of energy (Pamuk, Hurneya).However it would be greatly beneficial if more people started using it, whether it’s at work, at home, or even in public.

UAE has now developed into a world power, and it is important that as it further economically grows that it pay attention to environmental sustainability. Information technology can play a big role in helping the nation to be more sustainable, and with good leadership, these IT techniques can be implanted to help the resolve the environmental issues in the nation. Here is a list of my references: References: 1. U.S. Relations With United Arab Emirates
2. Environmental Issues in Abu Dhabi
3. Public unaware of most pressing environmental issues
4. 10 of Today’s Most Important Environmental Issues/
5. Dubai Faces Environmental Problems After Growth
6. link 6
7. Dubai launches $3.27 bln solar energy project