Jennifer Brennecka
English 102-054
Assignment 20
November 20, 2014
Can a City in the Desert be the Most Sustainable City in the World?
(1) Beautiful Dubai, just like an oasis in the desert. Over the last two decades, the city of Dubai has been developing projects that incorporate sustainability, won awards, and has reshaped the planet. You can actually see Dubai from space. Dubai has been the center of attention around the world for their innovative and awe-inspiring transformations. If you had a “bucket list”, there’s a good chance that visiting Dubai might be on there.
(2) I have always wondered if the most populated cities of the world could ever be sustainable, let alone a city in the desert. As an Architecture student I have been hearing a lot about the “environment” and designing sustainable buildings is becoming the new norm.
(3) Can we go beyond that and make a whole city sustainable? Dubai looks like beautiful desert oasis to the common tourist and is a playground of ideas for an Architect, but I wonder, if Dubai will rise above the norm and become the first sustainable city in the world.
(4) There are three parts to sustainability that need to be balanced; environment, society, and economy. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines sustainability as based on a simple principle. They teach us that sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which people and nature co-exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and environmental requirements of present and future generations. I believe a deeper understanding of sustainability is still trying to be developed.

(4)
(5)
(X)
(X)
(X) The UN, United Nations, covers more than just the Unites States. The UN describes a sustainably city as… and recently launched a challenge to any developers to try and be the most sustainable city in the world by 2020.

(2) designing sustainable buildings can help prevent damage to the atmosphere by reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the air.
(X) Greenhouse gas emissions are gases such as; Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), and Fluorinated gases, that trap heat in the atmosphere, therefore making the planet warmer. The primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions are; electricity production which burn fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, transportation which also burns fossil fuels, emissions from industries, commercial and residential buildings, agriculture’s livestock and soils, and Land Use and Forestry (Et. Al. EPA. Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions).
(X)

(X) Miriam M. Al Serkal, Senior Editor for the Gulf News in the United Arabian Emirates insists that Dubai Aims to Be the Most Sustainable City by 2020 Mainly Through Implementing Green Building Regulations, which is a fascinating article written by Al Serkal. Al Serkal insists that Dubai aims to be one of the top ten sustainable cities in the world before Expo 2020 arrives.
(X) Another reporter from the Gulf News, Janice Ponce de Leon, implies that adopting a green economy results in a sustainable economy in that all energy requirements are sourced from renewable sources such as; solar, wind, and hydro energy and not fossil fuel energy, which is carbon intensive.
(X) In Janice Ponce de Leon’s article, Dubai not just talking but acting on green economy strategies, expert says political leadership and availability of finances key to achieving strategies, she tells us that if you adopt a green economy, it will result in a sustainable economy.
(X) “The city of Dubai, rising in defiance to the surrounding environment of coastal deserts in the United Arab Emirates, stands as the hallmark of a digressing trend taking us farther away from the goals of a new cultural reality” is Tyler Caine’s explanation. He says that implementing things like bike racks, increasing recycling, and addressing the state of our energy production systems are a good efforts but there are other examples that