RIP: Dubai's Dream Falling With The Price Of Oil

dubai is out of oil! so what they are doing is not based on future sales of oil. The only thing slowing them down at all is the lack of available credit.

I wonder what will happen with all these fancy buildings once the goverment has to raise taxes for all non-oil businesses.

"......can you imagaine the outcome of massive car fleet switch-over to plug in hybrids.....?"

I can't wait for the all solar toyota.
I already buy and use a high percentage of LED's and plan to use either Solar photovoltaic glass or curtains as soon as it is economically feasable.

The 'beginning of the end" of oil has already begun.

Thank god for that. That building in the picture is horrendous! What were they thinking? What a waste of money.

Dubai has the ability to push for a green city. It takes a few steps...it would be interesting to see them go the whole way

hmmmm... second time I'm saying this, so I'll say it in more detail.

Dubai is a city. a part of a country that is called United Arab Emirates (U.A.E). The Capital of the U.A.E is Abu-Dhabi.

repeat DUBAI IS NOT A COUNTRY.

Abu-Dhabi has oil which it sells VERY profitably and was actually making sooooo much money, they quite literally din't know what to do with it. Thats after donating very, very, generously to charitable organizations. All this incidentally, was before the world economy took a nose dive..

DUBAI does NOT have oil reserves that can generate profit. It largely depends on TOURISM. hence the outrageous spending of money, large buildings, cool beach sands, massive hotels. It's for TOURISM.

Rich people will pay good money to sit in the hot sun on cool sands. they will pay good money to see shiny buildings, HUGE structures, outrageous projects that you have to see it to believe it, a shopping mall thats only got gold and jewelery shops, a ski slope in the middle of a desert, water parks, regular parks, all the latest automobiles- every last one and that too just 3 weeks after it's release, roads so smooth, you don't want to stop doing 190 mph, shopping festivals, markets so big it takes about 2 weeks to go through it completely, anything you want, you'll get, or someone who knows someone who knows someone can get it for you. All this is aside from their heritage . trust me, their heritage is Something. Then theres the food. (I sound like a travel brochure)

This country does NOT include Iraq or Iran or Afghanistan or Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Oman or Kuwait or Morocco or Somalia or Palestine or Israel or Syria or Jordan (it's a country, was around b4 MJ was born)

If you think this post sounds so incredibly condescending and/or patronizing and/or stereotypical, well...tough...

@ Eric

huh??? that's not a pretty building?? sure it's all glass and may be about as sustainable as a nuclear reactor going critical, but thats one seriously cool building. The kind of design that goes into these kinds of super towers is amazing. not to mention, thats soon to be one of the worlds tallest buildings, most probably the tallest.

The problem with Dubai is that it never had the much oil in the first place, they were relying on the tourism industry to compensate (as well as other industries). Here is the current state of Dubai, all projects have stopped, huge companies like Nakheel (Palm Island project), Parsons, Mushareff ect are laying people off. Just as a side note the way business works here is that you begin work on a project without a contract and usually hope and pray that you will get paid sometime during the project. So the majority of these companies front the money for everything, then when something like this happens they are screwed.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has borrowed billions of DHS from Abu Dhabi in hopes of stabilizing the economy, which probably wont happen and in the end will cause even more problems because they now owe Abu Dhabi. Lots of problems going on over here, makes me glad I did not get into engineering.

Humans just never learn. Insane booms like Dubai and surrounds NEVER last. Never, ever, ever last. But what fascinates and depresses me is how obvious the booms are these days, and how gullible the general populous still is to embrace them. I guess it doesn't matter: $20K/yr worker lines up for the $60mil Lotto with dollars they really don't have, $100mil/yr investors line up to build refrigerated beaches in the Gulf with dollars they really don't have. Brilliant.

Dubai is all about natural gas, not oil...

yes, I agree with billy we never learn!, instead of be worried about other countries, why don't we criticize our own country, with developments in places that are not allowed and UGLY
ARCHITECTURE or better said NO ARCHITECTURE AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, if Dubai is dead or not (I don't belive it) is not the question. I think some times treehugger just publish not so good stuff instead of being more PROACTIVE. Please Editor at treehugger be more Open and publish really good stuff instead of trying to be nostradamus!!

there is nothing green about a large city in the middle of the desert.

i live in Dubai since over than 5 years now and iam telling you everyone ITS THE END i mean it its all over No oil No jobs No money and of course No people cuz its was ALL WRONG from the beggaining , and the highest tallest towers are very fantastic there is no doubts but it wont do you any good cuz you 4gat that you dun have water or nice weather and every thing here is make , fake even the food with no taste , people was here only for money and when its gone then nuthing , you will return back to empty desert but this time with high buildings , LOL
Notice ( iam political science graduated i know what iam talkin about so dun even think to reply me !!! )