Well, rut-ro, Shaggy--seems like we've flown too close to the sun on this one--Dubai's ambitious World of Islands that were built as part of a luxurious resort are now eroding back into the sea from which they came. Millions of tons of sand were pumped in to form the islands to mimic the world, and as you can see no longer resemble the world so much as... suggesting it. Property assessments are grim. Oh well. I suppose the residents could always buy *real* islands somewhere. View the slideshow over at Inhabitat.
Link
That would mean the waters around Dubai are rising, but it's the sand that is eroding. It's because Dubai is an economy on the verge of collapse, a bubble about to burst.
I always thought the idea was to make the island-base something bio-compatible like a reef-able hydraulic concrete/calcium-carbonate/stainless-rebar matrix base that the sealife would then naturally reinforce,
then put rocks on top, progressively bigger to smaller, biomass, then sand, then sedgegrass, bushes, trees, etc. to knit it all together like a giant mother-earth toupée.
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Silly Dubai Engineers!
-I wonder who will be losing their hands over this one?
Since Dubai has no native Engineers (or scientists, or researchers) it's unlikely anyone will "lose their hands". The checks have long cleared and the engineers have already laughed all the way to bank over such a self aggrandizing and terminally stupid project.
Rich and stupid - they'd make perfect drinking buddies if they weren't sworn to kill ya.