Gulf Madness

It's a story awash in ironies. The United Arab Emirates is one of the world's largest oil producers and owner of the globe's biggest per capita carbon footprint, emitting roughly 34 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person in 2004 (the U.S. figure is 20.6 tons]. Yet the UAE is also vowing to go green.

Abu Dhabi, the UAE's second most populous nation, hopes to become the Silicon Valley of renewable energy. It plans to build Masdar City, billed as the world's first zero-carbon urban center. It will be a tax-free zone, in hopes of attracting budding eco-businesses. Within its ecotopian walls all trash will be recycled, food will be local, most power will be solar, and wastewater will be reused. The emirate also plans to build large-scale solar power plants around the world, with some online by 2012.

Further north, in Dubai -- where all sorts of extravagant projects are already under construction, such as the Dubai Towers, four tapering, twisting buildings evocative of candle flames -- plans are afoot for the planet's first rotating skyscraper. Each floor of the proposed 80-story mixed-space building will revolve a full 360 degrees, while all power will be generated from wind turbines located between floors. Ads for the apartments promise reduced construction waste and solar panels. There's no word, however, on whether the view will include wind farms or smoke-belching oil fields.