Our world has changed a lot in the past century. Some scientists say that the surface of the earth has changed more in these hundred years than in all time before. There is one city that embodies that change more than any other.

Dubai.

A port of minor regional importance only one hundred years ago, today it is the cultural and economical metropolis of the Middle East. Thousands of people move there every year, drawn by the staggering wealth that is Dubai. Indeed, there is no denying that the city is rich. Everybody has seen pictures of the artificial islands in the ocean around Dubai that must have cost millions, not to mention that Dubai now is home to the tallest building in the world. In Dubai, the impossible becomes possible. This has caused the population to increase a hundredfold since 1950. Most people are too awestruck by all Dubai has to offer that they don't ask themselves where the money comes from. Actually, where does it come from?

Dubai is in the middle of the desert. It has no natural resources, no arable land, no minerals. But it has oil.

Dubai cannot grow food, but the money from oil allows them to import it. It has no drinking water, so they have to spend huge amounts of money and energy to desalinate seawater. Dubai has no resources, but with the money from oil it can import tons of materials and workers. It uses an almost unbelievable amount of electricity, largely due to the need for western-model air-conditioned malls and ice skating rinks in the middle of the desert. Dubai has endless sun, but no solar panels. It has become a sort of culmination of the western model, a beacon of total modernity which never fails to amaze us. Everything in Dubai depend on the black gold which has been stored under the earth for millions of years. Nothing seems as far removed from nature as Dubai, and yet nothing depends on nature as much as Dubai. For in about twenty years, the oil will run out, and the endless sun that shines in Dubai will start to fade.