Dubai the future
"My grandfather moved on a camel, my father too. I drive a Land Rover and so will my nephew. But the next generation will return to moving on camels ". The vision of Rashid bin Sa'id Al Maktum - Dubai emir until the death of 1990 as well as the main architect of the modernization of the city-state - was not the most positive.
What worried the sheikh was the dependence on a finite good like oil, which in the long term would have put Dubai's progress at risk. In recent years climate change has been added, which has predictably made its effects felt even in the desert of the United Arab Emirates: temperatures continue to rise and drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce.
From this point of view, it has certainly not helped that in the last decades Dubai has decided to show off its development in the least eco-sustainable ways imaginable: artificial beaches, indoor ski slopes (in the desert!), Huge shopping centers constantly cooled by giant air conditioning systems.
It cannot yet be ruled out that things, in the end, go as planned by Al Maktum. But perhaps it was precisely his pessimism that gave Dubai a chance, which today officially recognized the danger of global warming and is reinventing its future by focusing on science, technology and renewables. The most obvious example is the solar park dedicated to the former sheikh: an expanse of panels that extends over 3 kilometers and that is already capable of generating over 200 megawatts of energy.
A figure that is not particularly impressive, considering that the largest solar power plants in the world - located in China and India - can even generate 850 megawatts. Dubai, however, has no intention of watching: from now until 2030 it has planned an investment of 14 billion dollars to increase the capacity of the solar park up to 5 thousand megawatts; the equivalent of 25% of all its energy needs.
A project made possible by the innovations developed in the research and development laboratory adjacent to the solar park; in which solutions are studied to reduce the waste of energy that characterizes the panels - which can lose between 30 and 70% of their capacity due to the sand that gradually covers them - and in which work is also carried out on wireless charging systems of electric vehicles. Also in the same place, plants are also designed that can make the brackish water in the ground drinkable.
The solutions developed within the solar park, in any case, represent only a small part of the future that Dubai imagines for itself. A future so ambitious that it has also become a ministerial office: Mohammed Al Gergawi, one of the most important men in Dubai and right-hand man of the current Emir, has in fact been appointed Minister of the Future (combined office with that of Minister for Government Affairs). As such, he is the person who for over ten years must make sure that technological innovation completes the transformation of Dubai into a futuristic, cosmopolitan and above all capable of facing climate, technological, energy and geopolitical changes.
"We have decided that we will look to the future and embrace it without concern," said Al Gergawi in an interview with PopSci . This attitude is not new, considering that only 50 years ago Dubai was still a sleepy pearl trading port. Al Gergawi himself, who was a child at the time, recounted how he drank rust-colored water by filtering it with his T-shirt, as electricity did not arrive at his school and how the eight-lane highway that connects Dubai to the airport today was a dirt road covered with dunes.
A few decades later, the Dubai skyline seems to come from Blade Runner. A metaphor that will become even more fitting if the projects to make Dubai the first city in which it will be able to move aboard real flying machines will be successful. The Ehang 184 are Chinese-made drones capable of carrying a passenger for 30 minutes. The guide, of course, is autonomous: those who board the drone must do nothing other than indicate their destination among those available on the menu.
The inauguration of this transport system was initially planned for 2017; then it was postponed to July 2018. However, things did not go as planned and probably will have to wait until at least 2020, the year in which the first Expo in the Arab world will be held. The most striking aspect, in any case, is that what is talked about elsewhere only at sci-fi conferences, in Dubai could become reality in a short time; with the aim of reaching 25% of trips made on autonomous vehicles (drones, cars, trains) by 2030.
However, this futuristic vision must not be misleading. The emirate is still an extremely backward country in political and social terms. In addition to being built with massive use of slaves from Southeast Asia, there is a lack of democratic representation in Dubai, press freedom is very low and homosexuality is still a crime. A positive sign comes instead from the female world, towards which Dubai has shown an opening of which its neighbors (starting from Saudi Arabia but not only) have yet to prove.
30% of government members are women; as well as 66% of employees working for the government. Among these, there is also Sarah Amiri: 32 years old, scientist and vice-manager of the Emirates Mars Mission project. Yes, Dubai also wants to conquer Mars; in a race that is becoming increasingly crowded but which represents (together with artificial intelligence) the new bar with which, in the coming years, the scientific and technological capacity of nations will be measured.
The probe that is being built in the Dubai Space Center will be launched in 2020 and should reach the Red Planet in 2021; with the aim of measuring and mapping the Martian atmosphere. This, at least, is the scientific purpose. But what really counts is the political one: demonstrating Dubai's capabilities and attracting more and more young scientists and engineers (the average age of the Space Center workers is 27 years). And so, to guarantee a future for the capital of the Emirates and to prevent the prophecy of bin Sa'id Al Maktum from coming true.