Our local photographer takes a look at what happens when trees are cut off from their water source in a “desert experiment” in the United Arab Emirates. I previously talked about the irrigated forestry projects in the deserts of the Western Region of the UAE. This picture shows what happens when someone turns the tap […]

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The ‘historical imagery’ function on google earth is particularly helpful in tracking changes to landscapes since about the turn of the millennium when satellite imagery became commonly available. For instance, it has allowed me to estimate that the army of earth-moving vehicles that I saw at work have been excavating this site west of Abu Dhabi for […]

The post Google Earth reveals 10-year impact of 39 square mile desert mangrove project appeared first on Green Prophet.

It looks like yet another world record may be broken soon with the world’s longest billboard along the side of the Sheikh Zayed Road, just after Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. My car’s odometer tells me it’s about 3 km long.  As well as providing even more advertising revenue opportunities, this hoarding is partitioning off […]

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In an attempt to ‘greenify’ the UAE’s Western Region desert, (some claim in the hope of creating a milder micro-climate in the UAE) more than 100 million trees have been planted, often as buffer zones like the one depicted, and irrigated, mostly, with precious groundwater.  The Abu Dhabi environment agency now admits they have a […]

The post 100 million trees dry, rather than green, the UAE’s western desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

An awe-inspiring sight, as one departs Abu Dhabi towards Saadiyat and Yas Islands, these pylons seems to disappear into the distant sea. But we are actually looking inland and they are delivering energy to, rather than from, the city center. As a relatively infrequent visitor, the confusion of islands and waterways in this area ( 24°30’58.91″N  54°24’19.77″E) […]

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Continuing the theme of mysterious abandoned developments, the identity of this one is better known than the desert lakes I featured in my previous two posts. This is the remains of what would have been a flyover leading on to the Jebel Ali Palm Island, which, along with Deira Palm Island, is one of the […]

The post Abandoned Dubai Flyover Resembles Easter Island Sculptures appeared first on Green Prophet.

In my last post I described how I had discovered the remains of a defunct development known as the ‘Arabian Canal’ in the desert some 30km outside Dubai. This time I’m featuring one of these remaining waterways which is still, mysteriously, flooded, despite having been abandoned some 4 years ago. I can only speculate about […]

The post Wildlife Thrive at Flooded ‘Arabian Canal’ in Dubai Desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

In my last post I featured a photograph of an unused structure out in the desert near Dubai, a concrete amphitheatre. It turns out there was more to explore.  Not far away is an area of desert that is difficult to access, being fenced off from most directions. I found a cross country way to […]

The post The “Arabian Canal” is a Defunct Water Conduit in Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

A friend tipped me off about this strange structure out in the desert a short drive from Dubai. I tried to figure out what it was on Google Earth before driving out to discover a mysterious, disused, concrete amphitheatre. None of my subsequent enquiries have revealed the history of the structure (maybe a reader will […]

The post Massive Concrete Amphitheater Lies Disused Outside Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

Earlier this year I decided to visit a strange looking waste management site in Um Al Quwain – one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates. From satellite imagery it looked like raw sewage was being dumped in the desert, just a couple of kilometres from Um Al Quwain’s precious mangrove estuary. Access was […]

The post Reed Beds: Cleaning Waste Water in the Desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

If consumerism is the predominant modern day religion, then this week’s picture shows one our most monumental cathedrals – Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates. According to news reports earlier this year, it is the world’s highest grossing shopping mall.Like religions throughout history, it’s questionable to what extent its subjects have made their choice of worship […]

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My last photo blog on Green Prophet featured one of the many sites in the Hajar Mountains from which construction aggregate is extracted. This time I’m showing a different kind of mountain on the outskirts of Dubai. This is a landfill for building rubble. The theme for this series of photographs is ‘consumption’ and we […]

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Green Prophet’s resident photographer documents “cut” Hajar Mountains in the United Arab Emirates. Huge swaths of the Hajar Mountains in the UAE’s northern emirates appear ghostly white when viewed on Google Earth. Closer examination of the satellite imagery reveals large chunks of missing hillside and some sort of quarrying operations, and my recent physical visit to […]

The post Crushers Reduce Emirate Mountaintops to Rubble in the Name of “Progress” appeared first on Green Prophet.

On a man-made Abu Dhabi island, fake wind towers heat homes instead of cooling them. I recently photographed a new housing development on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. You can see it on Google Earth. The wind tower design originates from Persia. The earliest examples of wind towers, used for cooling houses, in the United Arab Emirates can […]

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This is a Chevrolet logistics depot in the Jebel Ali Freezone in Dubai. A rough estimate from studying the site on google earth puts the number of cars at about 8000 (on 12 Aug 2012.) Have a look for yourself at 24°55’40.06″N  55° 6’6.28″E. I’ve heard it said that American car manufacturers in the 1950s started […]

The post Car Consumption: 8,000 Boring White Chevrolets in Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

Even though, perversely for a landscape photographer, I tend to seek out uglier-than-average places, this possibly wins the prize for one of the least glamorous locations I’ve photographed. It’s a very sizable field of human excrement on the road from Sharjah to Dhaid in the United Arab Emirates. It’s part of the excellent work being […]

The post Crap – a Giant Field of Human Excrement Outside of Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

Richard Allenby-Pratt’s popular Abandoned photo series still haunts us. Currently based in Dubai, the professional photographer received numerous accolades for extraordinary compositions that depict wild animals meandering through a deserted Dubai. How surreal, and yet not so far removed from the truth, it is to see rhinos and giraffes searching for food amid a backdrop […]

The post Consumption in Dubai – Breathtaking Photos of Our Environmental Impact appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve never been able to shake the vision of an apocalyptic Dubai – a seemingly inevitable time when the scores of largely unoccupied skyscrapers inching towards the Gulf will be evacuated and swallowed up by the surrounding desert. And now renowned British photographer Richard Allenby Pratt has created a series of images called Abandoned that […]

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