Abu Dhabi's Green Future

"Atop concrete slabs, engineers are preparing to test solar collectors. Those collectors are scheduled to power a futuristic 100,000-resident city that will rise from this sandy wasteland by the Persian Gulf. The goal: to create the world's first metropolis that emits not a single extra molecule of carbon dioxide, the cause of global warming."

"It's a delicious irony that the Middle East, awash in oil and dollars—Abu Dhabi alone has nearly 100 billion barrels in reserves—may be the one region on earth most capable of building the first city for a post-oil world. Yet the project, planned by London architects Foster & Partners, is just one part of a startlingly contrarian gambit by Abu Dhabi. The emirate is pouring billions into renewable- and sustainable-energy technologies, stimulating precisely those industries that ultimately could challenge oil's dominance."