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Hi guys

Im currently contemplating a move to Dubai. I have previously lived as an expat in Shanghai, China but the air pollution drove me crazy. It was so bad that you could never see a star in the sky at night time and only the sky directly above your head was blue - the rest was brown.

Every photo on tourist sites of Shanghai has been photoshopped to take out the brown sky and put in a blue sky.

I don't expect air pollution to be anywhere near the same issue in Dubai but I would like some honest feedback about how much there is.

For example if you look at the horizon from a tall building is it normally brown? Or just a bit of haze? Does it ever get bad?

Thanks

boomtown wrote:Hi guys

Im currently contemplating a move to Dubai. I have previously lived as an expat in Shanghai, China but the air pollution drove me crazy. It was so bad that you could never see a star in the sky at night time and only the sky directly above your head was blue - the rest was brown.

Every photo on tourist sites of Shanghai has been photoshopped to take out the brown sky and put in a blue sky.

I don't expect air pollution to be anywhere near the same issue in Dubai but I would like some honest feedback about how much there is.

For example if you look at the horizon from a tall building is it normally brown? Or just a bit of haze? Does it ever get bad?

Thanks

As part of my job, from time to time I get to read studies that fall on my desk about the future of Dubai. One such study dealt explicitly with the impact of pollution from motor vehicles.

The short and curly is that it could be a big problem, however given the geographic landscape of Dubai, it will not have the same problems as Hong Kong or Los Angeles because the smog is not trapped by mountains or valleys.

It is predicted however to significantly effect the quality of life by 2010.

That is true, but 2 problems that complicate the air quality in Dubai:
1) lack of vegitation - no plants to help get rid of the CO2
2) dust/sand - lets not forget that under the impressive SZR landscape is a sand box. The air here is definately not clean.

also factor in that the uae is an oil producing country which means that there by-products of the petrochemical industry. in addition dubai's source of energy and fresh water is processed by the burning of natural gas... although they tend to deny (officially) that it has an impact, the yellow/ brown haze that hangs over jebel ali some mornings suggests otherwise.

the downside in summer is that there is a tremendous amount of heat-haze generated by the amount of water vapour and dust in the air - there is virtually no blue sky during the summer months!