Chaos ensued in the United Arab Emirates after the country witnessed the heaviest rainfall in 75 years, with some areas recording more than 250 mm of precipitation in fewer than 24 hours, the state’s media office said in a statement Wednesday.
The rainfall, which flooded streets, uprooted palm trees and shattered building facades, has never been seen in the Middle Eastern nation since records began in 1949. In the popular tourist destination Dubai, flights were canceled, traffic came to a halt and schools closed.
One-hundred millimeters (nearly 4 inches) of rain fell over the course of just 12 hours on Tuesday, according to weather observations at the airport – around what Dubai usually records in an entire year, according to United Nations data.
The rain fell so heavily and so quickly that some motorists were forced to abandon their vehicles as the floodwater rose and roads turned into rivers.
What I meant is that your schadenfreude is misplaced. Since there is oil in UAE it would be exploited wheter people living there wanted or not. And, well, it will keep being exploited until civilization falls, that’s the nature of the economic system we are all cursed to live under.
Oh that’s right, there are no alternatives to fossil fuels and there never were. My mistake.
They just want to complain about “western civilization” while also living in it.
Well good luck convincing Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell et al and all the politicians they bought in the whole world to grow a conscience. Ain’t gonna happen.
What does that have to do with your implying that there were and never will be an alternative to fossil fuels?
Those alternatives exist right now.
I did not imply that at any moment. If you take your time re-reading our argument you’ll see that. What I’ve argued is that oil is a substantial backbone of current western civilization, and since oil exists in the UAE it would be exploited wether people living there wanted that or not (and that has been the case for decades).
You are arguing that oil is necessarily a substantial backbone of Western civilization by claiming that it would have been extracted from the area no matter what and will continue to be so in perpetuity. Neither of those things are facts. They are pure guesswork on your part.
No, I’m arguing that oil is currently a substantial backbone of Western civilization. And yes, it would have been extracted from the area no matter what, because if people native to the region refused, some imperalist country would simply bomb those natives or replace their leaders with ones more pliabe to said imperalist demands. It won’t of course go on forever because petroleum is a finite resource and when it runs out the UAE will become a unwanted desert wasteland ignored by all except for those still living there.
Again, this is what you said:
That is not about the current situation, is it?
And oil is only discovered where people explore for it. You cannot guarantee people would have explored for it there.
Do you seriously believe that there will be any different outcome while we are all still living under capitalism?
Again, under capitalism, it makes absolutely no sense not exploiting a natural resource you spent money prospecting for.