This Overpopulated Planet (T.O.P)

 Photo from: Imre Solt's Public album

In 2008 the world's population was estimated to be about 6,692,030,277, that is almost 7 billion humans. Population control is when the human race attempts to alter the rate of population growth (China's One-child policy). Eventually, the human population will expand into the 10's of billions. What will all these people do? How will all these people continue to live in a similar fashion as we do in the modern world today?


The city of Dubai is one of the seven emirates (political territories) of the United Arab Emirates. The population of the emirate of Dubai in 2006 was 1,422,000. Currently, roughly 2 million people, could inhabit the region. In 2010, on January 4th, the city of Dubai, unveiled the Burj Dubai (Burj Khalifa), a 2,717 foot tall sky scraper, shattering the record of world's tallest man made structure. Within the main hub of this city, are some of the largest, and highest priced constructions in the recorded history of human race. The grand scale of these projects ranges from not only the tallest building, but multiple man made islands or a Plastic Beach, if understand the metaphor. If people have not been paying attention to what this specific county is doing, they should definitely read into it.

It seems that at any time multiple grand scale construction projects are taking place within the "downtown" areas of Dubai. One begins to ask, why these grand buildings are being thrown into the sky, so rapidly. The answers may be found in this video, broadcast in 2007 by the American Broadcasting Company.



After viewing this, and understanding the facts stated previously. This endless spending, or seemingly bottomless funding for constructions, has a cost. Building a city on the salty sea, with no water to drink, has a price.

The water the people drink, is the most expensive on earth. Distilation plants built in the region, can not keep up with the expansion, and have resorted to pumping waste water into the sea, instead of processing it. Creating a toxic sea, and a large deal of artificially created structures reminds me of the vast dystopian creations and landscapes of such artists as Masamune Shirow and William Gibson.

The future of humanity, will indeed require a vast amount of construction, insane as it may seem, the city of Dubai is in essence bracing for the future of us all. Cities like Dubai could play host to many new generations of people, who will build upon and change them. Eventually what we end up with, is a form of tolerance, somewhere to put it all, a place for every head to rest, be it a steel sheet, or a warm bed. Some will appreciate it, others will simply see it as an existence or "just how it is". Eventually, our planet will be riddled with the trash that the human race has created, every single living human, will have to tolerate it. To say "tolerate" would be a bit harsh. The majority of the people of Dubai seem to love their Plastic Beach.

Overall, the moral here goes something like this:  
"Stop before it's too late, or tolerate it." Keep our planet in good condition, or create your own artificial word, to deal with the change, be it due to "Global Warming.", or simply the changing planet we live on.

gorillaz.com

The works of Damon Albarn and all those who have worked with him, recently created and themed a their new release, with a similar theme.

The dark side of Dubai.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Imre Solt is apparently a photographer, living and working in Dubai, have a look at all of the construction, as of 2010, be awed and amazed, please check out his fantastic captures.

Wikipedia: Dubia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai