Cute quote as to why MT's right about not visiting the Emirates in summer.

[randomness]

From http://desert-blogger.livejournal.com/1686.html:

Let me add, in the summer here in Dubai, last summer in fact, at 2pm one late July afternoon, the temperature reached 51 degrees c. It's fair enough to play upon the environmental cost of multiple short-distance taxi rides, but at 51 degrees? I consider myself a good, global warming-fearing man, with absolute faith in science. To use the term "god fearing" would be an insult to the IPCC. And to add, I can walk a long, long way. But 51 degrees? The way it stings the roof of your mouth when you breath, and the literal wall of heat that you casually stroll into upon exiting an air-conditioned space, that threatens you with a blunt, wooden club of stolid humidity, has to be felt to be believed.

This is ONE HOT COUNTRY. One with no public transport beyond a scant bus network (although the under-construction Metro system is due to open on 9th September), and the subject of the article, the taxi service.

Comments

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. I just did the conversion. That's 124 degrees F. How did people live there without AC?

124? *Ugh*

[eac.livejournal.com]

They're better constructed than we are, clearly....

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

By not trying to walking around a city at 2pm in July, for one thing.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

125 F is a *serving temperature* for some cooked dishes. Great googli moogli.

[carneggy.livejournal.com]

Did you read the recent 'Dark Side of Dubai' article? Interesting read.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I got to the blog from a link from that piece. :)

I think the piece is a bit over the top, but the blog Hari linked to is pretty good.

Holy moley...!

[ddreslough.livejournal.com]

Do the spend the days underground? Do they flee into the ocean? How can they survive that? Proteins start to break down at 106!

Could they build giant swaths of solar panels as shade umbrellas at least?

[kynn.livejournal.com]

And BOATS! Little taxi boats.