A mountain of a build

What's more nuts than building the world's tallest skyscraper, creating new coastlines, building an automated self-regulating city, building a 'world of islands' or even just building an entire city in under a decade in one of the most barren desserts on the planet? Oh yeah, how about building a bloomin' mountain!

Home to 25% of all the cranes in the world – UAE is really coming up in the world and stamping its claim as the most modern and enterprising place in the world. The construction projects in UAE are some of the most grand, luxurious and biggest construction projects of the modern age. Within a space of a couple of decades, these large expanses of sand have been carpeted over with monumental construction of glass and metal, soaring into the sky as nowhere else in the world has seen before. It is at the forefront of modernism and it is here where the measures of technology and innovation come together to show the world what is now possible. The UAE is the centrepiece of futuristic city living.

There's nothing modest about the buildings erected, nor the construction projects in the wing waiting to be realised. It is certainly an architects dream to be involved with conceptualising these projects and seeing them become something more than a concept within short periods of time. This is the greatest triumph – to not only go ahead with the projects to begin with and hold nothing back, but also the management of the infrastructure – to accomplish the creation of the project and then moving onto the next without resting on their laurels.

So a mountain... hmm... well, if it was to happen anywhere it would be here. Considering the fact that they have dredged the sea off the coast and constructed a tapestry of islands from millions of tons of rocks, I wouldn't put it past them that they could do this. So, why a mountain you ask? Well, the key ingredient the UAE lacks is water, the water of life is probably the most sought after resource the UAE has next to oil. Oil puts money in their pocket, but water feeds life and without it, the city and country dies. The aquifers are drying up fast by the heavy use of it by the present-day cities. Per capita, the people of UAE consume around 500 litres per day, which is about 82% higher than the global average (3 times higher than the European average). So with all this in-toe, it's a big head-scratcher for the people of UAE in coming up with ideas to obtain more water. One idea, although outlandish, is to build a mountain. This would encourage clouds to congregate there due to the low pressure and hopefully take a good long piss on the peaks. It is a nuts idea, I mean to build a hill is hard enough, but a mountain is unprecedented, and it will still require the generosity of the weather to pay its dues – something which cannot be controlled by man.

It's crazy how little 'us' have the power to reform the land and world in the way we do. With enough resources, very little is out of our reach in terms of our planet – where do we draw the line? It appears nowhere – with land ownership there's only the lines of the personal moral compass of each of us, but even then, the control sometimes falls out of their hands. With a finite amount of matter and a lot of time much will change if anything is to happen at all. Perhaps building this mountain will bring them rain, maybe only a little, but is it worth it? Well, with limited resources, moving one thing from one place discourages it from another – it's hard to see the knock on-effect, but there will be one – as water vapour deposited in one place wont be able to be deposited in another. I guess in time we shall see.