Masdar. A carbon- and waste-free city, in the middle of the desert of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Now, it hasn’t been built yet, but the plans sound almost too good to be true. Finally, someone has decided to take a leap and use all of the technologies that are currently available to live sustainably, not just individually but as an entire city. The plan is for construction to start in January of 2008 and, tentatively, to finish in 2009. The first part of the development to be built will be—you guessed it—a nest of solar panels which, together with wind turbines and geothermal energy , will power the city. All waste will be recycled and the developers want to reduce dependence on desalinated water by 80%, through a rigorous water management plan in which soiled water will be treated, filtered through plant life (thus growing trees and other vegetation), and re-used. Cars are banned in Masdar. City plans will allow every resident to live within a 200-metre radius of everything they need. To travel, there will be a light-rail system connecting Masdar with the neighbouring airport and other cities. The university will specialize in graduate studies of sustainable technology and development, of which this city will be a real-life testing ground. Oh yes, and everyone will eat locally-grown food. It’s hard, as someone put it on grist.org, not to think of this whole plan as greenwashing. The United Arab Emirates, after all, is among the world’s top oil-producing countries. They’re going to ban cars? But it will save a lot of money. And it will be incredibly interesting to find out if this works.

See Also: Sustainable Living: Where Do We Start? Norman Foster's Green Desert Utopia