Some people have too much money....

I just read this article about a refrigerated beach and pool area in Dubai. It offends me in a few ways. First, the loss of a natural habitat generally is unpleasant. Second, the addition of the cooling system that will inevitably breakdown and pollute the soil is just silly. Finally, the active cooling of an area like an equatorial beach on the edge of a desert seems like a horrendous waste of money. But then again I find much of modern society wasteful.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5338099.ece

FTA:

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days.

The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C.

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface.

The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.