UNNATURALLY COOL65electric pumps must push desalinated water nearly a kilometer into the
sky to refill the tank.
The story of energy demand in the Gulf monarchies was Alabbar’s
story, writ large. A hydrocarbon society spread across the Arabian Des-
ert, enabled by huge rent windfalls and a government that incorporated
the distribution of fossil fuels into its social welfare practices. The sub-
sidies for water, electricity, and fuel that helped jumpstart modernization
also encouraged the kind of growth that used these resources intensively
and with no concern for efficiency.
As development proceeded, the old ways became distant memories.
No one planned the location of a home to maximize the cooling effects
of shade or sea breezes anymore. Every structure was air conditioned,
right down to curbside bus shelters.^2 Air conditioning became a crucial
component in luring in expatriate managers with technical skills as well
as foreign investors, tourists, and conventioneers. As the Gulf grew
wealthy, citizens once able to cope with withering heat grew accustomed
to over- chilled homes and offices.
Water, too, was suddenly in abundance. Indoor plumbing was
installed in homes, but that was just the beginning. Houses had gotten
much larger, and many had lawns, leafy gardens, and swimming pools.
The desert cities of Doha, Muscat, Dubai, Kuwait City, and Abu Dhabi
turned green, studded with golf courses, horse paddocks, and boulevards
shaded by date palms and lined with flower gardens. This water was pro-
cured through intensive energy use; the Gulf produced most of it by
burning oil and gas to distill fresh water from the salty sea.
For those in energy- importing countries, good times in the Gulf con-
trasted deeply with the realities they now faced.
THIRST FOR OILIn February 1977, a somber President Jimmy Carter addressed the Amer-
ican public on television. Sitting in an armchair, with a roaring fire in
the hearth next to him, Carter wore a beige cardigan instead of his