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Megalomaniac Billionaire Aims To Destroy Azerbaijan With Artificial

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  • Megalomaniac Billionaire Aims To Destroy Azerbaijan With Artificial

    MEGALOMANIAC BILLIONAIRE AIMS TO DESTROY AZERBAIJAN WITH ARTIFICIAL MCCITY

    GreenProphet.com
    February 11, 2013 Monday 2:16 AM EST

    Iyou ask him, Ibrahim Ibrahimov will probably tell you that his plan
    to build an archipelago of artificial islands[1], scores of apartment
    buildings, bridges and the world's newest tallest tower will is good
    for Azerbaijan, but really the billionaire is on a path that will
    destroy everything that makes the capital, Baku, so special.

    The New York Times recently profiled the billionaire, who is one of
    the country's most powerful men. With close ties to president Ilham
    Aliyev, he is uniquely positioned to realize a sudden mad idea he
    had while flying from Dubai to Baku to build the artificial Khazar
    Islands on the Caspian Sea[2]. And though he claims this is not the
    case, the plan sounds eerily like Dubai[3]. Except worse.

    While Dubai has damaged both the desert and the Arabian/Persian Gulf
    with its rapid coastline development, Ibrahimov also plans to take
    down Baku's rich collection of architectural gems with thousands of
    shiny new apartments, 55 artificial islands, eight hotels, an airport,
    a snazzy yacht club and a Formula One[4] racetrack.

    Some of these mosques, mansions and palaces date back to the 7th
    Century, according to NYT. But Ibrahimov's 24 year old assistant
    gushes that all of it - including the street vendors - will be gone
    by the time the so-called vision is realized by 2022.

    The plan's biggest selling point, according to Ibrahimov, the building
    that is supposed to draw scores of wealthy investors to a country
    bordered by Armenia and Iran, is a 3,445 foot skyscraper called,
    rather unimaginatively, Azerbaijan Tower.

    He will live in a penthouse at the top, he has said, a goal that
    instantly reminded me of my 14 year old cousin's naive declaration that
    he wants to be so rich one day that he will have his own skyscraper
    in Manhattan.

    Ibrahimov is 40 years older, but he is no better able to keep his
    ambitions in healthy check than my young cousin.

    When he got off the plane on which he hatched his USD 100 billion
    McCity idea, he didn't head down to the local planning office. Nor
    did he contact his nearest environmental protection agency. Instead,
    he went straight to his developers and had blueprints drawn up.

    We would be willing to eat our words if this is not the case, but
    the haste with which the 'vision' was put into place suggests that
    environmental due process was perhaps overlooked.

    Which is interesting since Ibrahimov admitted that The Palm smells
    bad as a result of poor environmental management when that artificial
    island was built in Dubai. Artificial islands disrupt the natural
    ecosystem in which they are built, not to mention the mountain that is
    being destroyed to provide the necessary 'foundation' of rock and soil.

    Like Abu Dhabi, Azerbaijan got rich with oil. But so far, the
    country's leadership appears to possess none of the humility regarding
    environmental pressures that the Gulf country has demonstrated.

    And this is dangerous. An inland lake, the Caspian Sea is home to a
    dazzling variety of species, but already it is beset with pollution
    problems - largely thanks to Azerbaijan's outdated oil refineries.

    Then there is the not-so-slight issue of rising water levels. The
    Caspian Sea has risen about 2.25 meters since 1978, according to
    UNESCO[5]:

    In addition to the danger posed to oil fields (e.g.in Kazakstan and
    Azerbaijan), the sea-level rise results in changes in: water regime,
    hydrochemical regime of river mouths, dynamics and chemical composition
    of groundwater, structure and productivity of biological communities
    in the littoral and in river mouths, sediment deposition patterns,
    pollution by heavy metals, petroleum products, synthetic organic
    substances, radioactive isotopes and other substances.

    This doesn't bode well for artificial islands.


    From: Baghdasarian
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