It's 120 degrees fahrenheit (49'C), and you're hot and bothered. Then, someone pipes up with: "Skiing anyone?"

Welcome to the Dubai Ski Dome, where no expense is spared for tourist pleasure. Anyone care to guess what the energy bill would be for creating 6,000 tons of snow in the middle of a desert?

Outside

Inside

It's not surprising that, when it comes to pure energy wastage, the United Arab Emirates even out-consumes the United States on a per-capita level. The distance between fossil fuel production and resource-negligence is very short here!

When it comes to squandering the earth's natural resources, residents of this desert land of chilled swimming pools, monster 4x4s and air-conditioned malls are on a par with even the ravenous consumption of Americans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world's largest per-capita "ecological footprint," WWF data shows. The United States runs second. - CNN

The UAE, of course, is also the home of the Palm Islands project, which takes this energy expenditure futher, combining it with even more direct environmental damage.

In addition to its penchant for acquiring records for the Guinness Book of World Records, Dubai has lately embarked on an ambitious plan to boost its international standing in the eyes of the world's rich (and its neighbors) by building a number of artificial islands. These islands, which will house luxury residences, villas, and hotels, are a growing concern for environmentalists due to their impact on the local marine ecology.... - Mongabay

This does clearly illustrate that ecological intemperance is not just a western problem. All humans gifted with resources and opportunities can get 'caught up in the moment'.

The people of the UAE obviously have a lot of confidence in the duration of that 'moment' - going by the many planned mega-projects illustrated in this movie: