The Palm Islands on the coastline of Dubai City are part of a major vision being realized by Nakheel, a large development company owned by the UAE Government.  The three Palm islands are Palm Jumeirah, which was completed in 2006; Palm Jebel Ali, still under construction; and Palm Deira, now in its early stages of development. These three archipelagos, along with other projects along that coastline (such as The World), are artificial reclaimed islands made from displaced sand and stone.  Since all islands will follow the same plans and consistencies as Palm Jumeirah, we will use the case of Palm Jumeirah to illustrate the issues around its construction. The final plans and decisions have been implemented in June 2001, and construction began in August 2001. This large scale process of dredging introduced many challenges and impacts on the ecosystem of the coastline. The sole presence of the island blocks the path of shoreline currents, forcing these currents to shift and curve in unnatural angles. This altered current movement can erode the mainland beaches in an uneven distribution, causing beaches to pile up sand at some points on the West side coasts from the island and lose sand on the East side [1]. In turn, beachfronts may lose enough land for coastal foundations to collapse [10]. This effect may be maintained by dredging sand from compiled spots and filling the washed away spots, but this temporary maintenance of shorelines does not hide the fact that the new Island is accelerating erosion to the mainland coast, a long-term event that is already wearing out the little sand that the beaches have [1]. Furthermore, the large quantities of compiling reclaimed sand caused the sea water to be heavily clouded in silt. In addition to ruining the aesthetic appearance of the coastline, the silt also has the potential to damage the marine ecosystem of certain local species, such as oyster beds being covered over [1] [10]. The high concentration of particles can suffocate most of the local species and prevent sunlight needed by vegetation from reaching the sea floor [1] [4] [8]. On the other hand, developers and engineers predicted and later found out that the foundations of the island actually support the growth of new corals, and other aquatic species are moving in since the rocks provide shelter [1] [3] [4] [7] [9] [10]. Based on that, they plan to recreate artificial coral reefs by sinking multiple vehicles like jets, busses, and so on, creating special scuba diving parks. With this, Nakheel argues that even if the project has changed the environment of the coastal ecosystem, they can make up for it with these very endeavors, claiming it will attract even more species from around the sea. Whether the process as a whole will have a net benefit to biodiversity or not, it is certain that the local species who lived before the construction had their habitats altered. Unfortunately, there is not much information on the long-term effects of all artificial islands around the world. There is no doubt many monitoring techniques that should be implemented on a more regular basis, before and after the construction process. Wave patterns, rate of erosion, and changes in topography can be observed through many video and radio devices, not mentioning our ability to collect water and sediment samples. Strict Environmental Impact Assessments must be conducted. Only a few academic articles, such as Salahuddin’s paper [1] mention the importance of such monitoring. All this considered, there are very few Environmental laws and movements in the UAE [1]. It is clear is that these artificial constructions feed into the hyper-consumerism already heavily promoted by the UAE. As noted by the World Wildlife Fund,  the UAE is "five times more unsustainable than any other country" [9]  These islands are a prime example of these kinds of unsustainable practices.