If the middle east is so engorged with oil why don't they prepare for the wind/solar/hydrogen future?

Question

Why don't the countries of the middle east take the profits that they are making on oil and reinvest that into a wind/Solar/Hyrdogen economy. They have the perfect land for solar panels and windmills, deserts. And they have access to ocean water (salt water) to product hydrogen. They could now take advantage of these and "corner the market" on wind/solar/hydrogen economy before the rest of the world catches on. Additionally they could use the solar energy to pump the remaining oil from the ground and make even more money from it. They could also use this technology to desalinize the water and make an easier life for themselves.

Answer 1

Oil and LNG can be transported relatively efficiently to world markets thousands of miles away, wind and solar power cannot (and solar power is very expensive to generate even a small amount of power). Many of the middle east countries do operate desalination plants but it would be wasteful and expensive to produce fresh water for more than basic needs.

They do not have the industrial and scientific base to be leaders in the complex technologies in developing economic solar and hydrogen technology. They would find difficulties in protecting their ownership of the science behind any technology developed if they invested in industrial countries.

There are things they could do in selling their oil at a discount to end users who use their oil in the most environmentally friendly ways and I think this might be a good approach.

However I think it is basically up to the those who use the oil and produce the pollution to address the problem and not try to palm it off on someone else.

Answer 2

I find this an interesting question.
First, I ponder on your word "They" (meaning middle east people).
Then I realised...
"They" simply do not bother: they still have us to feed them with dollars, and we still pumping their oil. Like many government, "they" do not care for tomorrow (tomorrow, they will not be in power).
"We" (that is "our governments"), on the other hand, can't be bothered! Oil is still much cheaper than anything else, and Bush is not going to be in power when petrol will run out.
"We" (as Oil industrialists) certainly don't want to be involved! They have spent billions is setting up their businesses and don't want to see their investment going to waste (although BP is investing heavilly in Hydrogen and solar power right now: maybe they know something we don't).

Answer 3

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Answer 4

actually Iran is trying to do this with nuclear energy, but Bush has a bee in his bonnet, and wants to start another war.