When you Twitter, Google, or just spend leisurely hours checking facebook updates, how does this affect the environment? And think about all that data from YouTube, cloud storage, and blogger’s sites. Where does it get stored and how much energy does it consume? Whoishostingthis provides a really handy infographic giving you the breakdown of the […]
Odeh Al-Jayoussi creates a great guidebook on Islam and sustainable development, although it’s a little overambitious in its reach at times Odeh Al-Jayoussi, the current vice president of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society, has certainly had an interesting career. As well as working for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, he’s spent time at the City […]
Animal lovers in Jordan are fighting a formidable battle to raise people’s awareness and respect towards strays and animals in general. It’s not easy being an animal in Jordan. One of our pair of mini-dachshunds escaped to the street last November and was killed in a hit and run. Distraught, we called friends asking what […]
Mountaineer Omar Samra posted a photo on his Facebook page of him posing with Egyptian triathlete Omar Nour. Theirs is a match made in sporting heaven. Samra went from a hectic career in finance to being the first Egyptian to reach the top of Mt. Everest. (He also strives to be the first Egyptian in […]
Even though, perversely for a landscape photographer, I tend to seek out uglier-than-average places, this possibly wins the prize for one of the least glamorous locations I’ve photographed. It’s a very sizable field of human excrement on the road from Sharjah to Dhaid in the United Arab Emirates. It’s part of the excellent work being […]
Malina Suliman’s Fighting the Taliban with Paint and Graffiti Sometimes graffiti can be seen from space. In Tunisia it graces the country’s tallest minaret. In Lebanon, they are making green graffiti for the city streets. And Egyptians have converted military barriers into trompe l’oeil streetscapes. Afghan artist Malina Suliman finds her inspiration in southern Kandahar, […]
Recyclable plastics or wastes for the dump? The choice is ours. Plastic items that usually get discarded and wind up being buried in landfills or washed out to sea are serious issues brought up during annual events like Earth Day. The seriousness of large amounts of plastic debris in the worlds seas and oceans have raised […]
Egypt has certified the country’s first female dive master – a devout Muslim who refers to herself as a feminist. With coveted dive spots scattered all along the Red Sea, the ecologically-threatened Sinai Peninsula attracts scores of Egyptian and foreign visitors every year. But until now, not one Arab or Egyptian woman has taken their […]
The bard believed that a “rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but labeling mid-February fun as a Valentine’s event is controversial in the Middle East. What began as a quiet Western tradition, indulged by the leisure class, got a post-industrial kick-in-the-pants thanks to annual promotion from a growing news industry. Simply scrawl […]
Pink slime, an Egyptian muscleman with freakish biceps, and horse-burgers: what makes news go viral? Ages back, the day after actress Natalie Wood died, I got two phone calls from my brothers – each on an opposite American coast – with the same awful joke*. How could something so bad get near-instant attention of people […]
This year, why not try a few unconventional valentine ideas that will expand your lover’s heart, rather than her waist or rear end! Chocolates are fattening and the flower industry is often horribly destructive to the environment, so your special eco-friend is unlikely to be impressed with these last minute valentine gifts. (Unless of course […]
This little critter, the common red worm, is a natural organic composting machine Composting for improvement of houseplants and gardens and made in your backyard or even in your own living room is a subject covered frequently in Green Prophet. Composting equipment can cost as little as ten dollars for a vegetable compost bin or […]
It is rare for an artist from the Middle East to achieve global acclaim, yet Tammam Azzan’s name has appeared in all of the world’s major newspapers and blogs over the last couple of weeks – all for a golden kiss. Reaching his hand down to squeeze the hearts of passive observers in a way […]
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Images of Tadashi Kawamata’s extraordinary installation entitled Chairs for Abu Dhabi has been circulating the blogosphere the last few days. A follow up of a similar project featured in France, the piece consists of hundreds of chairs – mostly vintage and recycled – stacked on top of one another like a giant hollow mountain of […]