BPA – What’s the Big Deal, Baby?

This guest post by Daniella Dimitrova Russo the co-founder and executive director of Plastic Pollution Coalition gives us reasons to still worry about buying BPA-free products. What is the connection between obesity, reproductive and other endocrine-related conditions, heart disease, and cancer? Recent studies point conclusively towards one ubiquitous chemical that is used in everything from […]

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Egypt Suffers When Israelis Spend Passover Elsewhere

Hundreds of Israelis used to spend Passover in Sinai but this year that’s very unlikely to happen and Egypt suffers as a result. Every year the government warns Israelis to avoid Sinai during Passover. Friends and relatives worry that they will become the next Ghalid Shalit, which is silly given there are now zero Israeli captives, […]

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Looking for Sustainable Alternatives for Endangered Word

Sorry folks, but nothing on this earth is sustainable, even words. Brian argues the dire need for new words to replace ‘sustainable’ in our eco-English vocabulary.  Peak oil came and went in 2008.  Everyone knows this– with the possible exception of some US presidential candidates and one wildcat oil prospector in Cairo, Illinois.  Most Green […]

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How NASA Sees the Changing Middle East Landscape

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q4YTpa3Bwg] Who would have known 50 years ago that Angel Falls can be experienced like this? Flying in a motorized paraglider over one of the most diverse continents in the world I find it absolutely awe inspiringly mind blowingly beautiful that nowadays we have the technology to provides us with new perspectives on this spherical […]

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Understanding Jordan’s Nuclear Ambitions

Begin with a 3-pronged disclaimer: I’m no engineer; I’m as political as a daisy; and since leaving university, my preferred way of learning is fairly chaotic. I bump into things. That draw me to other things. Thing One and Thing Two quickly lead to Thing Fifty-Three; and when I look up, blinking, discombobulated, I’m “sort of” knowledgeable about […]

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UN Sponsors Global Wet T-Shirt Contest!

It’s World Water Day today, relevant and necessary for the Middle East.  Well, not quite, but I got your attention. Raise an icy glass filled with clean water: it’s World Water Day. In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly declared each March 22 to be World Day for Water, raising awareness of water issues at local and […]

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Pamukkale for Liquid Relaxation the Turkish Way

Think Egypt’s White Desert meeting Mont Blanc.  Three days of heavy snowfall hit downtown Amman, fat flakes screaming for clothes not found in our closets.  Schools shut and offices closed.  Icy roads wrought havoc on the annual Dead2Red bike and running race. Park aside historical significance, religious connotation, and cultural pride: I say this waterbody’s main value is as […]

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New Oil Slick in Egypt Threatens Red Sea Coral Reef

This coral reef in Egypt is threatened by a new oil slick, according to local reports. Ecologists have discovered a new 300 meter oil slick in the Red Sea just outside of El-Tor, according to WReporter. Quoting Youm 7, the paper claims that the spill threatens coral reefs in the Ras Muhammad National Park Marine […]