Tangram 2022 World Cup Stadium Cools Itself Like a Lizard
Tangram Gulf recently unveiled a naturally-cooled FIFA stadium design for the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Desert Soccer Pitches Reveal Arab Obsession with Football
Ask yourself: if you lived in the deep desert, where the sand burns your soles at midday, would you run outside and play soccer? No sane person should. But Dick Sweeney has sent us thought-provoking images of soccer posts in extreme environments that reveal just how much Arabs love their football.
The Gulf Monarchies and Climate Change – A Book Review
Working in Qatar has clearly given the academic Mari Luomi access to lots of information about the climate change rhetoric and reality of the Gulf. It also puts her in a rather awkward position in terms of being able to voice her criticism. After interviewing Luomi for Green Prophet around a year ago, however, I [...]
Green Deserts – The Saltwater Revolution (An Ode to Innovation)
We are not alone in our awe of the Sahara Forest Project (SFP), which has already built a pilot project in Qatar that produces energy, clean water and food in the middle of the desert – all without a single drop of fossil fuel. Owned by biomimicry architect Michael Pawlyn, structural engineer Bill Watts, and the Norwegian [...]
Are Digital Diet Utensils A Forking Joke?
Eating too fast leads to poor digestion and poor weight control. No brainer. But do we need a digital fork to help adhere to that maxim? Goofing around online, I spot a cool-looking kitchen gadget: a fork that could be a love-child of IKEA and Apple. I click on the video and nearly spit out [...]
Summer World Cup in Qatar Doesn’t Thrill FIFA Medical Chief
After months of debate about the wisdom of holding the 2022 World Cup football tournament in Qatar during the height of summer, FIFA’s medical chief has announced that he is not thrilled with the idea. Michel D’Hooghe told The Associated Press that while he has received strong assurances that the solar-powered stadiums and training facilities [...]
OMA to Mastermind Doha Airport City in Time for 2022 World Cup
Starchitects OMA have won an international design competition to be the master planners for Doha’s new Airport City in Qatar. Occupying a 10 kilometer square space that will link the new Hamad International Airport with Doha, the mixed-use complex will be comprised of four circular districts connected by a “green spine.” Phase One of the 30 [...]
Qatar’s First Passivhaus on Track for 2013 Completion
A host of private and government organizations in Qatar have teamed up to build the emirate’s first Passivhaus – one of the world’s most sustainable design certification systems with origins in Germany. Better yet, the solar array that will generate an annual 58,000 kilowatt hours of electricity to power the home will be provided by [...]
Export Oil, Import Water = Risky Economics for Middle East
Water scarcity has already become a fact of daily life for Egyptians The world’s driest region, the Middle East* and North Africa (MENA), is getting drier at an alarming rate. And yet, despite massive population growth (the Middle East’s population grew 61 percent from 1990 to 2010 to 205 million people) predictions of so-called “water [...]
Billionaire Arab Prince Buys Planet’s Largest Private Jet
Look! Up in the sky! Is it an office complex? A concert hall? A Turkish bath? Or a parking garage? No, it’s the new ride of an Arab prince – a King-sized jet – one that could hold 800 people. Will you step aboard this airborne greenhouse gas factory? Stuffed inside the fuselage of Prince Alwaleed bin [...]
Sunny Solar Outlook For Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to bring 3.5GW of solar capacity online by 2015: Saudi Arabia and Turkey lead the way. A new report published by Green Tech Media (GTM) Research pins the surge from today’s near-negligible production on rapidly rising energy demand spurred by MENA economic expansion, population growth, and [...]
A Farmer’s Market in Dead Dry Qatar
It’s strange that a farmer’s market should make news, but when it’s in Qatar, one of the driest and least food secure nations on earth, a farmer’s market is a big deal. So much so that local professional photographer Mohammed Ismail stopped by for a shoot. Located 30 kilometers outside of the capital Doha, where [...]
Qatar University’s Accredited Environmental Science Program is an Arab World First
What a great way to start 2013: the Committee of Heads of Environmental Sciences (CHES) and the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) accredited Qatar University’s BSc and MSc Environmental Sciences programs. This is not only a first for the Arab world, but it is also the first time these leading institutions have accredited any such program [...]
Middle Eastern Green Traditions Hold Key To Future – A Case Study
What role can traditional knowledge play in climate adaptation in the Arab Region? The Jordanian Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature explores… From traditional land conservation techniques to water channels reviving arid climates, communities in the Middle East have been creatively tackling environmental problems for centuries now. Whether it was extreme weather events or [...]
Top 9 Eco Stories From the Middle East in 2012
Every year we like to round up a list of our most popular stories from the preceding year. Not only does this give us a sense of closure, but it also helps us better understand what our readers want. This year our readers have been following a range of subjects that affect the health of [...]
Qatar Airways Praised for its Natural Gas/Biofuel Push to the Skies
Cheaper flights for all? If Qatar’s “Pearl project” can develop the natural gas industry for planes, it could translate into reducing overall costs for US carriers. Qatar Airways ambitious new plan to erect a $19 billion Pearl project that will be the largest gas-to-liquids plant in the world, is receiving massive praise and optimism over its future [...]
Qatar’s Sahara Forest Project Grows Its First Cucumbers from Saltwater
The Gulf region is showing exactly why they are quickly becoming the top destination for renewable and clean technology in the world. A recent pilot project in Qatar aimed at growing cucumbers using seawater and solar power is just one of the more unique endeavors, and hopefully won’t have any Islamic leaders crying foul. According to [...]
Aprés COP 18: Will Qatar Rebound with Solar?
With free water and electricity, and the world’s largest carbon footprint, is Qatar’s new stance on solar a bona fide shift towards fossil fuel alternatives or are they simply catching the latest fashion? Qatar aims to raise the share of solar power in state electricity generation to 16% by 2018, an official told The Jordan Times, [...]
Failed COP18 Climate Talks Boil Down to Money (Op-Ed)
Although just about everybody at the COP18 climate talks in Doha, Qatar, understood the importance of arresting climate change following a slew of recent reports that show temperatures and sea levels rising faster than we imagined, the conference closes today without a commitment to cut a single pound of CO2 emissions. The reasons for that [...]
World Bank Warns Arab World About Action on Climate Change
Consequences of climate change especially acute in the Arab world, and traditional methods for coping with climate are severely stressed finds new World Bank assessment. All eyes are on Qatar now as the country hosts the UN-sponsored climate change event COP18. We’ve been reporting on COP18 before it began and during, and recently posted about [...]
Climate Change to Worsen Migrant Workers’ Lives in Qatar
Trade unionists have used the COP18 discussions in Qatar to bring the silent but disturbing plight of migrant workers to light. While the emirate boasts about its plans to build a bevy of solar-powered stadiums in advance of the 2022 World Cup in addition to a host of other eco-boosting projects, very little has been [...]
Activists Call for a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ to Boost Climate Change Fund
Activists have gathered at the global COP18 climate event in Doha, Qatar to press negotiators to put aside money from a ‘Robin Hood tax” to boost the climate change fund. Evoking the legend of England’s Robin Hood, who either stole from or persuaded the rich to help the poor depending on which story one believes, a [...]
Qatar to Spend Up to $20 Billion on Solar
Like Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, Qatar uses up a lot of its own fossil fuels – either to power energy-intensive desalination plants or complicated subsidies. The emirate is the world’s largest per capita consumer of energy, a topic that has come up time and again at the ongoing COP18 climate talks in Doha, and [...]
Eco-Hybrid Car From Qatar Unveiled During Climate Talks
Counteracting overwhelming criticism leveled at Gulf nations for their lack of environmental accountability, the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) unveiled a low-emission, lower fuel consumption hybrid car-concept that can be applied to any vehicle. “The engine captures thermal waste energy that is utilized to generate electric energy to run hydrogen fuel cells using the potable [...]
Activists at COP18 in Qatar: Islam and the Arab-world Not Eco Enough
Young Arabs in Doha are telling the Arab world it’s time to take a lead on climate change during the first climate change talks to be held in the Middle East. With more than a billion Muslims in the world, Arab activists claim that Muslim leaders are pretty much silent about global warming and environmental [...]
Turkey Wins “Fossil of the Day” Award At Doha Climate Change Negotiations
With the world’s fourth largest number of planned coal-fired power plants, Turkey is flouting international concern about climate change. As the United Nation’s climate change talks in Doha enter their second day, Turkey has been called out on its irresponsible climate policies with the “Fossil of the Day” award. Although Turkey has kept a low [...]
A 1,700 Gigaton Carbon Bomb is Thawing in the Permafrost
Negotiators working on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in Qatar ought to know that 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon lie buried in the permafrost, which is double the amount that currently wreaks so much havoc here on earth, reports UNEP. Then, as arctic temperatures rise as a result of global warming and the permafrost melts, [...]
COP18 Host Could Be Swallowed Up by Rising Seas
A sea level rise of 100 inches or eight feet in Ar Ru’ays, a city at the northern tip of Qatar, would render 100 percent of the population homeless. Considered one of the top ten developing nations that is most vulnerable to rising seas, the host of the 18th Conference of the Parties to the [...]
SARS-like Disease Claims Another Life in Saudi Arabia
A SARS-like respiratory illness has claimed the life of a second person from Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced. The coronavirus sparked worldwide attention in September when an initial alert was sounded, but now a total of six cases have been reported, two of which have been fatal.
Who’s Got the Wind Power in the Middle East?
Who’s got the wind in the Middle East? Morocco and Egypt have the biggest wind power plants, but don’t discount Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Wind power has taken a backseat to solar power across the Middle East and North Africa, but there are still some ambitious projects in wind power [...]
COP18 Updates – Women, Students & A President Courting Oil
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is the president of the COP18 got a thorough telling off for courting big oil executives in the lead up to the climate talks The annual UN climate talks are coming the Middle East for the first time ever. As such, climate change and environmental issues are hitting the local [...]
Qatar’s Solar-Powered Convention Center Cuts COP18 Carbon
Every year it’s the same thing. Hundreds of delegates from around the world fly somewhere to agree to climate change solutions. Journalists bemoan the lack of progress, environmentalists criticize the amount of carbon emissions spewed into the atmosphere as a result and the public at large completely loses faith in the process. The UN Convention of [...]
Lifesaving Sahara Forest Project to Start With COP 18 in Qatar
The opening of the Sahara Forest Project’s first pilot plant in Qatar is set to coincide with the United Nations Climate Conference (COP18) in Doha, Qatar, which kicks off on November 26, 2012, and operations are expected to be fully underway in December. By combining a seawater greenhouse with concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, SFP [...]
Qatar Airways Hopes Natural Gas Will Battle Climate Change, Lower Prices
Qatar Airways’ natural gas push could help combat climate change, reduce costs for passengers. Photo: Qatar Airways With massive natural gas reserves, it is a wonder that Qatar has not pushed natural gas for the aviation industry. Granted, no country, or airline, has made the move to gas, but Qatar and its flagship Qatar Airways hopes [...]
Over Polluted Qatar Hosts UN Climate Conference
This month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18) will be hosted by Qatar, the tiny peninsula nation in the Persian Gulf that holds the world record for per capita CO2 emissions. According to a report entitled Indicators of Sustainable Development 2011 released by Qatar’s statistics’ authority, the state has experienced a 27% annual increase in [...]
Will the Kyoto Protocol Survive Qatar 2012?
The Qatar climate conference this year could very well mark the end of the Kyoto protocol. Qatar has one of the highest per capita CO2 emission rates in the world, but it will host The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s climate change conference this year – shortly before the Kyoto protocol’s first emission [...]
‘Rain’ and Qatari Folktales of Nature
A community project in Qatar explores local folktales and what they can teach us about nature in the Middle East Whilst every corner of the world has a strong storytelling tradition, the Middle East is blessed with its own unique strand of folktales exploring nature. Water scarcity, rain and drought feature heavily due to the [...]
There’s a Burj Qatar by Jean Nouvel and it’s the World’s ‘Best’ Tall Building
Chicago’s Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat recently named the Burj Qatar the world’s best new tall building, which is curious to us for several reasons. First of all, famed French architect Jean Nouvel designed the building but we can’t find it on his website. Is he not proud of his towering child? Second, there’s a [...]
Qatar’s First Solar-Powered World Cup Stadium to Break Ground Soon
The tender for the first solar-powered World Cup 2022 stadium has been issued and the winners will be announced in November or December, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee has said. Construction should follow soon thereafter and if all goes according to plan, Al Wakrah stadium will be complete as soon as 2015.
SARS-like Mystery Virus Appears in Saudi Arabia, Alerting Haj Pilgrims
A new SARS-like mystery illness has health authorities alert ahead of the millions-strong Haj pilgrammage to Mecca. There have been two recent cases of a mysterious SARS-like virus linked to Saudi Arabia. It killed one of its victims from Saudi Arabia. The second who is still alive travelled through the country. The unknown mystery virus [...]