Mornings are getting darker. Need a pick me up? Tick tock: try an eco clock. Israel daylight savings already sent summertime packing, but the rest of us in the Middle East will be switching in the weeks ahead from Daylight Savings to standard winter time. Blast yourself out of that darkened bedroom with the help of [...]
Crunchy, tasty popcorn, made on your stove top, with nothing but goodness in it. My friend was amused that I have no microwave oven. How can I deal with food all day long and not own one? And how were we going to pop the popcorn she’d brought over? The health risks associated with microwave [...]
Egypt’s network of canals are filthy, stagnant and have become dumping sites which breed disease and discontent Egypt may be synonymous with the majestic Nile but the network of canals that bring water from this important waterway to the surrounding agricultural lands are filthy, rancid and breeding grounds for rats and disease. According to a [...]
It is illegal to catch sharks from the beginning of January to the end of April in the United Arab Emirates and yet thousands of them are landed during that time. Speaking to a delegation of international conservationists at the four day Shark Conservation Arabia workshop in Dubai, marine biologist Rima Jabado explained that during visits [...]
Can green and fracking ever be used in the same sentence? Hydraulic fracturing – fracking — is one way to extract valuable shale oil and gases from deep underground by injecting a highly pressurized fluid into rock to pull out the fossil fuel. Those in favor of fracking say that it will help America become [...]
Smoking can cause cancer, emphysema, birth defects, and – in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – divorce. Saudi Arabian authorities enacted a ban against smoking in government buildings, curbing a habit enjoyed by six million of its people. Smoking’s now banned at all ministries and government facilities in all provinces of the kingdom, according to the [...]
According to the latest findings by global risk-analyser Maplecroft, Arab Spring countries are at greater risk of rising food prices in the coming year It’s no secret that the high price of basic food staples were a contributing factor to the revolts which began in Tunisia and Egypt and sparked the ‘Arab Spring’. The protesters [...]
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.
Eole Water from France has developed a water-producing wind turbine and Gulf states are drooling at the jowls to have at least one of their own. The WMS 1000 currently undergoing testing in Dubai following tests in France and Abu Dhabi captures moisture in the air that is then condensed and filtered to standards exceeding [...]
A few days after we praised the new Better Place electric car pricing model in Israel (a lease plus charge plus 1000 km for $510), the company’s founder and visionary CEO Shai Agassi stepped down, or was ousted as some newer sources would rather say. While company press releases attempt to break the news as [...]
A bridge over troubled waters still being planned for Saudi Arabia and Sinai. About 20 dive sites will be lost, activists tell Green Prophet. A grassroots environmental group of activists are continuing to put pressure on the Egyptian government to end its plans to develop and erect a bridge linking the Sinai Peninsula with Saudi Arabia. [...]
Publishing a detailed recipe of how to make and then activate molotov cocktails is more suited to a militant underground leaflet than a publication intended for children, but that didn’t occur to the editors of a magazine in Tunisia. Either desperate for readers or keen to ingratiate themselves with the hardliners emerging in post-revolution Tunisia, [...]
Award-winning filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky is looking for support on Kickstarter to fund an eco-documentary on the Arctic Unless you have been hiding under a rock these last couple of months, the record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer will not have escaped your attention. According to the scientists, the Arctic ice melt broke [...]
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) economic capital, Dubai, has reaffirmed its committment to sustainable energy and the environment as it pushes forward on massive growth projects. Dubai’s ruler and UAE’s Vice-President and Prime Minister Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said that as the city continues to develop, the environment and clean energy prospects remain at the top [...]
Shams 1 will displace 175,000 tons of CO2 per year and its power output will be enough to power 20,000 homes. Abu Dhabi’s push into clean energy is to get a massive boost by the end of the year with the Shams 1 Concentrated Solar Power plant going live in the emirate and will begin supplying solar power [...]
PLUG-In Hebron is a dynamic new urban renewal project for the conflict-shorn West Bank city. Following years of what the designers call “reciprocal violence,” the Israeli military split Hebron into two separate zones. The latter, H2, which is under Israeli jurisdiction, contains the old city. Which means that the Palestinians have been isolated from an [...]
We speak to Egyptian campaigner Sarah Rifaat about the environmental movement and why bureaucracy and corruption are still the biggest barriers to change in Egypt Sarah Rifaat, like many people in Egypt, suffered from childhood asthma caused by the high levels of pollution in her city. What Sarah did differently when she grew up however, [...]
Illegal logging is not only killing the planet – it is supporting organised crime too Back in 2010 we reported on the case of Moroccan activist Mohammed Attaoui who was facing imprisonment for his stance against illegal logging. Living in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, Attaoui insisted that ‘mafia-style’ corruption was behind illegal logging which threatened [...]
The recently renovated Rabat Zoo in Morocco claims to have bred three new Barbary lion cubs in captivity. The larger cousin of southern Africa’s plains lions, Barbary lions were slaughtered en masse in fights with gladiators in order to demonstrate the superiority of humans over nature and finally the last wild individual was shot by [...]
Eco Future is an engaging interactive exhibit on Al Saadiyat Island that teaches children the ABCs of going green in Abu Dhabi. Partially modeled after the Emirate’s own long term sustainability plans, the exhibit features a series of games that promote virtual decision-making about real-world issues such as green building, healthy living, and moderate water and [...]
Polluting Paradise, the latest film by Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, documents the disgusting damage caused by a garbage dump near the Black Sea village of Çamburnu. Ten years ago, Turkish government authorities decided to transform an abandoned copper mine in northeastern Turkey into the biggest landfill in the eastern Black Sea region. Despite promises that the waste [...]
At the end of September an interactive multi-media exhibit, Eco Future, opened at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi. The family-oriented exhibit presents children and their families with the opportunity to engage with environmental issues, with an emphasis on urban planning, and to see how the decisions they make today might impact the future. In [...]
Overexposure by pregnant women to cookware coatings like PFC in microwave popcorn bags may result in underweight newborn babies. Be mindful of the risks when you cook. We wrote a few articles about the potential dangers of cooking with ceramic coated cookware, and the resulting lawsuit filed by one of these cookware manufacturers against the [...]
Skiing in Israel or Iran might not be what you think of if you’ve ever skied the Rocky Mountains in Canada or the Alps in Switzerland, but as people look ahead to the winter, Green Prophet can show Middle East readers that skiers can stay close to home. While you be looking around for cheap ski [...]
A potentially dangerous form of fungus forced a Gulf family from their home. Is your building sick too? Sounds like a 1950′s horror flick, but it’s been no Hollywood experience for this family-of-five in the United Arab Emirates of Sharjah. They’ve been living in a hotel since September 4 when they returned from vacation to [...]
Water from natural springs burbles in the ancient Roman stone aqueduct as it carries water downward to this village’s ancient terraces. Palestinian families grow olives, cabbage and eggplant today the same way they did more than 2,000 years ago. “Each family here gets water one day a week, but the week lasts eight days since [...]
Saudi Arabia’s government has confirmed that it will develop and build a $640 million solar power plant in the holy city of Mecca. It continues the country’s recent talks of bolstering its clean energy sector and with the holy pilgrimage of Hajj beginning, the government believes this is the best time to announce the massive [...]
Mafroum potatoes melt in your mouth and fill your senses with truly Middle Eastern flavors. A festive dish, mafroum is one of those foods that reminds me of Moroccan grandmothers who bustle into the kitchen, don an apron, and lovingly conjure delicious food out of vegetables and meat fresh from the shouk.And one of the [...]
A flailing Egypt still aims for 20 percent renewables by 2020. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Energy last week pushed forward a new round of concessions aimed at boosting investment in renewable and clean energy in the country. According to the Council, it said it would exempt parts and components used in the production of electricity [...]
A Nader Khalili-inspired earthen eco resort in southern Oman designed by SSH International won first prize in the Future Projects – Leisure led development category of this year’s World Architecture Festival. The Kuwait-based firm sought to satisfy three main requirements in this prototype for one of the Gulf’s largest developers, who aims to develop 1 [...]
A swarm of cyclists descended upon Tel Aviv on October 5th to participate in the city’s third annual Sovev cycling race, and the Dutch Ambassador was there to give them a grand send off! Wearing a suit, Caspar Veldkamp congratulated Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai for joining over 60 cities in Europe who have signed [...]
Dubai puts itself on the ‘I’m-too-ridiculous-to-be-true’ map again. This time by planning to build a replica of the Taj Mahal and naming it ‘Taj Arabia’ I am not sure how may more of these posts on outlandish Dubai construction projects I can write. I mean I have my limits – although, quite clearly, Dubai doesn’t [...]
Oh Joe. It’s hard to believe that after all these years I finally have to let you go. You have been the only constant in my life for well over a decade. You warmed my soul every morning, filled my various homes with your rich musky smell. And you carried me through those long and [...]
The political news from Egypt doesn’t look promising: Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula appear to be more unsettled than ever, with questions about how the military and police maintain the law of rule. That said, brave travellers are still heading to Sinai, the only place in the world where you can do nothing and feel [...]
An urban kibbutz in sun-drenched southern Israel invested in a field of rooftop solar panels that are already pumping out more energy than the community needs. Three years ago members of the Migvan kibbutz in Sderot, which receives plenty of untapped year-round sun, made the collective decision to invest in renewable solar energy in order [...]
Perhaps floored that a subsidiary of the state-owned Abu Dhabi Media, Image Nation, could be behind such a high-quality production as Promised Land, a new anti-fracking film written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski, western bloggers are drawing conspiratorial connections between the production company and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The theory [...]
More than 200 cyclists took over the streets of Beirut Sunday demanding a sustainable public transportation system for Lebanon. Haunted by the pollution poisoning their city’s car-clogged roads, more than 200 cyclists took over Beirut last week Sunday in an effort to demand a revival of its once-decent public transportation system. The seven kilometer (5 [...]
Reduce one food source and increase pressure on others. We’re all going to die! Only a lot later and with healthier arteries according to political satirist Stephen Colbert’s side-splitting riff on recent reports that the global bacon supply is “cooked”. Britain’s National Pig Association released data recently showing that European pig herds are declining “at a significant [...]
Legal, or a human rights violation? The “Bodies” exhibit raised a storm of controversy in Israel. Israelis are no strangers to making art from live naked humans. Green Prophet’s coverage of Spencer Tunick’s photo events showing hundreds of social and ecological activists standing nude in the Dead Sea proves that “prudish” doesn’t describe the Israeli [...]
![Irish Environmentalist Easkey Britton Surfs Iranian Waves [VIDEO]](http://www.greenprophet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/easkey-britton-iran.jpg "Irish Environmentalist Easkey Britton Surfs Iranian Waves [VIDEO]")
Easkey Britton, a surfing champion and passionate environmentalist, became the first women to surf the Iranian waves When Easkey Britton walked into the sea in southern Iran with a surfboard in hand, curiosity brought out not only the locals but the police. Luckily for her and Marion Poizeau, the filmmaker who was documenting her journey, [...]