Green Prophet | Cleantech & Environment News from the Middle East

Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Sewage Solutions

Michelle Simon | April 15th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Business & Politics »

camel on arab oasis with camel
The environment is politics and in the Middle East this is ever so stark, ravaged by internal socio-religio-political conflicts and international wars. Wars internally and externally are based on oppression, division, exclusion, land theft, and expropriation of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The Middle East is the globe’s oil capital. Those who want to own it are traditional colonial powers who will do anything and promise anything from political freedom to militarisation to democracy to get at it; it’s why war and conflict still proliferate in the region.

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Supersized Boys and Girls in Gulf States

Laurie Balbo | April 15th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Food & Health »

fat middle east boy Born in an economic boom, kids in oil-rich Arab Gulf States use their silver spoons to up caloric intact.

Blame laziness, love of Western brands, or ample disposable income, but children across the Gulf region are getting fatter. Recent studies tag 20 percent of children in Dubai as overweight, and another 12% as obese. Their Gulf nations’ cousins in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar are just as hefty.

The core lifestyle of the world’s urban children, zip code be damned, is numbingly similar. Conditioned living spaces and electronic entertainments encourage an increasingy sedentary lifestyle. Children in the Gulf are nothing like their nimble agrarian ancestors. Informal exercise is all but extinct. Internet-based social networking brings the playdate indoors. Besides, public parks and sports fields are hard to find in modern Gulf cities.

Why sweat outside with friends when you can sit in air-conditioned comfort and Skype and Facebook for hours? Have mom order in a pizza or a bag of cheeseburgers while you’re at it. You’re living the fatty-Emirati Dream.

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Saudi’s Parrot Fish Festival Undermines Red Sea Conservation

Linda Pappagallo | April 15th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Travel & Nature »

parrot fish saudi arabia An archaic Saudia Arabian practice of trapping parrot fish in the Red Sea has to stop.

The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are a beautiful haven of marine and coastal biodiversity, created as a result of deep ocean rifting which began 70 million years ago and saw the separation of the Arabian plate from the African plate. Fortunately there is some movement amongst conservation biologists to protect this bioregion through the expansion of a carefully selected network of marine protected areas. Furthermore, legal frameworks such as the Jeddah Convention aim to establish a legally binding agreement which expresses the commitment and political will of parties (Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Egypt and Jordan) to tackle marine and coastal environmental issues through joint coordinated activities.

The basis for action is there, and so is the political will (at least on paper), nevertheless, several obstacles such as limited technical capacity, lack of data and scientific knowledge and limited funds make the process of formalizing agreements much harder. One other issue is tackling culturally sensitive practices.

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Syrian Stuffed Artichoke Hearts (Recipe)

Miriam Kresh | April 15th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Food & Health »

Celebrate springtime in the Middle East with these aromatic stuffed artichokes.

Fresh artichokes are all over Middle Eastern markets now. Lovers of the edible thistle enjoy scraping the steamed, seasoned leaves with their teeth and never mind getting melted butter or vinaigrette all over their fingers.

But there are many refined ways of filling artichokes, as we have noted before in our Moroccan stuffed artichoke hearts recipe. And Syrian cooks know just as much about stuffed artichokes as anyone else. In this recipe, the flavors of lamb and allspice enrich their delicate taste.

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Saudi’s Mecca is Becoming a Holy Sprawl

Tafline Laylin | April 14th, 2012 | 4 Comments | Email this

Architecture & Urban »

Despite having enough solar power to energize the planet for the next 20 centuries, Saudi Arabia has instead reaped the benefits of its oil reserves for decades. This wealth has spurred a spate of massive developments in Mecca, transforming a small desert hamlet into a thriving metropolis. But this may be a curse for Islam’s holiest city and the 6 million pilgrims who flock there each year.

Last August, the Kingdom unveiled a $21.3 billion plan to upgrade the Grand Mosque in Mecca to accommodate an additional 2.5 million pilgrims a year. 20 Percent of the demolition has been completed, and a new $1.8 billion railway to link all of the holy sites in Mecca is also underway. How does one tap into the divine amidst so much noise and distraction?

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How can the Arab World Benefit from Climate Change Negotiations in Qatar?

Linda Pappagallo | April 14th, 2012 | 1 Comment | Email this

Business & Politics »

The last international climate change negotiation (COP17) took place in Durban in 2011 and the outcomes were pretty disappointing given the urgency of the matter in hand. Unsatisfactory outcomes aside, climate change negotiations have been providing momentous opportunities for NGOs, individuals and the private sector to engage and exchange ideas on solutions to climate change mitigation.

This year Qatar will host the UN climate change conference, COP18, in December and hopefully this will also be an opportunity for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to step up the game in climate change activism . However two important things need to happen to ensure all countries in the MENA benefit.

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The Lorax Brings a Muddled Environmental Message to the Mideast

Brian Nitz | April 14th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Lifestyle & Culture »

“I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees.” What would nature’s ambassador tell us? Children’s author Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) used this question as inspiration for his classic ecological fable, The Lorax. His simple message is that when limited resources (such as truffula trees) are consumed without care, entire ecosystems (singing fish, brown barbaloots…) can vanish and paradise is lost.

This tragic tale was panned by some critics for being too apocalyptic and probably inappropriate for children. The 2012 movie loosely based on The Lorax is… well, it’s difficult to know where to begin. So let’s look back at the book and I’ll try to explain why I believe its message will resonate long after the movie is a forgotten tuft of Hollywood fluff.

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Jerusalem’s Train Track Park Isn’t at all Like NYC’s High Line

Tafline Laylin | April 13th, 2012 | Comment | Email this

Architecture & Urban »

The High Line Park built on a historic freight line in New York City is one of the most talked-about urban renewal programs in history. There is an entire website devoted to it, a special team maintains the verdant 23rd street lawn and another is responsible for removing ice and snow. This park has rules and bike racks and a printable map.

All future cities that incorporate train tracks into their urban parks are ill-fated to endure comparisons to NYC, and most likely, they will be judged inferior. This includes Jerusalem and its humble Train Track Park. An idea conceived before the 2003 international design competition to transform the High Line was launched (and won by Diller Scofidio + Renfroon), Jerusalem may lack NYC’s amenities but not its vision.

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Israeli EV Company Better Place Reports Millions In Losses

Shifra Mincer | April 13th, 2012 | 3 Comments | Email this

Business & Politics »

better place electric car denmark ash tray
Better Place is not doing as well as everyone expected, with financial losses running in the millions.

The idea seemed flawless: battery-powered cars that could run on 100% electricity and could be recharged almost instantly by swapping batteries at special charging stations. But despite all the optimistic predictions, Better Place, the Israeli company that has been trying to build the world’s first operational infratructure for electric vehicles (EV), has been facing a series of obstacles in moving ahead with its technology.

Israel Corp., which holds 32% of the company’s shares, reported that Better Place lost over 1.5 billion NIS ($433 million) since 2009, 760 million NIS ($204 million) of which was lost over the course of 2011 alone, and deployment of battery recharging and swapping stations has been delayed in both Denmark in Israel from the scheduled date this April to the summer.

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Saudis Could Export Solar for the Next Twenty Centuries

Susan Kraemer | April 12th, 2012 | 2 Comments | Email this

Business & Politics »

Every square meter of Saudi Arabia produces an extraordinary 7 kilowatt hours of energy daily in each 12 hours of sun power. If the Saudis were to use up each days solar energy supply, or 12,425 TWh of electricity, it would be a 72 year supply.

Put another way, in just one day, enough solar energy hits Saudi sands to power the kingdom for 72 years, according to a study made by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology.

That is an extraordinary resource. It is significantly more than the rest of the world. For example: as a Californian who used a typical 15 kilowatt hours of energy a day, this means my entire home could have been fully solar powered by just 2 square meters – or about 3 feet by 6 feet – of solar panels in Saudi Arabia!

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