The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf on the Florida coast shocked the world. We watched as the BP-owned rig leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil into Florida’s fragile ecosystem. Two years later, BP will be paying, with fines expected to go from $5 billion to $21 billion, most of which would be [...]
We’ve often wondered: do people in the Middle East just not see the trash that has taken over their lives? 10453: A Story About Life in 1 km2 of Trash answers that question with a roaring yes. they. do. Written & directed by Camille Brunel Aoun and produced by The (B)IM Project or Books in [...]
See two green pioneers from the Middle East featured on CNN this weekend. Yosef Abramowitz, from the Israel-based Arava Power Company, was chosen as a leading environmental figure by the CNN television network from among a global pool of candidates. Over multiple broadcasts in July, Green Pioneers will air on CNN with a focus on six diverse individuals who are [...]
Lake Nar is in central Turkey, which was the epicenter of a disease that ravaged the Byzantine population 15 centuries ago. Climate change may have been a factor. The Justinian Plague swept through the Eastern Mediterranean from 541 BCE to 750 BCE, killing approximately one quarter of the region’s inhabitants. Samples of sediment from the [...]
From Ma’amoul to Couscous, why not try a new vegetarian dish from the Middle East and North Africa region this Ramadan? There are some dishes that evoke such strong memories of a festive occasion, that eating them any other time of the year feels wrong. For me, Qatayf (mini nut pancakes) and Mamoul (date cookies) [...]
Few elements are more distinctive to Middle Eastern design than the ancient Mashrabiya screens used to keep homes cool, and now recent strides in technology have completely revolutionized how the concept is used. Commissioned to design the 25-story Al Bahar Towers on Abu Dhabi’s eastern flank, Aedas Architecture worked with Arup Engineering to create a [...]
Let’s face it, eco-friendly clothing is hard to come by in the Middle East. Desire to own the top brand names at whatever financial cost often trumps planetary-consciousness, so there’s little incentive for designers to go green. But for those who still want to look their best without hurting the earth, there is light at [...]
Ramadan period expected to add to weighty population Eat less, and go to the gym more. Alas, easier said than done in some Gulf states, especially during Ramadan. Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are among the world’s top ten overweight nations, a new report by BMC Public Health has found. The extra [...]
Was it the leap-second bug that pushed America’s power plants beyond their capacity? A 61 second minute was added to clocks around the world on June 30, 2012 at 23:59:60 UTC in order to compensate for slight variations in earth’s rotation speed. This triggered a number of software bugs one of which caused a spike [...]
Get a Bollywood belly by dancing in Dubai Half a century ago, Chubby Checker (ironically) popularized the waist-whittling dance, “The Twist”. Twenty years on, Jennifer Beals’ Flashdance foot-stomping fueled record-breaking sales of leg warmers: required apparatus for burning off surplus 1980′s calories. Micro-shorted Richard Simmons challenged TV audiences to “Sweat to the Oldies”. Suburban strip malls [...]
Have you received an email saying your car’s air con could kill you? The jury is still out until more scientific evidence comes in. Car and home air conditioning units provide a cooler internal environment, and may also be a possible source of drinking water in emergency situations . But there is another side to [...]
Rising acid levels in the world’s oceans now threatens everything from coral reefs to global food security, Jane Lubchenco, the head of America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday. The level of acid in oceans now rivals climate change as its “equally evil twin,” she told AP. “We’ve got sort of the perfect [...]
During a recent trip to Iran, EuroNews correspondent Ali Sheikholeslami found that many Iranians are becoming unwitting vegetarians as they can no longer afford to buy meat. Following international sanctions against the country’s nuclear ambitions, inflation has soared, the Rial has crashed to about half its former value against western currencies, and locals are feeling the pinch. [...]
When commissioned to transform Izmir’s Orfi furniture store into an inspiring and atmospheric new space, Turkish designer Nail Egemen Yerce was presented with three concepts that needed to be incorporated: the garden, the plaza and the street. The existing office was endowed with an incredible excess of daylight, which needed to be diffused without shutting out [...]
Let down by world leaders (again) at Rio+20, green Arab researcher Mohamed Abdel Raouf says it’s time for a less top-down approach to solutions It’s been over a fortnight since the Rio+20 summit which was supposed to look at sustainable development (and in later years ‘sustained growth’ – something which is very different) whimpered to [...]
There’s just one week left to win a beautiful organic cotton dress from MuMu Organic and help Green Prophet get to 6,000 likes on Facebook. We have a ways to go, so we definitely need your help. Here are three easy steps you need to take to stand a chance to win the dress of [...]
Rich spices and heavy wintertime comfort food: this is what often springs to mind when people think of recipes from the Middle East and North Africa. But with temperatures in parts of the region rising to 50 degrees Celsius in the shade, who wants to eat rich dishes that end in a food coma? Not [...]
This Marine Drone could clean up our dirty work. Can a wealthy Saudi fund this prototype to clean our seas? Fourteen billion pounds of garbage, 90 percent of which is plastic, is dumped into the ocean every year and there is no sign of plastic waste reducing – in fact plastic waste has been increasing [...]
It’s mission accomplished. The Solar Impulse, the world’s longest solar powered flight has landed back home in Madrid, Spain. The flight took 17 hours from Rabat, Morocco. The plane’s maiden voyage was from Spain to Morocco, proving that a solar-powered plane could fly both day and night. Next, say its owners Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard [...]
I used to be a wine barrel… and now I’m a chess board. Wine companies worldwide may be trying to ‘go green’ by producing organic wines (the wineries of the Middle East being no exception), but even so there is non eco-friendly waste associated with making vino. A winery in the Israeli Negev desert has [...]
Toni Polo, founder of Radio Groovalizacion explains how music and migration are shaping contemporary culture in the Middle East and North Arfica. As an avid “world music” listener – although I don’t like this term but I still haven’t found a better one- it is always an immense pleasure to discover hidden musical gems. One organization [...]
Japan is seeking Israeli clean tech experts to help rebuild Fukushima, which was devastated by both an earthquake and a tsunami last year. The Japanese company in charge of rehabilitation recently sent a delegation to Israel looking for experts and entrepreneurs, especially in the fields of water management and recycling. According to the company’s liaison [...]
The woman’s hijab is being caught in a culture war based on intolerance In June, a Jordanian woman was fired from her job for refusing to don a headscarf. She responded by filing suit against her Arab employer for unlawful dismissal, kicking off a media debate over how much tolerance is acceptable when Islamic and [...]
When Britain’s own financing institutions staggered under the weight of the 2008 economic crisis, a Qatari consortium stepped in to finance The Shard – a sleek pyramidal skyscraper designed by Italian starchitect Renzo Piano. Officially inaugurated last week amid great pomp and circumstance, the building is small when compared to Dubai’s 2,717 foot Burj Al-Khalifa, but [...]
Israeli settlements and restrictions on water and land are jeopardizing the possibility of peace – UK charity Oxfam says I have written in the past about the messy and controversial place where politics and the environment meets- especially between Israel and Palestine. However, it’s hard to ignore the political and ecological implications of the Israeli [...]
Khat addiction in Yemen has reached epic proportions and not only among adults. A recent report released by the World Health Organization shows that up to 20% of the nation’s children under twelve are also addicted to chewing the bitter stems of the Catha edulis plant, which produces a mild high akin to the effects [...]
A building in the Lower Galilee which showcases traditional architectural Arab styles with ecological benefits demonstrates that modern concerns can be resolved with ancient techniques One of the most important things we need to do to tackle climate change is reduce the amount of energy we use. One way to do this is ensure buildings [...]
Crab or “Eye of God” nebula: NASA photo archives Does the discovery of the “God Particle” mean that mankind is coming too close to God? Are we humans again trying to do the same thing as our ancient ancestors did when they tried to build the Tower of Babel in order to “see God”? Or, [...]
Ramat Rachel is an ongoing archeological dig on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem. A 2,500-year-old garden at the site, probably built by local Judeans, holds many secrets about the past waiting to be uncovered. An elaborate network of irrigation channels made it clear that this was a garden, but what was planted in it has [...]
Better Place driving guide Ronit hooks up ZE car after test drive In the six month period since Better Place put its first 100 Renault Fluence electric cars on Israeli roads in January, 2012; the company headed by entrepreneur Shai Agassi has already put around 300 cars on Israeli streets and highways. Many of them have [...]
The golden age is undergoing a quiet revival at the edge of Egypt’s western desert thanks to the Taziry eco-lodge. So much more than just a holiday destination, this peaceful resort located roughly 752 km west of Cairo at the footstep of Siwa’s Red Mountain (Adrar Azugagh) runs a camel and Arabian horse-breeding program as [...]
An Iranian warden is being asked to pay ‘blood money’ to a poacher he shot in the foot whilst guarding a wildlife protected area Sabz Press, a green Iranian news site, is reporting that a warden working in the protected wildlife area of Lawvardin in Hormozgan province has been ordered to pay blood money to a [...]
Princely and purposeful, the pomegranate has heavenly resonance in Islam for being a honeycomb of good health, sent from above.
Egypt’s hottest new environmentally-conscious designer Manar Moursi studied in two of America’s most prestigious academic institutions before founding Studio Meem – a sassy and sustainable design studio based in Cairo. Leaving the stoic traditions of Princeton University and UVA behind, Moursi is now making green waves in her home country. Despite being a fairly young [...]
Faith is something which the Middle East has a lot of. Whether that faith is being used solely for good is another matter altogether – some are trying to change that by invoking the shared green aspects of the Abrahamic faiths Sharing Eden – Green teachings from Jews, Christians and Muslims is a small book [...]
Bifacial solar panel can boost energy yield by 50%. Researchers have been trying to develop double-sided solar cells that can capture both direct and reflected sunlight for the last forty years, and now an Israeli startup believes they have come up with the winning formula. bSolar, a venture-backed project founded in 2007, showcased their bifacial [...]
Following the Israeli Minister’s green light for the Red-Dead Canal project, Friends of the Earth Middle East are calling for alternatives to the project to be fully explored Since the very start, the Red-Dead Canal project has been fraught with controversy. The project which aims to revive the Dead Sea, which is shrinking one metre [...]
An Israeli research team discovers a mechanism whereby even tiny seemingly insignificant chemical changes in a creature can affect the ecology of the earth. Snakes, spiders and creepy-crawly things that go bump in the night are the creatures of children’s nightmares. But who ever thought that the little critters might actually be scared of each [...]
Beirut-based Nadim Inaty designed the Green Wheel – a zany exercise machine concept that harvests kinetic energy and converts it into electricity. Comprised of a single unit complete with a bench and patches of real grass, the green wheel features three different levels for runners of varying strengths and produces roughly enough energy in 30 [...]
Following a spate of tire burning protests in Beirut that choke the city’s skies and people, Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri staged a colorful protest. The creative duo behind Bokja Design Studio treated more than a dozen tires with the same reverence as their antique and vintage furniture pieces by wrapping them in opulent textiles [...]