Dubai is prone to frequent dust storms. A new solar panel dust particle remover made in Israel boosts power and cleans off dust at the same time Solar voltaic panels, which at their best only have about 25 percent efficiency for converting direct sunlight into electricity, have even less efficiency than this when dust and [...]
Cold weather and a booming industrial economy is making it hard to breath in the Middle East says NASA Air pollution is a big problem in the Middle East particularly in cities such as Tehran, Cairo and the rich Gulf nations. The latest images from NASA, however, reveal the true extent of the problem with [...]
With air pollution 100x worse than NYC the news doesn’t look good for 2013 even though Cairo taxis were offered free natural gas tanks. Two years ago when the Egyptian government began fully implementing taxis run on natural gas, there was much praise and fanfare. Air pollution was at monumental levels in the Egyptian capital [...]
King Mohammed VI rode with French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and head of Moroccan government Abdelilah Benkirane on Casablanca’s spiffy new tramway during its debut run, which traversed the distance between United Nations Square and Mohammed Square on 12 December, 2012. Designed to reduce air pollution, ease vehicular congestion and increase economic development in what [...]
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, [...]
Though wallpaper is not popular in the Middle East, this wallpaper can help repair sick building syndrome. I grew up in a duplex, my mom warned us that the walls have ears. Now the walls can have lungs too. Germany-based Blücher Technologies has created a material called Saratech Permasorb Wallpaper that removes toxins embedded in wall [...]
Earth’s dust storms and sand storms are becoming more frequent. How does that affect your health? Here in the Middle East, powerful hot winds sometimes drop fine yellowish sand down from the sky, coating the skin and lips irritatingly and making it hard to see across the street. It’s the lashing tail of giant storms [...]
In occasion of World Oceans Day, Green Prophet provides you with some tools for some (much needed) marine activism. What does sea water mean for you? What memories do you have of swimming in the sea? If you were in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf 15 to 20 [...]
Down side of crop dusting is pesticides that cause neurological damage: photo by Alberto Denkberg/Haaretz Air and water pollution in Israel from insecticides, oil and other petroleum-based residues from older gas stations; and other chemicals are feared to be causing neurological damage to people according to new studies. Various forms of insecticides, especially the use [...]
Black plumes go airborne from burning Byblos Carpet Factory fire in Lebanon. Lebanon has had more than its share of various air and surface pollution issues in recent years. Some of these issues have included dumping loads of garbage straight into the Mediterranean; as well as a giant garbage mound in Sidon that is so [...]
Tel Aviv’s mysterious gas smell is nothing compared to Cairo’s annual “black cloud”. Tel Aviv is Israel’s largest city, and at times has been so saturated by car exhaust air pollution environmentalists have sometimes said that people run a serious risk of brain damage if they ride their bicycles there during heavy air pollution days. [...]
Hazy conditions stemming from dust particles that traveled from North Africa to Israel shut down two Israeli airports last week. Last week two airports in Israel had to shut down because the sky was so hazy and visibility was so limited, Haaretz reports. Both the Sde Dor Airport in Tel Aviv and Eilat’s airport shut [...]
Your sandblasted Armani jeans could be killing people. “Distressed” jeans are commonly made by blasting the denim with silica (pictured above) after it has been pressurized into miniscule dust particles. But this fashion trend has been lethal for workers in denim sandblasting factories around the world. In Turkey, İdris Oral has become the 50th factory worker [...]
Time to scale down on Diamond Class sleeping suits? Image via Etihad United Arab Emirates-based airlines, Emirates and Etihad Airways warn of higher ticket prices as they seek to pass on costs of a European Union (EU) aviation carbon trading scheme to passengers. Dubai’s Emirates will spend almost $52 million US this year to purchase [...]
Joshua interviews Israel’s most influential and accomplished environmentalist, Dr. Alon Tal. Where is Israel at in terms of environmental protection? Get the scoop here. Israel has introduced several environmental protections in the last few years, but many problems remain. Although massive social protests swept Israel over the summer, environmental issues were not at the fore. [...]
Cars, pollution, and the uniqueness of Lebanon can’t be forgotten, according to ironic statements by designers, business people, actors and writers in this documentary that intends to open the eyes of the Lebanese youth to the real problems in their society. See sewage flowing into the sea, the garbage mountain at sea, the pillage of [...]
5000 MW by 2015? Iran wants to launch the largest solar power plant in the Middle East. A solar plant is in the works is in Shiraz, Fars. Image via SUNA About 27 people die every day in Tehran, from its shocking levels of air pollution according to our Iranian blogger Mehrdad. Some anti-regime environmentalists, [...]
German-Palestinian society NIJMAH is working on renovating a kid’s playground using natural materials and setting up a permaculture garden Permaculture may be new to the Middle East but with Jordan hosting the recent permaculture world conference and various organic farms sprouting up, the region is slowly catching up. In Palestine, there is already a permaculture [...]
Shop till you “drop” at the Jerusalem bus station. Working in a congested bus station, especially one like Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station is not conducive to one’s health. The toxic fumes created by the hundreds of buses that go in and out of this station, and all the free radicals in this air pollution is [...]
According to a report by the World Health Organisation, Iranian cities are the world’s most polluted with some cities registering air pollution 20 times over the recommended upper limit Iran is certainly not scoring a lot of ‘greenie’ points this month. First it hits international headlines for its brutal treatment of environmental activists campaigning to [...]
New rush hour anti-pollution measures may reduce this kind of “morning haze” in major Israeli cities Following plans to ban transport trucks in major cites like Tel Aviv during early morning rush hours, and after the opening of the special toll-run “fast lane” into the country’s largest and most populated city, Israel’s Transport Ministry is [...]
We pay for barbecued meat with our health Every year the air pollution rises steeply during Israel’s Independence Day, where even people with vegetarian (or vegaware) leanings have a sudden urge to fry ground beef “kebabs” on the mini BBQ grill sold at minimarkets and basically tossed out after use. But the effects of man’s [...]
A leading Muslim group denies the Cairo municipality’s request to relocate graves in the crowded city. Following the success of Al-Azhar park in Cairo, also known as the city’s lungs, the municipality looked to cemeteries as possible venues to develop more community parks in Egypt’s crowded capital. But Dar Al-Ifta, the research institute tasked with [...]
The biggest environmental concerns of the residents of Tehran are air pollution and water quality. The public awareness of environmental problems is of great importance in today’s societies. It is somehow more important than the governmental privileges. In Iranian society, this awareness is in shadow of political, economic and social issues, which look more substantial [...]
Bahrain is set to become a smoker’s haven; no matter where they go, smokers will have their own little cabin. When I used to smoke, a long long time ago, every so often I’d find myself jonesing in an airport. I’d look over at the glass-encased smoking cabins with dread. Was it really worth subjecting [...]
Two Israeli researchers have discovered a link between air pollution and stock returns. Days with poor air quality may be hurting more than merely your asthmatic nieces and your uncles and aunts with emphysema and your descendants. Now its even hurting your Wall Street stock traders, by affecting their ability to deal with risks.
One unexpected consequence of the riots is cleaner air, because fewer factories are running. Amid the turmoil and disappointment of Egyptian President Mubarak’s refusal to leave Egypt despite ongoing and increasingly desperate protests, an unexpected consequence has emerged. Infamous for its stultifying smog, Cairo is packed with factories and cars that create an unhealthy breathing [...]
Polluting factories will be relocated out of Cairo at their own expense. Will they simply trash their new home? Or will the government encourage them to clean up their act? Widely criticized for its smog and congestion, despite its central, green “lung” – the Al-Azhar park – Cairo is desperate to clean up its city. [...]
Commuters will ride for free. But will the toll-run “fast lane” help solve Tel Aviv’s increasing traffic nightmare? Looking for a faster way to get to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem every day? Instead of being stuck in the daily traffic jam, a daily routine for drivers coming from both Israel’s capital and the bedroom communities [...]
Passed in the summer of 2008, Israel’s Clean Air Act went into effect this month. As with its neighboring Middle Eastern countries, things can be slow moving in Israel sometimes. Maybe its a regional thing. But better later than never. While it would have been great if Israel’s Clean Air Act went into effect back [...]
With so many flat roofs across the Middle East, surely the region is ripe for a bit of rooftop gardening? Recent reports that people in the Gaza Strip are embracing rooftop gardening has got us thinking about the urban gardening phenomena and it’s relevance to the Middle East. Whilst growing your own maybe something greenies [...]
Millions are choking as Iran calls for Tehran’s third smog holiday day in 2 weeks. One “brilliant” solution is mass migration of the wealthy class to a new location. Image via AP. Yay, I used to say as a kid when we’d get snowed in for school. A surprise overnight “dump” could paralyze our small [...]
Middle East cities started “compact” and dense but now suffer from the same problems as the west. Tehran’s recent Smog Holidays show’s us something is wrong in Middle East cities. “Is compact urban growth good for air quality?” The research conducted by Brian Stone, Adam C. Mednick, Tracey Holloway, and Scott N. Spak in 2007 [...]
In the West, leaves are falling from the trees. In the Middle East, Fall means the return of the throat-burning smog which settles over Cairo, Egypt once again. Rice fields are to blame. Every year a noxious black smog hangs over Egypt as the seasonal burning of rice straw by farmers begins, and with it [...]
A look at the air pollution in Esfahan, Iran. Cars and the clay brick industry are some of the biggest problems. The solution? Take the bus. In 2005 it was announced for the first time that the air pollution of Esfahan, the third big city of Iran, was in an emergency situation. Since then Esfahan [...]
Trapped air and burning rice waste turns Cairo’s already sullied skies black during “Black Cloud Season” Not long ago I took a trip to the Mediterranean Sea and was appalled that from Cairo’s city center, in the Nile river, to well beyond the pyramids of Giza lie mounting heaps of trash: litter on the side [...]
Lack of urban planning around its natural landscape keeps air pollution locked into the city of Tehran, Iran – one of the most polluted cities in the world. Tehran is one of the most polluted cities of the world –– with higher levels of sulfur dioxide than India and Bangladesh. Air pollution in the Iranian city [...]
The Icelandic volcano has both environmental and economic effects. Some Middle East passengers are stranded in Europe and wonder if it’s time to think about less polluting modes of travel. By ship? As a massive volcanic ash cloud hovers over most of Europe, Gulf-based airlines are increasingly concerned over the potential effects the Icelandic volcano [...]
If you enjoy sweet treats from Cairo, they are about to get sweeter: Cairo sugar co is now greening its emissions by switching to natural gas. Abu Dhabi’s Masdar energy and development company is helping to further make the Middle East more green by signing a 10 year CO2 Emissions Control Agreement with Egyptian Sugar [...]
There are environmental triggers (hairspray! lipstick!) of common autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, a TAU researcher reports. Our immediate environment interacts with our genetic programming and can determine if we will succumb to an autoimmune disease, says rheumatologist Prof. Michael Ehrenfeld of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine, who is seeking to unravel those mysteries. [...]