Heavy rain pummeled Jeddah this week, a Saudi Arabian city on the Red Sea, flooding streets, submerging cars, and closing schools. At least two people died, and hundreds were left stranded. Critics credit poor urban planning for the city’s inability to cope with unusual precipitation. Others argue that the event is a wake-up call to […]
The full effects of Hurricane Irma have still to be realized; as this monster storm has already left a trail of unprecidented devistation in the Caribbean with small island communities being almost totally damaged. Huge “super typhoons” in the Pacific ocean basin have recently caused similar mayhem in the Philippines, Taiwan, coastal China and Japan. With all […]
Following US president Donald Trump’s announcement that his country will pull out of the Paris climate change agreement, scientists and governments the world over have been wondering if agreed goals of reduced world temperatures are now attainable. This apprehension is particularly high in the Middle East, where summertime temperatures in countries like Iraq now surpass 50 […]
The ravaging effects of global warming and climate change appear to be rocking on unabated. These include monster typhoons and other adverse weather patterns; and severe Middle East drought conditions that NASA says to be “the worst in 900 years”. The important issue now is what the major world bodies can do to slow down the affects […]
Concern for our planet due to human caused climate change is definitely not a new subject. Even deceased arch terriorist Osama bin Ladin blamed the U.S. for causing climate change; saying that Arab countries are getting drier due to this. Climate change is also being attributed for rapidly melting Arctic ice caps that are literally rocking world weather […]
America has quit the Paris climate agreement and today’s newsfeeds are bloated with global reaction. Shell Oil CEO Ben van Beurden joined green industrialists Elon Musk and Richard Branson in denouncing Trump’s action. The Vatican lobbed a complaint, saying, “”Saying that we need to rely on coal and oil is like saying that the earth […]
Polar vortex, the term attributed to the recent frigid weather patterns that recently put much of North America, Europe and even the Middle East into the deep freeze, is now slated to become even more frequent, due to the increasing melt-down of the earth’s Arctic ice cap. The polar bears are moving south and if you […]
Whether it’s disappearing elephant herds in Botswana (or ones smuggled in suffering at the Abu Dhabi zoo), dying coral reefs in Australia, or near silence of small tropical tree frogs in a Central American rain forest, the vanishing of animal and plant species all over the world is finally being directly attributed to manmade causes. This […]
Let’s get meta. A “force of nature” is defined as a natural phenomenon that is beyond human control. When three Academy Award®-winning celebrities come together on a film, their combined energies could colloquially be called “a force of nature”. Now imagine that their film is about…the forces of nature. This week an astonishing film premiered – […]
Remember that quirky Yael Mer inflatable dress that could save your life when disaster strikes? These floating homes go to the next level: Hurricane Matthew is bearing down on the Caribbean. Would the damage be less devastating if you lived in a floating home? Perhaps, but you’ll have to serve up more than pretty renderings […]
Say hello to the “Anthropocene”, a new geological epoch brought about by humanity’s impact on planet Earth. A team of geologists say that ash from fossil fuels, plastic waste, rising seas (which are triggering a dramatic increase in upland erosion), and radioactive particles littered by nuclear bomb tests are all contributing to permanent changes in Earth’s rocks. […]
A weightlifter from Kiribati is our favorite Olympian. After completing a move called the “clean and jerk lift”, he steps away from the barbell and transitions into jubilant dance. He wasn’t celebrating his sixth-place finish in the 105kg weightlifting competition; he’s not aiming for gold on social media. His message is serious, belying the grin […]
Like Israel and Jordan’s Dead Sea, Iran has it’s own inland salty lake called Lake Urmia. Climate change and dam construction has caused its demise to about 10% of its of former glory. Local protestors who have dared called on the government to fix it have been tied up, beaten and tortured. One trusted source I […]
Used for perfumes, rose water; and for flavoring sweets like Turkish Delight, Syria's famed Damask Rose, or Damascus Rose, once championed by romanticists like William Shakespeare, is experiencing hard times due to the ongoing war in Syria.
Over here in the Middle East we look to the “enlightened West” to show us the ropes –- to set the standards for studying and enforcing climate change goals. What kind of signal does this send to the world when Australia basically lays off 275 climate change researchers, one of whom was John Church, considered […]