Turkey’s booming aviation industry is planning new development that will wipe out over half a million old-growth trees. Istanbul aims to build its third airport on nearly a square kilometer of previously pristine forest in the northern, European part of the city, on Lake Terkos near the Black Sea. With six runways and an annual [...]
Didn’t Azerbaijan just claim to be building the world’s tallest tower? Abu Dhabi Group will construct the world’s tallest building in Pakistan. It’s the stuff of dreams. Let’s hope it stays that way. The project will surpass Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building in Dubai) as part of a $45 billion national investment by Pakistani [...]
Loggers get $5 a tree in Syria now that the heat of conflict is on, and the cold winter has set it in. In Darkush, Syria, civilians must turn to their environment for the basic need of warmth. Day after day, freezing temperatures prevail, and tree after tree is cut down. The national park to [...]
A UK-based scientist has removed trees from world famous works of art to highlight the threat of deforestation In the field of climate change, we are constantly asked to imagine nightmarish scenarios. Situations where water may run dry, where mass migrations are provoked by food shortages or where extreme weather events on the rise. These [...]
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 [...]
Hayrettin Karaca, 90, faces up to six years in prison for championing the environmental causes to which he has devoted his life. Turkey is not a country where environmental awareness is terribly high. But one man has done more to solve this problem, as well as the forces that threaten Turkey’s natural habitats, than almost [...]
An Islamic bank in Jordan, Sanabel, has bought up over a quarter of a Congo forest for ‘sustainable projects’ When I first read about the acquisition of 500,000 hectares of high value forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo by an Islamic investment bank in Jordan, I thought one thing: land grab. Over the last [...]
British Muslim environment campaign Trees4Life explains why Islam encourages tree planting, with hopes to to reduce carbon emission and reforest Middle Eastern/Asia regions, in an exclusive Green Prophet interview.
The Groasis Waterboxx inventions provides the perfect micro-climate for plants to grow in dead zones - deserts and mountain slopes. Read how it works.
Despite a campaign by environmentalists to protect the Ajloun forest in Jordan, 300 trees will be uprooted to make way for a military academy Back in January 2011, Jordanian environmentalists launched a campaign to help protect Ajloun forest from a development project which would have seen 2,200 trees cut down across 45 dunums of land. [...]
Is biofuel from the Jatropha tree- which Jordan is experimenting with- really as green and sustainable as we think? In a recent article, I debated whether we should encourage the Middle East to embrace biofuels as a real and sustainable alternative to the region’s current dependence on gas and oil. It followed an announcement from [...]
The campaign to stop the destruction of 2,200 trees in Jordan’s Ajloun forest gathers pace as the government states it now will assess the environmental impact of the proposed development project In response to the demands of the ‘Halt Ajloun Deforestation’ campaign, the Jordanian government announced it will now carry out an assessment of the [...]
Muslim starts sustainable tree planting operation to make Ethiopia green once again. Visiting Ethiopia after a thirty year absence, Geshaw Tahir an Ethiopian-born Muslim was struck by one thing. The green landscapes and trees that once surrounded his home had all but disappeared and were replaced with dry fields, eroded and ruined after years of deforestation. [...]
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah adds environmental stewardship to its political platform. In order to reach the populace in the Middle East, where environmental awareness has not yet reached the pinnacle necessary to combat problems such as pollution and waste, Islamic leaders have met several times to suss out religious mandates to maintain ecological integrity. [...]
Over 500 people from 50 countries will join the Third Annual International Conference on “Drylands, Deserts and Desertification: The Route to Restoration,” on November 8-11, 2010. Although their own water problems are far from over, Israel has mastered techniques that are crucial to desert survival. In addition to developing among the most advanced irrigation procedures, [...]
The first Arab country to create one, Morocco’s new charter provides a blueprint for environmental protection and sustainable energy production. In a first for the Arab world, the Moroccan government announced a National Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development, becoming the first African country to launch any such ambitions. It is part of the country’s [...]