Natural gas drilling near Cyprus could affect lucrative tourism industry says its commerce minister. Drilling for natural gas by Israel in the eastern Mediterranean has already resulted in undersea territorial disputes between Israel and Lebanon, resulting in the United Nations deciding to mediate the dispute between the two countries. Besides the environmental concerns of this […]
We speak to the Lebanese eco-campaigner Wael Hmaidan about corporate funding of green organisations in the Middle East and finding solutions In a previous post, I posed some questions about green groups in the Middle East receiving funding from not-so-green corporations. Is it a good thing if they are working together to protect nature? Or […]
Telling Mediterraneans not to eat cucumbers is like taking baguettes away from Parisians. At least 10 people have died, and one thousand more expected to be ill from eating tainted organic cucumbers and other fresh produce consumed in Germany. Contaminated with a rare and deadly form of E.coli, a bacteria, the organic cucumbers are causing […]
The three winners from the Middle East/MENA region are Tunisia, Bahrain and Qatar in new survey on tourism trends. The recently released 2011 “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness”report by the World Economic Forum, in co-operation with Booz & Company, reveals some interesting dynamics in the global tourism industry, including a shift to the East, with Central and […]
Smoking has become the norm in downtown Beirut. Last month, a group of women activists posing as pregnant women with faces covered with masks, staged a protest in Downtown Beirut against the delay by a parliamentary committee to finalize a long awaited law to ban smoking in closed public spaces and end unregulated cigarette advertisements, […]
Abandoned Fukushima “dead zone” dog: its face says it all! The radiation, sadly, lingers in its fur. With escalating rates of radiation, and an upgrade to 7 in terms of severity, it’s not only humans who have suffered from Japan’s 9 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and radiation leakage in northeastern Japan. Thousands of dogs, cats, and […]
The animals rights organisation ‘Animals Lebanon’ has called on the government to deal with stray dogs in a more humane manner The lack of animals rights in the Middle East is an issue we have discussed here at Green Prophet. We reported on the horses left to die during the revolution in Egypt, the poor […]
As a new political order struggles to assert itself in the autocratic states of the Middle East novel challenges – and possibilities – emerge. In looking toward the future, social Greens throughout the region would do well to coordinate an agenda geared toward a sustainable tomorrow.
Istanbul – a major hub for train travel across the Middle East Survey results published this week reveal that the majority of international travelers would prefer to take trains instead of aeroplanes, if they had the opportunity. The poll of 300 consumers, conducted for train technology company Silverrail, showed that 79% would choose trains over […]
This image is of a former oil spill in Lebanon Despite the best-laid laws, lack of enforcement is a leading cause of preventable environmental hazards in the Middle East. Egypt regularly has oil spills in the Nile and the Red Sea because of lax regulations. This week’s kerosene spill off Lebanon’s eastern Mediterranean (already an […]
Garbage dumps roll into the sea? Rola suggests ways for energy intensive Lebanon to help ease its waste and energy problems. As Lebanon enters another waste crisis in the cities of Sidon and Tyre, with reportedly thousands of tons of waste piled up on the streets, the country finds itself once again looking for an […]
Lebanon Graphic Designer, Leen Sadder, shares with us the design and environment issues behind 'THIS Miswak', an organic and toothpaste-free toothbrush that's also a Muslim tradition. Check out what Leen has to say to critics in this exclusive Green Prophet interview.
Petrol and electricity are considered birth-rights, even God-sent in the Arab world. How can this reality compete with the use of renewables? Grid parity, the point when the cost of power generated from renewable energy resources become equal or cheaper than conventional power costs, is around the corner for many countries. In the Arab world […]
It started with cotton and oil: the Middle East oppressed now seek freedom and a future. image via AP The autocratic rule now being challenged in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East has its roots in the state system that developed in the region during the twentieth century. This system is based on […]
Bolster your New Year’s food resolutions with seven recycled titles: largely published before 2011 but still relevant. Eating sustainably can make a huge impact on our planet. Dig in. 1. Eating Animals (Penguin, 2011) Part memoir, part science: novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s takes a philosophical look at how we justify what we eat . Prepare […]