Gulf carriers are ready for the new EU carbon regulations, with 70 orders pending for the 20% more energy-efficient Boeing Dreamliner. From January next year, all airlines wishing to land and take off in Europe will have to buy permits under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to help cover the carbon cost of all […]
Spinning for a car-free day in Tripoli, Lebanon. Though not clear of cars, the streets were considerably less congested and polluted. Like in many Middle Eastern cities, walking the streets of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon is an assault on the lungs. Battered, old taxis dart and crawl along the cramped roads, oozing billows of pungent […]
Imagine a rapidly growing tourist paradise, but set in the path of a "freeway" line of oil tankers constantly moving through the Gulf region, shipping out a third of the world's oil, polluting the coastline, and you can begin to imagine the scope of the problem assessed by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Toronto.
Students from the American University of Cairo designed SLIDES – a solar-powered modular home that is slated to compete in next years Solar Decathlon, but lack of financial support could keep this groundbreaking project from being realized. When students from the American University of Cairo were accepted to compete in the 2012 Solar Decathlon design […]
Dutch Docklands proposes floating islands as an alternative to developing Dubai’s “The World” artificial islands We can’t think of anything more unfortunate than getting stuck with an artificial island (like this one that Israel proposes to build off Gaza). But investors who bought one of 300 “countries” off the coast of Dubai will be happy […]
Gaziantep is the only city in Turkey with its own climate change action plan. Everything from sustainable agriculture to waste-to-energy technology will be on the agenda today, as dozens of mayors, academics, and NGO representatives assemble in Istanbul for the 2011 Sustainable Cities conference, a project of Turkey’s Regional Environment Center. Municipalities often accomplish environmental goals […]
Greenpeace Israel calls on Jerusalem and other municipalities to stop recycling their promises and start recycling trash. Recycling has improved over the past decade in Israel. Hiria, a large garbage dump in Tel Aviv, has transformed into a recycling center, metals are starting to be recycled, and some urban recycling bins have become targets for […]
A huge hydro-wind hybrid power station will double Morocco’s entire installed hydropower capacity – and be a world’s first. Morocco is developing a project that will be the largest in the world to combine two natural clean power allies, wind and water, in a hybrid power project rated at a little over 1 GW (1,070 […]
What do the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Arab Spring have in common? A desire for radical change The Arab Spring protests which swept through the Middle East show us that despite years of apathy, humans do have the ability to make radical changes. As such, the difficult decisions we need to take to avoid the […]
Philips has created a plastic, urban beehive. Honey, I am home! When I told my husband that I want to build an urban beehive on the roof, he thought I’d flown the coop. It’s enough that we have 15 chickens running around the urban homestead. Bees sting, he reminded me. I, like many other “informed” […]
In memory of the murdered Nigerian environmental activist who campaigned against Shell, we look at the importance of environmental action in the Middle East On the 10th of November 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa who had campaigned against the environmental devastation caused to the Niger Delta by oil companies such as Shell, was hanged by the Nigerian […]
After having a hefty meal at the restaurant on the top of the World’s Tallest Building in Dubai… you excuse yourself from the table and head to the W.C…and without even thinking about it, you flush the toilet. Where does the poop go? We wish we could take credit for being the first to ask […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILlF34KJMJw[/youtube]Take a new tour through the Masdar Institute with this video. Modeling traditional Arabic cities and using old innovation like windcatchers, Masdar has become an expensive showcase for sustainable living in the Middle East. The above video gives a tour of some of the renewable energy initiatives there, like heliostats, and its pod cars. I […]
Helios, the sun god of ancient Greece could help Greece get out from under. Here’s a surprise twist. The economic woes in Europe due to Greek debt may result in Greece supplying huge amounts of cheap solar power for Europe, by way of paying back its debts, but in the process creating rivalry with Desertec, the […]
Walk in a car-free Tripoli this Sunday. Be prepared for some carbon monoxide withdrawal in Tripoli: Air pollution is Lebanon is getting bad. Local youths have appealed to the Environment Ministry to close the city to cars this coming Sunday. While it is documented that car-less cities and suburbs like Vauban in Germany may bring […]