Fights over rights to a natural gas field between Israel and the Hezbollah, has gone to the higher powers at the UN. Israel has struck natural gas, and a new cause for conflict with its northern neighbour Lebanon which also lays claim to the massive gas field. The current Leviathan natural gas field dispute between […]
Planning is in full swing for ecoQ, an international environmental protection expo taking place in Qatar in September 2011. (From left to right: Haitham Shehab, Dr. Saif Al Hajari, and a member of the ecoQ team) Next September, the Qatar International Environment Protection Expo (ecoQ for short) will be presenting an international showcase of eco-friendly […]
Policy makers, water experts and peace lovers might be interested in the Strategic Foresight Group’s research on water as a means to resolve conflict in the Middle East. Read about their latest efforts in Jordan. WANA, a North Africa and West Asia forum convened not long ago in Jordan to discuss the environment, a green […]
Deep Economy is probably the first economics book you’ll read that advocates for less economic growth. The book is framed around a simple, yet zealous premise – that what we need is Better rather than More. Author Bill McKibben believes, as do a growing number of economists, that we indeed have to choose between one […]
Persian Gulf environments like Bu Tinah Shoals would be devastated in a regional military conflict. Consider the following scenario: small United Arab Emirate states like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are planning to spend billions of dollars on sophisticated weaponry; when one of their real dangers is the deteriorating state of the Persian Gulf and the […]
Grassroots campaigners claim final victory in fight to preserve open space for the Israeli public. Photo by Michael Green It was over two years ago that Green Prophet first reported on the grassroots campaign to stop developers from paving over one of the last remaining ‘wild’ spaces on central Israel’s coastline: ‘fisherman’s beach’ at Palmachim. […]
Following a site visit conducted as part of a meeting of geographers at Ben-Gurion University last week, Dr. Gotlieb reflects on how appropriate technology, bottom-up planning and goodwill are prerequisites to resolving conflict. For an international group of geographers, a visit to what is known variously as Judea and Samaria, the West Bank – of […]
“Borders, Territory and Conflict in a Globalizing World” was the theme at a conference held in Israel. Experts deliberated on ethnicity, power relations and technology. Dr. Gotlieb emphasizes that such issues must be linked to the environment. The conference engaged specialists from Europe, the US, India, Canada, Russia, Israel and elsewhere on a variety of […]
Libyan bargain hunters look to scoop up shares of BP. Should the world’s environmentalists be concerned? Image of Libyan president al-Gaddafi via Daily Mail News that doesn’t bode well for the environment? Rich Libyan oil barons are vying for a controlling stake in British Petroleum (BP) the UK oil company leaking billions from the Gulf […]
Greenpeace activists from Israel today have boarded the 290-meter long coal ship Orient Venus on the high seas, and have since been arrested, Greenpeace alerts. Joanna Jones, Mor Levy and Jense Loewe arrived in inflatable boats and climbed up the side of the huge vessel. They proceeded to build a camp on the ship’s mast […]
Water bill prices in Israel continue to rise while desalination plans and conservation efforts remain stalled. Image via IDE Technologies. Not long ago the Jerusalem Post reported on a national water scandal that seems to have crept on most of the Israeli public. In the past year water bills have gone up 40 percent. Since […]
As major oil companies pull out of Iran, analysts differ over the import of new economic sanctions. By all objective standards, this week Iran is facing some version of a moment of truth. Responding to the impending imposition of beefed-up United Nations economic sanctions, French oil company Total announced publicly that it was suspending oil […]
BP to go ahead with deepwater drilling in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya, which holds Africa’s largest oil reserves – the 9th largest in the world. Should activists be alarmed? Above: pivot irrigation in the Sahara, paid for by Libyan oil wealth. While a tropical storm approaching the Gulf of Mexico might […]
Will Alaska’s crystal clear lakes quench the thirst of the Middle East? It looks like the old water trading game is once again getting attention. While it formerly involved such schemes as towing icebergs from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia, as well as bringing water in converted tanker vessels from Turkey (which now has a severe […]
The plot thickens: The Egypt Government says Red Sea oil spill is not a rig spill. The warmer weather has just released old oil, now surfacing. Or it’s come from passing tanker. Image via wikipedia BP’s oil spill is a disaster with no end in sight. It only illuminates the alleged Red Sea oil spill, […]