As if the Arabian Peninsula needs an import of desert dust from east Africa. Marvel at the image captured by NASA‘s Aqua satellite of a huge plume of airborne dust covering the red sea. The image was captured at 2:05 pm local time on June 15, 2016. The plume appears to be traveling east-northeast out […]
This year’s World Environment Day (WED) put a high beam on illegal trade of wildlife. Event sponsor, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), called on everyone to “go wild for life” and take action to help safeguard species under threat. In Saudi Arabia, a team of environmentalists and corporate volunteers took to a beach along […]
Eight pounds in as many weeks. Painlessly (and surprisingly) gone. Not enough to drop a dress size, but enough to send me hunting for a belt. And I credit…mindful eating. After a lifetime of core health beliefs built on the twin towers of eating less and moving more, this stuns me. Does it really come […]
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) last March defined a plan to create a team of refugee athletes to compete in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro summer Olympics, a scheme first announced at the United Nations (UN) in October, as record numbers of migrants and refugees fled war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. IOC […]
The sheer horror of it was understandable when the first photos of deformed infants began appearing in local and international news reports. Perhaps not as deadly as Ebola, which was considered to be “out of control” in parts of West Africa in 2014, the Zika virus, said to be carried by a once common mosquito, Aedes aegypti (photo […]
Used for perfumes, rose water; and for flavoring sweets like Turkish Delight, Syria’s famed Damask Rose, once championed by romanticists like William Shakespeare, is experiencing hard times due to the ongoing war in its native land. Although also grown in Turkey, Iran and other countries, the 30-petaled Damask rose, which achieved its most fame in areas of Syria near […]
Controversial weedkillers sold by Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow face an uncertain future after a European Union (EU) committee failed to reach consensus on new licensing for glyphosate, the primary ingredient across all brands. It is the second time the European Commission stalled on re-approval, and may result in a recall of the products from all […]
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael or in English, Jewish National Fund (KKL- JNF), is the Israel-based non-profit founded on principals of land reclamation and afforestation. This group has announced a new undertaking that will serve dual ambitions of stewardship over the environment, and its most vulnerable people. At a press event in Brussels recently, KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny […]
I don’t care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees… this was the Joni Mitchell song in the 70s when DDT was a common pesticide. It may be banned in America but its effects linger on. Then there are entire classes of pesticides that are believed to be killing us in […]
Israel is smoking hot when it comes to tech start-ups, fashion, and vegetarian cuisine, but yesterday it showed signs of getting too hot for its own good. Air temperatures topped 46 degrees Celsius (nearly 115 degrees Fahrenheit) in Eilat, a record high for the Red Sea resort town according to the Israel Meteorological Service. The […]
A recent study released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) concludes that the current drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant – which includes Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey – is the region’s worst dry spell since 1100 C.E.
The conflict in Syria happening now was predicted six years ago by water and climate scientists. New research from Germany says climate refugees from the Middle East will be fleeing for cover in the near future. The number of climate refugees will likely increase dramatically in future. Researchers of The Cyprus Institute and the Max […]
Reclaimed or grey water is touted as a great means to save and reuse water where water resources are thin. A new study from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem makes us want to think twice about saving precious water: researchers studied the vegetables grown in reclaimed water and found traces of human pharmaceuticals used for treating […]
The weeks that girdled Christmas and New Year’s had me living like a fois gras goose, endlessly stuffed with food and drink as my family raced from Jordan to England to the US for clan-centric rituals ranging from a funeral to a birthday, with the usual winter holidays in between. I recently scanned the snapshots, […]
The world’s increasingly polluted seas and oceans, as well as rising sea levels, are now becoming a sad reality as Mankind’s contribution is becoming increasingly evident. Whether this causes massive fish die-offs, or other ecological catastrophes like toxic coast pollution, more and more of the world’s environmental problems are being linked to human caused abuse of natural resources. Israel’s long […]
Just in time for St. Paddy’s Day, scientists from Dublin and Belfast have evidence that stone age Irish settlers had genetic origins in the Middle East. Thank the Vikings for the DNA that gave rise to red hair and freckles, introduced when they invaded the island nation at the end of the eighth century. But […]
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced yesterday the formation of a new, nation-less team of athletes cleared to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil this summer. According to a statement released on the IOC website, the all-refugee team will be treated the same as the other teams representing the 206 National […]
Google did a doodle marking the 151st birthday of the pharmacist who helped us navigate the chili peppers, the tiny veggie with the power to drop diners to their knees. Wilbur Scoville was the first person to measure the heat of peppers. His heat scale is still in use today, scoring the piquancy of peppers. (What […]
It’s all the rage. Eating Paleo, or like Paleolithic man has benefits, adherents to the New Age diet claim (here are 5 steps to going on a Paleo Diet). But while Paleo people cite red meat as part of the mainstay of their diet (eating what ancient Paleolithic man was supposed to eat), I have […]
Soup for Syria is a beautiful new cookbook of delicious and easy-to-make recipes guaranteed to fill your belly and feed your mind with heightened humanitarian awareness. But at its heart it is a cookbook, a perfect primer for any cook seeking healthy and flavorful food made with no-fuss ingredients (mostly vegetarian) found in supermarkets everywhere.
Does nature have a marketing problem? Headlines about climate change, extreme weather, and their catastrophic impacts to the built environment are overwhelming. It’s easy to feel helpless and at a loss for meaningful action. So the folks at a Colorado-based grassroots environmental group decided to do a bit of alchemy, mixing beautiful images of the natural […]
Global climate talks expected to close today in Paris have extended into Saturday, according French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Appearing last night on French BFMTV he said that he would present a new compromise text for a deal to combat global warming on Saturday morning. The extra day of negotiations aims to reach accord between the […]
While UN climate-conference delegates seek ways to cut world reliance on high-carbon fuels like oil, OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) confirmed that it would keep producing oil at current levels, estimated in excess of 31 million barrels a day, despite prices that continue to plummet. Arab activists are on the case. Earlier […]
This year’s Conference of the Parties, known as COP21, may turn out to be the one that finally addresses the ravages of human caused climate change. Or will it? COP21 comes on the heels of some of the worst climate issues that humankind has experienced in recent years; including intense typhoons and hurricanes; and crazy Middle East […]
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) must keep pace with the rest of the world and push for a future fully powered by renewable energy, says IndyACT, the leading Arab non-governmental organization working on climate change policy.