Quick! What’s the best wedding you ever attended? Youtube archives threaten to break the internet with flash mob proposals, bridal party dance antics, and epic fail toasts. Meet a young Turkish couple that refreshingly flipped their big day on its head, making a naturally narcissistic milestone into something all about others. They invited 4,000 Syrian refugees […]
Back in high school we bought a few acres of rainforest in Brazil – to save it. To stop illegal logging. To preserve biodiversity. Instead of buying just an acre or two or a few hundred, a researcher from Israel has a plan to save the world’s biodiversity – by buying 1.4% of the planet […]
Science is a great thing, I think we can all agree on that. Science makes our every day lives easier in ways we might not even recognize – by keeping our food fresh, our water clean, our air at a temperature we can bear. It allows us to keep in touch with our loved ones […]
The press has been flooded with a sensational prediction about a mini ice age coming our way in a few years. Sounds funny since we are also in the middle of global warming, right? A team of researchers at the Northumbria University in the UK, led by Professor Valentina Zharkova, have predicted a 60% fall […]
Big agriculture is mainstream in the US, but growing our food has a long history. Until now, researchers believed farming was “invented” some 12,000 years ago in the Cradle of Civilization — Iraq, the Levant, parts of Turkey and Iran — an area that was home to some of the earliest known human civilizations. A […]
Two 2,000-year-old sling stones were mysteriously dropped in the courtyard of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures (MINEC) in Be’er Sheva last week. Also called “sling bullets”, this ancient ammunition dates back to Neotlithic times, famously used by David in his romp against Goliath. The bag packed with these particular stones included an anonymous note that read, “They […]
Following an international trend pressuring large food chains to think local and source local food, Autogrill, the multinational company known for its motorway and airport restaurants in 30 countries, is partnering with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (or the FAO) to do just that. The chain of restaurants will cut down food waste […]
The Pope has come out, some might argue too late, with his treaty for Climate Change. How can faith leaders, or at least the Church position itself in the face of massive species die-offs, and the change in the way of life as we know it? Can the Pope’s Encyclical, the treaty itself, aims to […]
As I strolled through the aisles of a large supermarket chain recently, I was overwhelmed by the quantity of mass-produced, industrialized food products lining the shelves. Stacks and stacks of processed food items, replete with refined, nutrient-devoid, artificially preserved, chemically altered and/or genetically modified ingredients, as well as produce grown using environmentally and biologically hazardous […]
Pope Francis has penned an official text on the environment, the product of a year’s worth of writing. Yesterday, an Italian news site leaked an early draft and Vatican officials cried foul. One, speaking to Bloomberg News on Monday, called the premature release of the papal encyclical a “heinous act”. The official release is on Thursday. So […]
An inaugural Interfaith Eco Slam is happening in Nachla’ot, Jerusalem tonight, hosted by the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) and Rabbi Yonatan Neril. Get yourself to the rooftop of 49 Rechov Shabazi for a night of spoken-word poetry that bridges religion and ecology. The event is in honor of World Environment Day, which rolls in tomorrow.
Wild animals shouldn’t live in palaces, connected to leashes and paraded around streets in the Gulf Region like they are trophies. Dolphins shouldn’t be captured to live in cramped, private pools (read this story on the 4 dolphins living in a filthy pool). Elephants shouldn’t be killed for tusks, or wild birds kidnapped from the […]
Feral dogs are commonplace in Istanbul, but a sharp-eyed American noticed a particular surge in the number of pedigreed golden retrievers on the streets. She observed that the breed was increasingly popping up in shelters too. Thanks to her networking with a US-based rescue center, three dozen of the dogs have now been saved and are now […]
“I am the dishes, the ironing, I am everything, I am nothing. But remind me: Who are you?” So plays the hook of a new feminist anthem released by the Palestinian rappers, DAM. The video for “Who You Are” plays on sexist attitudes by having men and women switch domestic roles typical in the Middle East, but also familiar […]
In the large atrium of Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi, parents, children, staff and tourists are just some of the shoppers that can be found. Only they aren’t shopping – they’re planting small trees. Close by, other visitors stand armed with paint brushes a paint pots, coloring in a large globe. The activities all […]
With the weather heating up more people are going to be heading to the sea for a big cool down. Boating, jetskiing, sailing, paragliding at sea. Spending the day at sea is a very low-carbon footprint activity, and it can be greener – especially if you make your own natural tea sunscreen (check out our […]
Travel to the Middle East has never been a better deal than now – in terms of economics (deep-discounted hotels and holiday packages), weather (blizzards have all blown by and crushing heat is still months away), and – in most of the region’s top touristic venues – political stability. All my view based on four […]
Oryx, giraffes and cheetahs – species once facing regional extinction – are making a robust reappearance on a desert island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahayan, founder of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), created the remote nature reserve in 1971. Forty years after Sir Bani Yas island received its first ‘imported’ […]
For the past two decades a 70-year old man lived in a cave in northern Jordan, alone with no water or power or reliable access to food, exposed to the elements and wild animals. An unidentified caller contacted radio station Amen FM to alert them to the modern caveman. Last Thursday the kingdom’s Public Security Department […]
Abu Dhabi police unveiled their latest acquisition cop car, a Rolls Royce Phantom tricked out in purple and white, the colors of the state police force. It’s the newest addition to the fleet of United Arab Emirates (UAE) police supercars.
Young men in United Arab Emirates have jumped on a bizarre, and weirdly “green” addiction, passing on cigarettes and sheesha to smoking dead ants to get high. They crush local black ants (Pachycondyla sennaarensis) and blend the crumbs in tobacco, drop them into a medhwak (smoking pipe) or sprinkle them on regular smokes before lighting up, according to Gulf […]
A cargo ship bound for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with about 350 cattle on board sank off the south coast of Oman mid-afternoon last Saturday. The ship was heading to Somalia when it ran into trouble off Sur in the province of Asharqiyah Local media reports the ship may was probably overloaded, causing it to […]
Forget coffins. At least the traditional ones. That was the idea we explored in a recent post on green burials, but that story overlooked a new product in the mortuary arts tool kit that takes burial full circle. The Capsula Mundi project by Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel is an organic, biodegradable burial capsule that directly […]
Food designer Chloé Rutzerveld has developed a concept for 3D-printed snacks that sprout plants and mushrooms from edible soil housed within a pastry or pasta shell. She envisions a day when your local grocer could print you out a takeaway boxful, and about 4 days later they’ll grow into lunch. In the burgeoning field of futuristic […]
Who says you can’t have your cup and eat it too? The maker of those chicken-like products sworn to be “finger-lickin’ good” is testing a range of 100% edible containers for takeaway coffee. Fast food giant KFC will be testing its new coffee cups in Britain this summer. Called “Scoff-ee” (a wordplay meaning “to eat […]
