Eco banking, or green investing. It seems to have reached the top of its hype around 2008, or around the time when Coldplay said it would plant a tree for every album sold or downloaded. It was also around the time when the notion of carbon credits would work for our system –– that companies […]
Polar vortex, the term attributed to the recent frigid weather patterns that recently put much of North America, Europe and even the Middle East into the deep freeze, is now slated to become even more frequent, due to the increasing melt-down of the earth’s Arctic ice cap. The polar bears are moving south and if you […]
In the past, your 1st identity used to be your affiliation to a tribe. Your personal identity or your name was only secondary. Your beliefs are only expressions of your tribal beliefs. The idea of carving out a unique identity for yourself, based on the way you understand reality, was something which was considered quite […]
Whether it’s disappearing elephant herds in Botswana, dying coral reefs in Australia, or near silence of small tropical tree frogs in a Central American rain forest, the vanishing of animal and plant species all over the world is finally being directly attributed to manmade causes. This mass nature depletion, despite previous “wake up call warnings” is […]
If you thought the trend in clothing was showing your nips, you couldn’t be more wrong. So, what is the trend you ask? Well, first and foremost–it’s going green! Living a sustainable lifestyle isn’t limited to recycling water bottles and buying a few plants. No! You can choose to go green through your clothing, as […]
Urban farming, whether found in large urban cities like Chicago, or in a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem, is rapidly becoming a worldwide movement. All it really takes is a small, available plot of ground, an accessible rooftop on a warehouse or other urban building; or even a large balcony in a private home for growing a […]
The 2016 Rio Olympics are history, but a hindsight review shows a surprising sideshow of contemporary human issues running through the international athletic games. We’re not talking about substandard construction in the Olympic Village, contaminated water, or violent crime. Instead, we spotted elite athletes using the event to broadcast personal agenda. It makes perfect sense […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is better known for his love of horses than his affinity for sea life. But the Dubai sheik’s new video posted on his junior wife’s Instagram account may change that. The short clip, posted by Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, shows the United Arab Emirates (UAE) VP and Prime Minister and […]
Ever since Buzzfeed-style link-baiting articles took Facebook readers attention the style and quality of online reporting has changed drastically. It’s hard to compete with momentary distraction of kittens and what she did last summer. One way around keeping readers on your web property without linking them out elsewhere is native ads. Though the payment isn’t […]
Michelle Obama has made America’s gardening great and she’s now laying down roots so the gardening tradition will continue even after her family leaves the White House this January. Obama created the garden in 2009, and made sure to expand it twice so it will be hard to plow under by the next family. She’s […]
Local, real food (#realfood) is more than a rage. It’s the new everything in food. After decades of eating shipped-in waxy veggies, greens and fruits, consumers and chefs are demanding a new kind of food. Vegetables and fruits that are local, and full of flavor. We want food with high oil and vitamin content that […]
Amid news of France’s overturned ban of the full-body “burkini” swimsuit, Playboy and Women’s Running magazines featuring women in hijab for the first time the hijab is turning heads and making headlines. The hijab or face-covering for Muslim women needs to be comfortable and sport-relevant says Qatar-based founders of Oola Sportswear. They just launched an Indiegogo campaign that […]
Gotham’s green foliage projects in large urban communities like New York City and Chicago, not only produce year around vegetables; but also help preserve vestiges of former wild pastoral glory. An excellent example of efforts made to put abandoned urban space to good use as a garden park is the High Line urban grasslands park in New York […]
I was shopping online for a candle the other day and quickly realized this: candles have gotten very expensive! Soy candles, aromatherapy candles, eco-friendly candles in fancy jars. If only there was a way to create some nice romantic lighting without breaking the bank. But wait – there is! Introducing the orange peel candle: the […]
When there is nothing left to do, you might as well do something. In Syria, where the war is five years and counting, dancing might be the last thing on anyone’s mind. But for Ahmad Joudeh, it is a priority. Dance is his lifeblood, and he is fueling others with it, too. Joudeh teaches dance […]
Take empathy to a new level by living just like a displaced person. A group of Syrian refugees advertised their camp tent as a rentable destination on Airbnb, offering intrepid travelers “scorpions, dehydration and broken promises”. They describe the Ritsona, Greece refugee camp, about 80 kilometers north of Athens, as “the most unique neighborhood in […]
Today on the streets of Jaffa, where I live, I saw for the first time in my life a woman in hijab (helmet on top) driving her motorbike in full throttle along Jerusalem Boulevard. She was too quick for me (on my peddle bike!) to take a photo. I was pretty proud of her, because […]
I normally write about environmental science and technology but I can’t help but notice when governments and economies behave like damaged environmental systems or unstable high voltage oscillators. Global economies have taxed future generations via inflationary policies and amplified the gap between wealth and poverty. The hot smell of ozone should warn us that a […]
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 […]
This past March Abu Dhabi city has witnessed its most intense rain storm in recent memory. Storms usually do not make it to Arabian cities on the Gulf; they jump on summer monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean only to break on unfortunate shores of Oman. I happened to spend my teens in Abu Dhabi, and the […]
We’ve travelled to Casablanca to see where Bogart gave his favorite lines, to learn the movie wasn’t really filmed there. Many of the movies you see are like this: filmed in studios or in locations only resembling the assumed backdrop. In reality, some of the world’s famous hotels were already famous before the film’s success, while […]
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 […]
So, you care about the environment and ensuring that you play your part in preserving the beauty of nature but how do you go about imparting these lessons to your children? It can be challenging for parents to impart these important lessons to their little ones. As the saying goes, “charity begins at home… ” […]
A new report from the Climate Council of Australia revealed that last year’s global average temperature was the highest since global records began in 1880, with 2015 experiencing its hottest year on record – again – besting the 2014 stats by a jaw-dropping 0.16°C. To paraphrase Paris Hilton, that’s hot.
