Jewish American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak died last week, at age 83. The acclaimed master of kid-lit once said, “I don’t write for children. I write. And someone says, ‘That’s for children.'” Best known for his 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak spoke through guileless prose and vivid imagery. Simple messages beautifully imagined: […]
If you’re anything like me, you never memorized the periodic table and probably never will, but understanding what its symbols represent is becoming increasingly important – because many of them are running out. Enter 94 Elements, a global filmmaking project which aims to create beautiful short films that depict the every day, personal uses of […]
Paying homage to a slower time, Turkey’s first nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk has immortalized the importance of everyday objects in The Museum of Innocence. Among the world’s most unique collections, the museum that opened last month in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district contains 83 cabinets full of bits and pieces collected in flea markets and antique […]
Does goes on a mission to find out what typifies an Egyptian environmentalist. A few months ago Egypt was named the greenest country in the Middle-East by a Yale group, even topping neighbouring Israel. It even turned out to be one of the best improving countries in the world. If you ever visited it, this might sound […]
Traditional Lag B’Omer bonfires pose an environmental and safety hazard. Here’s how to enjoy the holiday and still stay green. Few can resist the lure of a crackling bonfire in the dark. Children certainly can’t. Tonight, Wednesday the 9th of May, fires will go up in empty lots, parks, and beaches all over Israel. On Mt. […]
Available in English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian, the Israeli government launches a new go green game to learn about saving the earth. Israel’s Environmental Protection Agency recently launched a free online game and iphone application called Thinking Green, aimed at promoting eco-conscious consumerism. It is part of the Ministry’s Think Green campaign. The application (although […]
My children, living a world apart in Hoboken and Amman, find the same goofy YouTube clips, only to learn their cousins in California and England already hit those same sites. Today’s instant communication is marvelous to someone who remembers rotary phones and punched card programming. I discovered Facebook page GreenWorldOne (GWO) on a single day when my daughter, […]
Gundeep Singh hasn’t exactly gone from riches to rags, but he has turned over a green leaf and is determined to help others do the same. Formerly a banking executive who owned a yacht and porsche, the Dubai-based man has switched to a hybrid vehicle and founded The Change Initiative, the first shop in Dubai […]
Can gardens really help promote environmentally friendly behaviour amongst the Muslim community? Mark Bryant from Cardiff University who researches Islam and gardens, says they can There’s nothing like being with nature to help clear your mind and when the weather is as lovely as it has been recently, who can resist spending a couple of […]
You need half a box of flimsy tissues in Jordan to get the job done. Is there a greener way to dry your hands? Use more than a single sheet of paper towel per day – prefolded singles, the kitchen kind with perforated tear lines, or auto-cut by dispensers – and you’re a paper towel overconsumer. You know who […]
It’s estimated that the environmental impact of a single “eReader” (Kindle, iPad…) equals that of 100 books. Whether the motivation is to truly improve environmental performance, or simply garner positive press, seems every business is jumping on the low carbon bandwagon. Nowhere is exempt from the pressure to green up, not even the beleaguered (and […]
Few ideas are more absurd to me than this: because people refuse to cut back on beef consumption, catastrophic levels of methane are being released into the atmosphere each year. Even Forbes wrote in a recent report that cutting back on meat is one of the fastest ways we can slash our carbon emissions and […]
Math helps us understand how people flow, and just maybe it could help Hajj pilgrims stay safe. A Californian jogs to the beach. Coming towards him on the sidewalk is a Texan. Unless one steps aside they’ll collide. Quick: which way does the jogger move? If this is in Europe or the USA, heavy odds he […]
I speak to historian Relli Shechter about smoking in Egypt, consumerism and why the Middle East still has a long way to go before it embraces sustainability When we think of consumerism and the consumer society, the Middle East is not the first thing to come to mind. Wall St, Las Vegas, London, China – […]
Despite periodic volunteer clean up efforts, much of Israel’s beach front suffers from public littering Lawyer Amit Bracha, director of Israel’s Union for Environmental Defense, was a recent guest on Israel’s Channel 10 morning TV show, speaking on the official opening of beach season for 2012. Bracha told the program moderators that despite greater efforts […]