Every day, the Middle East’s desalination industry produces more brine than freshwater. Aquifers are drying up and becoming full of brine. Companies like Iyris claim to be able to farm on brackish water, solving part of the problem of access to freshwater. But a a small Saudi startup has found a solution to the problem inside the problem itself.

The math of desalination has long been troubling. Its energy-intensive and polluting. For every gallon of water pulled from the sea, a typical reverse osmosis plant discharges roughly 1.5 times the among of concentrated, chemically laden brine back into the ocean. Multiply that across the Middle East and North Africa, which is the region responsible for more than half of the world’s desalination output, and the scale of brine becomes alarming.

Global brine discharge now exceeds 140 million cubic meters per day, according to a 2019 UN-backed study, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for 22 percent of the world’s total, according to a UN University Institute for Water study. The Arabian Gulf, already naturally one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth at 45 grams of salt per liter compared to a global ocean average nearer 35, is absorbing the consequences.

Into this problem has stepped Qalzam, a Saudi startup with a counterintuitive proposition: the brine is not the problem. It is the raw material.

Founded in Riyadh and incubated at the Saudi Water Innovation Center (SWIC), Qalzam has developed a process to extract sodium hypochlorite (the active compound in chlorine disinfectant) directly from the waste brine produced by reverse osmosis plants. That sodium hypochlorite is then fed straight back into the same plant to disinfect the freshwater it has just produced, closing what Qalzam describes as a circular loop within the desalination process itself. In conventional plants, sodium hypochlorite must be manufactured separately, transported to site, and purchased as a chemical input.

Qalzam eliminates all three steps simultaneously.

The chemistry is not new. Sodium hypochlorite can be generated electrochemically from saline solutions, which is a process long understood in laboratory settings and applied at small scales in wastewater treatment. What Qalzam is engineering is the industrial translation of that process specifically for the high-salinity, high-volume conditions of Gulf desalination, where brine concentrations are substantially higher than those seen elsewhere in the world, and where the scale of operations can make even marginal improvements in cost or chemistry enormously significant.

“The chemicals should be all neutralized,” said Noreddine Ghaffour, a research professor at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), speaking about brine management at Saudi desalination plants more broadly. His comment reflects a growing scientific and regulatory consensus: the era of dumping chemically complex brine into already-stressed marine environments is approaching its limits.

The timing is propitious. Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a global leader in desalination capacity, doubling its output in recent years and announcing $9.33 billion across 60 new projects in its latest expansion.

The Saudi Water Partnership Company is targeting a near-tripling of national desalination capacity to 7.5 million cubic meters per day by 2027. Each new plant that comes online represents both a new source of brine and a potential customer for Qalzam’s on-sitewater

disinfectant solution. The startup has also graduated from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ “Numuw” industrial incubator and accelerator program, giving it institutional credibility at a formative stage.

The wider scientific case for brine valorization is strengthening rapidly. Research published in the journal Water in November 2025 modeled a 100,000-cubic-meter-per-day reverse osmosis facility and found that a sequential brine recovery process could achieve over 90 percent total salt recovery while producing marketable materials including sodium chloride, magnesium hydroxide, and bromine.

The estimated revenue from recovered materials in such scenarios ranges between $4.5 million and $6.8 million per year, potentially offsetting 65 to 90 percent of annual desalination operating costs, with a payback period of three to five years.

Qalzam’s narrower focus on sodium hypochlorite extraction and reuse sits within this broader economic logic but is considerably simpler to implement, requiring no complex mineral separation trains or crystallization equipment. This matters because complexity has consistently been the enemy of adoption in industrial water treatment. The technologies that scale are typically those that integrate cleanly into existing infrastructure rather than requiring its wholesale redesign. A bolt-on electrochemical unit that converts waste brine into a disinfectant that the plant already needs is, in engineering terms, a much easier sell than a full brine-mining operation requiring downstream chemical processing and commodity markets for the outputs.

Beyond the economics, the environmental calculus is straightforward. Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coastline is already under documented ecological stress from brine discharge, with dense, oxygen-depleted plumes affecting benthic marine life near major outfalls. Over in the Red Sea, dolphins, coral reef and at-risk species cannot tolerate more stress on the already noisy and polluted shipping areas.

Any technology that reduces both the volume and chemical load of that discharge addresses a concern that regulators, ecologists, and increasingly the operators themselves recognize as unsustainable at the scale to which the region is building.

Qalzam is still early-stage, with its team small and its first commercial deployments ahead of it. But the company sits at the intersection of three converging forces: a region building desalination capacity at a pace unmatched anywhere on earth (despite the scaling back of Saudis’ Vision 2030 with lowering prices of oil), a scientific community that has spent a decade documenting the harms of brine disposal, and a policy environment.

Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 strategy incentivize circular economy approaches to industrial water management.

The Middle East did not choose to become the world’s desalination laboratory. Geography and hydrology made that decision for it. But the region’s sheer scale of operations means that solutions proven here, including whatever Qalzam refines on the shores of the Gulf, will be exportable to every water-stressed coast on the planet.

Red Sea Farms (now Iyris) who we interviewed here, is a separate but thematically related KAUST spinout worth contextualizing alongside Qalzam, not as partners, but as parallel examples of Saudi water innovation coming out of the same university ecosystem.

Not far away, with Jordan between them, Israel’s IDE Technologies, founded in 1965 and headquartered in Kadima-Zoran, built the Sorek desalination plant south of Tel Aviv, which for years was the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility on earth, producing 624,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day and supplying roughly 20 percent of Israel’s municipal water demand.

Today, desalination supplies over 70 percent of Israel’s domestic water consumption, a figure that has effectively drought-proofed a country that receives less than 200 millimeters of rainfall annually across much of its territory.

::Qalzam

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PFAS — often called “forever chemicals” — are among the most stubborn pollutants on Earth. Used for decades in firefighting foams, industrial coatings, and consumer products, their carbon–fluorine bonds make them extraordinarily persistent in soil, water, and living organisms. Worse, PFAS don’t just stay put. Even at low concentrations, they can be taken up by crops and move through the food chain, with short-chain PFAS proving especially mobile.

A growing body of research suggests that biohacking soil chemistry, rather than removing contaminated soil entirely, may offer a practical way forward. One promising tool: biochar.

A study published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes (27 November 2025) by Jason C. White and colleagues at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station shows that iron-fortified biochar can significantly reduce PFAS uptake in food crops. In controlled soil–plant experiments, iron-modified biochar lowered total PFAS accumulation in radish plants by nearly 50%, and reduced PFAS concentrations in the edible bulb by more than 25%.

The researchers worked with PFAS-contaminated sandy loam soil impacted by legacy firefighting foams. They tested hemp-derived biochar produced at different temperatures, with and without iron fortification. While standard biochar showed mixed results, low-temperature (500 °C) biochar fortified with ~8% iron proved highly effective, immobilizing PFAS and preventing them from moving into plant tissue.

Why iron? Lab analysis revealed that iron fortification dramatically increased biochar’s surface area and pore volume, creating reactive sites that bind PFAS molecules through electrostatic and ligand-exchange interactions. Importantly, the biochar caused no phytotoxic effects and often improved plant growth — a critical factor for agricultural use.

The implications are significant. Instead of costly soil removal or long-term land abandonment, farmers could use iron-enhanced biochar as a soil amendment to lock PFAS in place, reducing human exposure through food. Because biochar can be made from agricultural waste like hemp and applied using existing farming practices, the approach fits neatly within circular-economy and climate-smart agriculture frameworks.

Biohacking soil won’t erase PFAS from the planet. But this research suggests it may help break the chain between polluted land and polluted food — a meaningful step toward safer agriculture in a contaminated world.

How Biochar Is Made

Biochar is produced by heating organic material in a low-oxygen environment so it does not burn. This process, known as pyrolysis, transforms plant matter into a stable, carbon-rich material.

The feedstock can include agricultural residues such as wood chips, crop waste, nutshells, hemp stalks, or manure. These materials are first dried, then heated to temperatures typically ranging from 350 to 700 degrees Celsius in a sealed kiln or reactor where oxygen is limited. Because oxygen is absent, the biomass does not combust; instead, volatile gases are driven off, and the remaining carbon reorganizes into a porous, charcoal-like structure.

Once the heating phase is complete, the material is cooled in low oxygen to prevent ignition. The resulting biochar contains a network of microscopic pores that give it a large surface area and unique chemical properties. These pores allow biochar to retain water, nutrients, and contaminants when added to soil.

Biochar can also be engineered after production. It may be steam-activated to increase surface area, fortified with minerals such as iron to bind pollutants, or “charged” with compost or nutrients before soil application. When applied correctly, biochar can persist in soil for hundreds to thousands of years.

How Biochar Is Different From Coal

Although biochar and coal may look similar, they are fundamentally different materials with very different roles in the carbon cycle.

Coal is a fossil fuel formed from ancient plant matter that was buried and transformed under heat and pressure over millions of years. It is mined from the ground and burned for energy, releasing carbon that has been locked away since prehistoric times. Coal often contains sulfur, heavy metals, and other impurities, and its primary purpose is combustion.

Biochar, by contrast, is made from recent plant material and produced intentionally in modern systems over hours or days. It is not designed to be burned. Instead, biochar is meant to remain stable in soil, where it can improve soil structure, retain nutrients, immobilize pollutants, and store carbon.

From a climate perspective, the distinction matters. Burning coal releases ancient carbon into the atmosphere, increasing net emissions. Biochar locks up carbon from the current biological cycle, helping reduce atmospheric carbon when used as a soil amendment.

In short, coal is an energy source. Biochar is a soil tool. And it’s an investable commodity.  A new fund manager in Texas has her eye on the growing demand for carbon credit projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere. Biochar, created through a process called pyrolysis that involves heating biomass and biowaste, is an emerging solution for trapping carbon. The biochar not only sequesters carbon, it can restore soil health and enable soil to store greater amounts of carbon. Founder Heather Stiles and her firm Kemet make debt and equity investments in companies supporting biochar production and use, waste-to-energy projects, and carbon trading. “The nascent biochar market lacks dominant players,” the company says. And now they have a new market: in agriculture.

Biochar companies in the US and Canada

NY Carbon – Large-scale biochar producer serving New York and New England markets

Finger Lakes Biochar – Regional biochar production for agriculture and remediation

Vermont Biochar – Farm- and soil-focused biochar production

The Biochar Company – Biochar for agriculture, remediation, and carbon storage

Integro Earth Fuels – Biomass pyrolysis and biochar production

Re:char – Mobile and modular biochar systems, soil and waste applications

Seattle Biochar – Biochar production from regional biomass waste

Whitfield Biochar – Biochar and carbon materials for soil and remediation

Carbonity (Airex Energy subsidiary) – Industrial-scale biochar and biocarbon production (Canada)

Canadian Biochar Investments (CBCI) – Modular biochar systems and carbon removal projects across Canada

The post Can biochar reduce ‘Forever Chemicals’ in food if it’s used in farms? appeared first on Green Prophet.

“People who had never picked up trash before, and people who weren’t particularly interested in environmental issues, were starting to join. I think that’s because we presented litter picking as a sport.”

That insight comes from Kenichi Mamitsuka, the Japanese innovator who turned garbage collection into a competitive team sport known as spogomi — a portmanteau of sport and gomi, the Japanese word for trash. If you’ve ever visited Tokyo, you will get a taste for just how fussy the Japanese are about picking up trash. They use claw graspers for tiny bits of things, and scrub brushes on sidewalks.

What began as a local experiment has grown into something unexpectedly global. Spogomi now includes organized leagues, referees, time limits, scoring systems, and even a World Cup, drawing participants who might otherwise never attend a beach cleanup or environmental rally. The story, recently highlighted by National Geographic, points to a powerful truth: behavior change doesn’t always start with ideology. Sometimes, it starts with play.

Want to know the rules?

Environmental movements have long struggled with a perception problem. Too often, they feel moralistic, joyless, or reserved for the already converted. Spogomi flips that script. It reframes responsibility as action, and action as something social, physical, and — crucially — fun. Teams compete not just on volume of trash collected, but on sorting accuracy and teamwork. Winning isn’t symbolic – you can measure it.

There’s something quietly radical about this approach. By removing guilt and replacing it with momentum, spogomi attracts people motivated by camaraderie, competition, and pride rather than climate anxiety. It also sidesteps politics. You don’t need to agree on why waste is a problem to agree that it shouldn’t be on the street.

In a world saturated with environmental messaging, spogomi offers a reminder that solutions don’t always need to be heavier. Sometimes they need to be lighter — structured like a game, grounded in community, and designed to meet people where they already are.

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When Zarathustra started preaching around 1200 BCE in ancient Persia, which is known today as Iran, he wasn’t just founding a religion—he was creating the world’s first environmental protection movement. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. But there was a mantra and words to live by: don’t pollute the earth, water, or fire. Ever.

Take Zoroastrian burial practices. We’ve covered the Towers of Silence here at Green Prophet before—those circular stone structures where bodies were placed on top for vultures to consume. Why did they do this? Because Zoroastrians believed dead bodies were contaminated with evil (druj) and could not touch the sacred elements: earth, water, or fire.

No burial (pollutes earth). No cremation (pollutes fire). No river disposal (pollutes water). Sky burial was the only option that honored nature. The body became food for birds, a final act of charity. Today most Zoroastrians use cement-lined coffins to prevent earth contamination, or they’ve moved to other methods as vulture populations crashed from human causes such as electrical shocks and poisoning. But the principle remains: respect the elements that sustain life.

Celebrating Nature’s Turning Points

Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated on the spring equinox, is perhaps Zoroastrianism’s most visible environmental legacy. As we’ve written about on Green Prophet, this isn’t just a cultural festival—it’s a celebration of nature reawakening. Families grow sabzeh (wheat or lentil sprouts) weeks before Nowruz, watching green life emerge from seeds.

Goldfish are a traditional symbol of life, renewal, and fortune on the Haft-Seen table for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, representing vitality and a prosperous year ahead, though animal welfare concerns have risen due to millions dying after being released into ponds, leading some to use edible alternatives like marzipan goldfish or sugar fish instead.

The holiday marks when day and night are equal, when light spreads evenly across hemispheres. Fire is lit. People jump over flames during Chaharshanbe Suri, singing “my yellowness is yours, your redness is mine”—asking fire to take weakness and give strength.  The whole celebration is about alignment with natural cycles. Spring cleaning before the new year. Visiting graves on the last Friday. Placing hyacinths and tulips in homes. Everything synchronized with the earth’s rhythm around the sun.

Engineering in Harmony with Nature

Ancient Persians didn’t just philosophize about respecting the elements—they engineered around them. As we’ve explored in previous Green Prophet articles, their architecture shows remarkable environmental sophistication.

Wind catchers (badgir) in Yazd and other desert cities are essentially ancient air conditioning. These tall towers catch breezes and channel them down through buildings, sometimes over underground water channels called qanats. The Dolat Abad windcatcher in Yazd stands 34 meters tall—still the highest in Iran—and can drop indoor temperatures by 10 degrees without electricity.

Qanats themselves are engineering marvels: underground channels that move water from mountain aquifers to desert cities without pumping. Some are still functioning after a thousand years. UNESCO recognizes them as world heritage because they represent “creative genius” in sustainable water management.

These weren’t just practical solutions to live by. They were Zorastrian expressions of a worldview that said: work with the elements, don’t violate them. Here’s what makes Zoroastrianism ecologically radical even today: it treats environmental degradation as moral corruption.

The world is a battlefield between truth (asha) and lies (druj). When you pollute water, you’re choosing druj. When you contaminate earth, you’re siding with evil. Every small choice—where you put your waste, how you use fire, whether you honor or desecrate water is a moral decision that tilts the cosmic balance.

You can’t separate ethics from ecology in this system because they are the same thing.

Modern environmentalism often frames nature protection as enlightened self-interest or future-oriented planning. Zoroastrianism says: the earth itself is holy. Polluting it is sacrilege. You don’t need utilitarian arguments. You need to not be an asshole to creation.

There are maybe 100,000 to 200,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide, mostly in Iran and India (where they’re called Parsis).

Zoroastrianism introduced a radical idea for its time: that humans stand inside a moral universe. That our choices matter. Long before monotheism found its later forms, Zoroastrianism articulated heaven and hell, angels and judgment, free will and ethical responsibility. Judaism absorbed these ideas during the Persian period. Christianity and Islam carried them forward.

Today, Zoroastrians are not fighting for dominance. They are fighting for continuity. Intermarriage, migration, shrinking birth rates, and cultural dilution place constant pressure on a faith that does not proselytize and does not adapt easily. They don’t have a leader or a “Pope” figure making it difficult to create leadership.

Yet the ecological principles remain stubbornly relevant. In a world drowning in plastic, choking on emissions, and treating the planet like an expendable resource, Zoroastrianism’s insistence that nature is sacred, not because it’s useful to humans, but because it is sacred.

If Iran becomes free, consider visiting the eternal flame: The Yazd Atash Behram in Iran shelters one of the world’s oldest living flames — a sacred fire burning continuously since 470 AD. Though the temple itself was built in 1934, the “Victorious Fire” has survived centuries of exile, invasion, and careful guardianship, standing as a quiet, stubborn symbol of Zoroastrian endurance and divine purity.

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Runners at the Dubai Marathon will have a rare chance to enter the Guinness World Records archive this year, as the global record-keeping authority partners with the marathon to mark the race’s 25th anniversary.

Announced on January 12, 2026, the collaboration invites participants in the February 1 Dubai Marathon to attempt officially recognized world records under the banner “Be Part Of It.” The initiative merges one of the Middle East’s most established distance-running events with the world’s leading authority on record-breaking achievements.

Related: 10 best marathons in the Middle East 

Rather than focusing only on finishing times, the partnership opens the door to a wide range of creative, endurance-based, and community-driven record attempts. Runners can apply for approved Guinness World Records titles across distance categories, or propose new ones through the official Guinness World Records platform.

Among the record categories available are:

– Fastest marathon completed by a father and son together
– Fastest marathon completed by a mother and daughter together

Additional opportunities include records involving sporting equipment, blindfolded running, roller skating, professional attire, novelty endurance challenges, and visually distinctive running formats.

The aim is to expand how athletic achievement is measured — moving beyond pure speed to include connection, creativity, and participation.

All Guinness World Records applications submitted specifically for the Dubai Marathon will be processed free of charge. Participants will also benefit from fast-tracked application reviews and immediate eligibility assessments, making the process more accessible than traditional record attempts.

Fundraising-related record attempts must receive written approval from an officially authorised UAE charitable entity, in line with national regulations.

The initiative also places strong emphasis on inclusion. People with disabilities are encouraged to apply through Guinness World Records’ dedicated Impairment Classification categories, ensuring fair and consistent assessment across all abilities.

Participants can explore record titles or submit proposals in Arabic or English through the Guinness World Records registration page, and can register for the marathon itself via the official Dubai Marathon website.

Now in its 25th year, the Dubai Marathon has established itself as one of the region’s most respected long-distance running events, attracting elite athletes and community runners from around the world. The Guinness World Records collaboration adds a new dimension to the race, turning it into both a competitive sporting event and a platform for storytelling, legacy, and shared achievement.

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In a region more accustomed to headlines of loss than of listening, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has chosen to honor something quietly radical: healing. The 2025 Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East has been awarded to Nitsan Joy Gordon and Jawdat Lajon Kasab, the co-founders of the Army of Healers, for building spaces where Israelis and Palestinians — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouins — can grieve, speak, and rebuild trust together.

The two leaders will share the US$20,000 prize, marking the 21st anniversary of an award created to recognize joint Jewish-Arab partnerships advancing peace.

The Army of Healers emerged after October 7, in response to what Gordon and Kasab describe as a region living inside collective trauma. Rather than launching a political initiative, they created something more fragile — and more human. Today, their program has trained 30 facilitators from across communities and now supports more than 20 healing circles with over 400 participants, conducted in multiple languages and across age groups.

Through ten-session dialogue groups, participants confront fear, express grief, and slowly relearn how to see one another as human beings. “In moments of deep division,” Gordon and Kasab say, “the world needs an army — not of soldiers holding weapons, but of healers cultivating pathways toward peace.”

The circles draw on Internal Family Systems therapy, movement and dance therapy, playback theater, nonviolent communication, and trauma-informed dialogue. The work is hosted under the Israeli nonprofit Together Beyond Words.

Why the Goldberg Prize matters

The Victor J. Goldberg Prize is unique. It does not reward governments or institutions. It honors pairs — one Jewish Israeli and one Muslim Arab — working together at the grassroots level. Victor J. Goldberg, a former IBM executive and longtime IIE trustee who endowed the prize in 2005, emphasized this spirit during the ceremony:

“Nitsan and Jawdat are inspiring examples of the brave individuals and groups who are building platforms of mutual trust and cooperation. Most importantly, they have not lost their commitment to bringing people together to get to know one another as human beings.”

He added that the prize exists to keep hope visible when despair dominates.

Over its 21-year history, the Goldberg Prize has honored 26 pairs whose work has reshaped how peacebuilding looks on the ground. Past laureates have included:

Israeli and Palestinian educators who rewrote textbooks to remove demonization of “the other.” Families who lost children in violence and chose reconciliation over revenge. Medical volunteers who treated patients regardless of religion.

IIE President Emeritus Allan E. Goodman summarized their legacy: “People who started out hating each other and rejecting each other’s narratives somehow managed to overcome all that to do something good.”

Placed in this lineage, the Army of Healers represents a new generation of peace work — one that recognizes trauma as a political force, and healing as an act of resistance.

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We used to think climate work lived in laboratories, policy rooms, and protest signs. But these days it’s living comfortably inside Jewish thought. The Jewish Climate Trust is quietly proving that climate action doesn’t sit outside Judaism — it grows from it. Jewish Climate Trust (JCT) isn’t a think tank that lives only in theory, and it isn’t a charity that writes checks without strategy. It is a values-driven investment in how Jewish life — and Jewish responsibility — shows up in a world already shaped by climate change.

The starting point is simple and uncomfortable: the climate crisis is real, measurable, and accelerating. Denial is not a Jewish position. Despair isn’t either. Judaism teaches obligation without guaranteed success. You are not required to finish the work — but you are not free to abandon it. JCT lives inside that idea: it insists on action without pretending to own the ending.

The focus of the JCT is twofold: putting less carbon into the atmosphere and preparing communities for what is already unfolding.

But there is a third layer that feels distinctly Jewish: co-benefits. Every climate action should strengthen human relationships — between Jews and Jews, Israel and the diaspora, and across borders between people. We see that work in action in Israel’s Arava Center, a cross-border environment research study center that funds desert research, water, cleantech, advancing partners for peace along the way. Climate work, according to the JCT is not only environmental; it is social, political, spiritual, and it’s the moral thing to do.

In North America, JCT has made the largest climate grant ever given in the Jewish world, funding Adamah to accelerate Jewish climate leadership. This includes expanding the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, building regional hubs, and integrating climate into young leadership training. They also helped launch a Green Business Network, which is growing faster than anticipated.

Green Prophet founded a chapter of Green Drinks in Israel in 2009. Adamah is continuing the spirit with their next meet-up in Boston in February.

The goal is cultural change — not a single project, but a shift in how Jewish institutions understand responsibility.

In Israel, JCT is funding major research on climate preparedness and security. Climate awareness in Israel is not only about nature — it is about stability, health, migration, food systems, and national resilience. The JCT is pushing Israel to think ahead rather than react too late.

Regionally, JCT is supporting the Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy at the Arava Institute — one of the most important cross-border environmental cooperation platforms in the Middle East. When USAID funding was lost, years of trust-building between Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and international partners were suddenly at risk. JCT stepped in with a significant multi-year commitment, joined by private stakeholders, to keep this fragile but vital ecosystem alive.

Jewish Climate Trust has quickly attracted the attention and support of some of the most influential voices in Jewish philanthropy, drawing backing from prominent family foundations and business leaders connected to the Bronfman and Schusterman philanthropic networks, alongside climate-focused investors and community builders aligned with founding leader Nigel Savage. Together, these donors have committed many millions of dollars to build a serious, long-term climate platform for the Jewish world — not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic intervention in one of the defining challenges of this generation.

::Jewish Climate Trust

The post What is the Jewish Climate Trust? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Wind energy is a real asset to the energy transition. Turbines rise quickly, emissions fall sharply, and electricity flows without smoke, spills, or tailings. But behind the clean lines of a wind farm lies a question that is rarely asked out loud: what happens when the wind itself begins to change?

Across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, wind power has become one of the most scalable tools available to decarbonize energy systems. It can be built faster than nuclear, expanded more flexibly than hydro, and deployed almost anywhere grids exist. Whether offshore or onshore, industrial or rural, wind power adapts.

To make that expansion possible and get the best performance possible, the sector increasingly relies on advanced modeling tools,  such as Meteodyn’s software and services, which translate wind and atmospheric behaviors into usable data for developers and planners. But a new critical question arises: will the wind still be there?

Because climate change does not stop at temperature charts.

Wind is changing, quietly

Climate change alters atmospheric circulation, pressure gradients, and seasonal weather patterns. These changes rarely make headlines, yet they directly influence how, when, and where wind blows. In some regions, average wind speeds may increase; in others, they may weaken or become more erratic.

For a wind farm designed on 20 years of historical data, this matters. A project that looks profitable today may deliver less energy in the future, on the opposite, way more. Uncertainty replaces confidence.

Developers and utilities are beginning to face this reality. Can yesterday’s wind statistics still be trusted for assets expected to operate until 2050? Or are we planning tomorrow’s infrastructure based on a climate that changes faster than we ever thought?

Ignoring the shift would be convenient and easy, but it would also be reckless.

Why long-term planning needs future wind data

Wind projects are not short-term bets. They are built to last decades, financed over long horizons, and integrated into national energy strategies that assume stability. When climate change enters the equation, that assumption weakens.

Assessing future wind resources under different climate scenarios is no longer a theoretical issue: it is a risk-management exercise. By looking ahead—rather than only backward—energy planners can identify regions where wind potential remains robust, where variability increases, or where adaptation may be required.

This is about avoiding blind spots, because blind spots are costly.

Climate scenarios meet energy reality

The IPCC’s climate scenarios—like SSP2-4.5 or SSP5-8.5—are often cited in reports, yet rarely translated into site-level energy decisions. Doing so requires expertise, validated modeling chains, and transparent assumptions.

When wind projections are aligned with recognized climate scenarios, developers can stress-test projects against plausible futures, investors can better understand exposure, and policymakers can plan with fewer surprises.

Climate change analytics help clarity replace guesswork.

Meteodyn and future wind and AEP projections

Meteodyn has developed a dedicated service to evaluate how wind resources and energy production may evolve under different climate scenarios, performing cutting-edge statistics on IPCC-aligned projections.

The goal is  informed anticipation to make sustainable decisions. By quantifying potential changes in wind regimes over time, stakeholders gain a clearer view of long-term performance, risk, and resilience.

Because planning early is usually cheaper than reacting late.

Making climate-aligned wind data accessible

Since October 2, 2025, Meteodyn makes climate-aligned wind and AEP projections datasets available through a dedicated shop, the Wind Data Portal. These datasets allow users to access standardized wind and energy production projections linked to climate change scenarios and localised to projects’ locations.

This matters. Access to future-oriented data should not be limited to large institutions alone. Shared data enables shared responsibility, and responsibility is the foundation of a credible energy transition.

The climate change will not wait

Wind energy remains one of the strongest tools available to fight climate change, but it is not immune to it. As the climates shift, so must the way wind resources are assessed, planned, and valued.

Adaptation is not optional, it is the price of durability.

The post How wind energy must adapt to a changing climate appeared first on Green Prophet.

Asbestos is a dangerous substance causing deadly respiratory diseases. In case of exposure, settlement payouts provide the much-needed financial assistance to many victims. Since each case is unique, the amount of compensation received can differ. Learning what influences these settlements helps you set realistic expectations for a smoother claims process.

Impact of Medical Diagnosis

An influential determinant of compensation is the severity of the diagnosed condition. Mesothelioma cases in particular are likely to attract higher settlements due to their fast progression and high treatment costs. Other asbestos-related conditions can also get large compensation in instances where they significantly restrict everyday activities. Having the right medical documentation is crucial, as it shows the entire medical impact of the disease, along with forming the basis of asbestos claims payouts.

Clarity of Exposure History

The outcome of settlements is largely determined by the cause of the asbestos exposure. Cases based on well-documented work histories or service records are usually stronger, since they correlate the illness with a particular employer or a product. The outcome also depends on the length and frequency of exposure; longer or repeated contact often creates a stronger case. 

Medical Costs and Treatment Burden

Ongoing medical treatment is a significant contributor to determining the settlement value. People undergoing intensive care, such as major surgery, non-routine treatment, or ongoing respiratory care, may be more susceptible to a higher financial burden, affecting the compensation. Future medical needs are also taken into account in settlement discussions. An elaborate treatment regimen aids in a more precise evaluation.

Personal and Family Circumstances

Compensation can also depend on age, household duties and long-term care requirements. Younger claimants are more likely to feel the impact of asbestos-related diseases over a longer period. Similarly, those supporting dependents may face additional financial strain. These individual situations contribute to defining the overall financial and emotional effect of the disease.

Strength of Supporting Evidence

A claim’s strength comes from thorough evidence and medical records that demonstrate liability from a specific product or company. Cases with clear and consistent evidence tend to end with positive settlement outcomes.

Availability of Asbestos Trust Fund

Many corporations have set up trust funds to pay damages to people who suffered as a result of being exposed to asbestos. The accessibility of these funds, as well as the rate of payment they provide, may influence the ultimate settlement rate. In some cases, victims can make claims in more than one trust fund based on exposure history.

Role of Legal Representation

The settlement process can also be impacted by guidance of experienced lawyers. While a favorable result cannot be promised, lawyers with experience in asbestos lawsuits know how to be persuasive, settle cases, and maneuver through trust funds. Their plan and style may influence the schedule and the level of compensation.

Endnote 

Settlement payouts of asbestos cases vary depending on a mix of evidentiary elements that are unique to each case. An accurate diagnosis along with good documentation and long term understanding of the effects of the illness are all crucial. With proper training and counseling, victims can secure compensation for maintaining their health and finances.

The post Factors That Determine the Payout of Asbestos Cases appeared first on Green Prophet.

Unconfirmed photos are circulating on the internet that a Gazan family has started to rebuild their home using mud bricks. And just a few days ago we reported on a Saudi Arabian designer and his plans for using mud bricks as a solution to the refugee crisis.

Mud bricks are made from clay, sand, water and a natural binder such as rice husk or straw. They are dried in the sun—no firing, no fuel required at all. Properly made, they meet compressive strength and heat-conductivity requirements, act as fire-resistant and sound-insulating walls, and keep indoor temperatures relatively stable in both summer and winter. This works as long as there is a protective roof and the bricks are maintained. People in the past used to know how to do this but concrete made us forget ancient wisdom. If you travel to places like Ethiopia, most rural people are living in mud houses. 

Related: ancient mud houses in the Muslim world

Globally, around 30 per cent of the world’s population still lives in earthen structures; the material is traditional across the Middle East, North Africa, India and much of the global South. The research community has moved well beyond nostalgia: recent studies on compressed earth blocks and fibre-reinforced mud bricks in places as varied as Australia, Togo and North Africa treat earth as a serious, testable low-carbon material, not as a second-best stopgap. Mud is flame-proof, readily available and as Hathan Fathy of the New Gourna Village argued can give people an honorable place to live.

In Gaza, of course, energy and shelter are fused problems. Even before the current war, the territory never had enough grid power. Over roughly a decade, rooftop solar spread rapidly: one satellite analysis found at least 655 rooftop solar systems in a single square mile of Gaza City, and by 2022 the strip was estimated to have more than 12,000 such systems.

Solar became a genuine lifeline, keeping water pumps, small clinics, fridges and phones running when diesel ran out. See the map below of rooftop solar, which according to this source made Gaza the highest user per capita of solar rooftop energy in the world.

Much of that infrastructure has since been damaged or destroyed since Hamas started the war with Israel, but the lesson is still there in plain sight: when you give people robust, decentralised tools—sun and soil—they will use them to hold their lives together. Satellite-based damage assessments now show that a large share of solar installations have been hit, which only increases the urgency of planning low-carbon, distributed systems for any serious reconstruction.

For a practical NGO funder, this suggests a very grounded agenda that is neither experimental for its own sake nor romantic about “traditional” methods.

Gaza will need: field-tested earthen construction, training and demonstration yards that support local engineers, masons and women’s groups to run short, paid training programs in mud-brick and compressed earth construction. Small demonstration houses, clinics or community centers can double as real assets and training labs. Centers can also teach solar cooking and basic engineering skills.

Solar + earth “micro-campuses”: pair thick, thermally massive earthen buildings with rooftop or courtyard solar systems and simple DC micro-grids with small plots for farming and permaculture. Muslim women in Israel and the PA can travel to Gaza to give workshops on beekeeping (see Bees for Peace).

While Gaza has always been densely populated, new models in earthen building and rooftop gardens can enliven the hope for the next generation.

The post Mud bricks are not just for Minecraft – they can solve real-world refugee housing appeared first on Green Prophet.