If you are of the 41 percent that lives in drylands, your future depends on supporting plant biodiversity. An international team of researchers including Dr. Bertrand Boeken of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suggest in a new study that plant biodiversity preservation is crucial to buffer negative […]
Anyone who loves nature will enjoy Balyolu’s week long tour on Northeastern Turkey’s honey road. Update May 20, 2020: this tour is no longer operating. It’s impossible to understate the importance of bees. Like fruit bats – thousands of which were gunned down by unknown assailants in Lebanon last weekend – they are pollinators that […]
Thousands of fruit bats in Lebanon were sprayed with shotgun and AK-47 bullets over the weekend. Thousands of fruit bats could have used Batman’s help last weekend when one or more unidentified assailants unleashed a spray of shotgun and AK-47 shells inside a cave in northern Lebanon. This senseless massacre wiped out at least 5,000 […]
Barcelona hopes to have an indoor ski slope as nice as Ski Dubai (pictured), but carbon neutral. Barcelona is not as hot as places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which now has an indoor snow ski slope. But they appear to be envious of Dubai’s very ungreen approach to denying that the country is a […]
Putting political differences aside, Israelis and Palestinians unite to restore a section of the Kishon River – one of the region’s most polluted. Yet another joint Israeli and the Palestinian Authority eco-project challenges the mainstream notion that it’s all war and friction between Jews and Arabs. Despite a recent accusation by the French Parliament that […]
Tourists offended by this gruesome display of endangered species reported the Picalbatros restaurant in Hurghada, Egypt to the local conservation agency. Tourists who dine at the Pickalbatros restaurant in Hurghada might be greeted with a gruesome scene: sharks, rays, and parrot fish hanging from hooks, Egypt Independent reports. While some people have turned a blind […]
Lebanon boasts one of the world’s most sophisticated hiking trail networks, which traverses 75 towns and villages. A few years ago, John Keyrouz fled the fast lane in Los Angeles and returned to Lebanon. When he ventured into the mountains to relive fond childhood hiking memories, he was astounded to discover a world class trail […]
One alternative to the Red-Dead Canal is the Med-Dead Canal hydro pump. The massive hydro pump idea has been around since the 70s and has questionable environmental outcomes. The Israel Chamber of Commerce recently requested that the government reinvestigate a project to connect the Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea. In a joint letter to Environmental […]
Ever since the classic The Book Of One Thousand and One Nights, which include tales on Aladdin and the Lamp, Sinbad the Sailor and Alai Babba and the Forty Thieves, the Arabian Peninsula, and seacoasts have never been the same. While the characters may be fictional (or maybe not?), the actual location of these magical […]
Mars rock rarer than gold and called Tissint falls in Morocco. This might explain mystical Moroccan men: maybe they really are from Mars? Or at least influenced by the Martian planet? Scientists have just confirmed that a meteor shower that brought a 15 pound rock hurtling into Morocco really did come from Mars. This is […]
Because cheetahs don’t belong on leashes, Dubai’s neighbor, Ajman, has passed a law that makes it illegal for anyone to have wild animals or reptiles in their homes. Remember the Porsche driver in Dubai who thought it was cool to walk his pet cheetah on a leash in the middle of a busy urban center? […]
New drilling results from the Dead Sea provides clues that the Dead Sea almost dried up because of climate change — 125,000 years ago! The rapidly dropping water level of the Dead Sea, a cause of much concern today, occurred as well in the distant past, resulting in the severe drying up of the lake, […]
The US Navy has trained dolphins to detect underwater mines since 1960. Last week the Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi denied that Iran had threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – a crucial 54km wide strait through which Gulf countries export petroleum – but the United States press has been abuzz with reports that oil exports […]
Scientists discover that every year Oman loses a little bit more of its landmass to rising sea levels. Within the next 100 years, global sea levels are expected to rise by at least 1 meter and swallow up coastal towns and cities – a reality from which the Middle East is not exempt. Already geoscientists […]
The Siraj Centre is offering walk and bike tours across the West Bank as well as an environmental-focused trip in 2012 The ‘Environment and Occupation Trip 2012’ tour will explore issues such as freedom of access to water and sanitation in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. It will also be looking at deforestation […]
While the Arab world has close ties with their hardy camels, Australia considers their 1.2 million population of wild camels to be nothing more than pests. Camels are valued in the Arab world for their meat, milk, and leather, but in Australia, more than one million wild Dromedary camels are considered pests. They are also […]
Biodiversity preservation, waste management, and securing water sources are just a few of the principles being applied to convert Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh diving destination into an “green city.” Egypt’s Ministers of Environment and Tourism signed a tripartite agreement with the South Sinai governor to convert the popular Egyptian diving town Sharm el-Sheikh into a bonafide […]
Jordanian Nadia Lawton, a permaculture teacher tells Green Prophet why she believes permaculture could be the region’s silver green bullet. “Permaculture made total common sense to me,” insists Nadia Lawton, “it also fitted with my life ethics a a Muslim.” While the first part of Nadia’s statement may not be considered unique, her remark about […]
Turkish environmental journalist Mahmut Boynudelik has proposed a set of fundamental ecological principles to be enshrined in the country’s new constitution. Last Wednesday, Turkey’s Constitution Reconciliation Commission was presented with a new series of articles for inclusion in the country’s new constitution. Led by the Turkish Green Party, the articles were submitted by the Initiative […]
Want to see the garbage flowing from Lebanon’s waterways? Greenpeace Lebanon goes undercover to reveal shocking videos of 14 polluters (see them below). They are young, passionate about the environment, and not afraid to engage with technology to get their voices heard. Greenpeace Lebanon continues to demonstrate the power of the “Net Generation” in raising […]
Lebanon goes green with seed bank, but can this memory keeper for nature fight GMOs? Lebanon harbors over 2600 plant species of which 119 are counted to be endemic. The unique climatic and landscape diversity in Lebanon has shaped 22 bio-climatic zones which fosters one of the most precious ecological services: genetic diversity. Unfortunately, the […]
Increased levels of male breast cancer and early onset puberty are consequence of water pollution in Israel. The 52nd Conference of the Israel Geographical Association conducted the last week of December at Tel Aviv University dealt with developments affecting Israel, the Middle East and the planet as a whole. Geography, a discipline that is multi-varied […]
Lead and other pollutants are seeping into Israeli drinking water at alarming levels. Lutra numbers decimated; human health at risk. Water pollution in Israeli lakes, streams and groundwater aquifers is reaching alarming levels. Although the country has regulations in place to prevent discharges, including a comprehensive Water Law, contamination is commonplace. And now scientists are […]
Although many people in our region revere wildlife, too often we write about egregious abuse. Here are 7 of the saddest wildlife stories from the Middle East, and what you can do to help such harmful practices come to an end. Many people living in the Middle East believe that it is haram to harm […]
It’s not a stretch. Vanishing shark populations affect the food chain in a very concrete way. Karin’s post on shark meat’s high mercury levels made it clear: a bowl of shark fin soup is a bowlful of poison. But a slower death awaits people who depend on healthy seas. That means all of us. Because […]