Considered a pest in California, a tamarix salt cedar tree found in the Arava Desert could sequester greenhouse gases on barren, desert land. Fears of global warming and its impact on our environment have left scientists scrambling to decrease levels of atmospheric carbon we humans produce. But Tel Aviv University researchers are doing their part […]
Drilling for undersea gas in Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone may have serious impacts on marine life. Like 0ther-energy poor countries in the eastern Mediterranean basin, including Israel and Lebanon, who are now in a serious dispute over energy reserves located there, the Republic of Cyprus has shown interested in exploiting the undersea natural gas fields […]
Naked Dead Sea and naked Israelis were the talk of the Internet last month as 1,200 Israelis volunteered to strip all to save the Dead Sea from environmental decay.
British Muslim environment campaign Trees4Life explains why Islam encourages tree planting, with hopes to to reduce carbon emission and reforest Middle Eastern/Asia regions, in an exclusive Green Prophet interview.
Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture denies that a crazy eye-popping disease is killing a substantial population of fish in the Sea of Galilee. A bizarre disease is killing off a host of fish in the Sea of Galilee, including the St. Peter’s fish considered sacred because of its relevance to the biblical bread and fishes story. […]
A devastating earthquake has hit Turkey near its border with Iran. A 1976 earthquake in the same vicinity killed 5,000 people. The Kandilli Observatory has reported that a very powerful earthquake measuring up to 7.3 on the richter scale has hit near the city of Van in eastern Turkey. Described as devastating and expected to […]
Every year trappers in Cyprus kill millions of migrating songbirds that are boiled or pickled – a national delicacy called ambelopoulia. Wildlife conservationists want authorities there to do more to prevent this “ecological disaster.” One songbird is illegally trapped or killed every four seconds to provide residents of Cyprus with ingredients for a dish called […]
The demand for exotic animals in the Middle East – and particularly in the Gulf and Egypt- is putting animal’s lives at risk From pet cheetahs on the streets of Dubai to python and falcon egg smuggling, the Middle East clearly has a wildlife trafficking problem. Even more troubling is that the market for these […]
Azad Nanakeli returned to his Kurdish home Erbil to find all of the wells contaminated with waste and chemicals. AU is one among many art pieces on display at Iraq’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Fewer canvases are overflowing with pristine landscape scenes as unsustainable building programs throughout the Middle East encroach upon this […]
Taliban holds fire thanks to tooth-sized nut. Image via the NY Times. Some say all is fair in love and war, but for guerrilla warfare between the Taliban and Haqqani in Afghanistan, there are limits. Guns go down for pine nut season. Pine nuts are those delicious, tooth-sized nuts which are a staple in pesto. […]
The battle for the Samar sand dunes may be lost to concrete trucks and bulldozers. Guest author, environmental attorney Joshua Basofin makes a case to save the sand. After a protracted battle over the Samar sand dunes, in the Arava Valley in Israel, the bulldozers may be revving their engines. Last year the Israel Lands […]
Environmentalist in countries such as Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon joined 350.org’s ‘Moving Planet’ campaign to celebrate and support greener forms of transport The stifling heat of the Middle East may be one reason why people prefer to take the car rather than walk or cycle but that doesn’t mean that they don’t support the creation […]
Çağan Şekercioğlu founded ecological research and conservation NGO KuzeyDoğa in 2007 to promote biodiversity and resist environmental degradation in Turkey’s fast-developing eastern region. As thermal power plants and hydroelectric dams pop up more and more across Turkey’s landscape, the effects of these developments on the natural environment go largely unseen. Especially in Turkey’s rural, lightly […]
Three Gaza strip smugglers were killed when wastewater leaked into a tunnel, causing it to collapse. Little is said about the drama that unfolds beneath Gaza each day, where many Palestinians continue to smuggle goods in from Egypt to the Strip. Although the Rafah border crossing was re-opened earlier this year and people can travel […]
How should teachers incorporate environmental ethics and lessons on sustainability into their classrooms? That’s the focus of a four-year educational ecoliteracy project — Turkey’s first — which has just begun. A training program for Turkish teachers kicked off this week in an unusual classroom: an arboretum in the northwestern province of Yalova. Beneath Yalova’s graceful […]