New studies looking at evolution sees nothing extra-ordinary about island communities. The Middle East region, particularly around Egypt, Israel and Jordan out East to Iraq is known as the cradle of civilization. It is no wonder then that much evolutionary thinking and discoveries are made from this region. More whale bones (and a fossilized whale […]
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Wait, what? Whales in the desert? Fossils of earliest suborder of now extinct whale sheds new light on evolution. Even though human population expansion and over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated the rate at which climatic change wreaks havoc, nature has always been in flux. Few things drive this concept home more concretely than a […]
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Lebanon is eager to replant their cedars – a national symbol. But a sustainable, community-wide vision is in need. The Hebrew bible is replete with references to the cedars of Lebanon, and uses them as a metaphor for steadfastness, might and great stature. The cedar trees for the construction of King Solomon’s Palace and the […]
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When you’re stuck in the middle of a crowded, noisy city like Cairo, where waste piles up on the side of the street, and you can’t manage to peel back what you hope is a mirage of decrepit buildings to reveal the earth below, let the hawksbill turtle inspire you. Undisturbed by light pollution from […]
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Prior to the installation of an asphalt highway connecting the once peaceful region of Bahariya to Cairo, the oasis was mostly hidden from the greater world. Then archaeologists re-discovered the Valley of the Golden Mummies and tourism in Egypt soared, generating valuable income for the local community. However, the influx also comes with a considerable environmental cost.
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Bikes, beer and maybe even babes part of EcoBike: bringing eco-friendly cycling tours to a whole new demographic – the beer lover. Cycling, as fellow Green Prophet Karin has pointed out, has become very popular in Israel. Despite the dangers of braving streets shared with temperamental Middle Eastern drivers, cycling has evolved to fulfill a […]
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Jonathan Gilben, co-founder of GoEco, talks about his passion for eco-tourism. (Jonathan pictured at the center of this photograph and in the video clip below.) A few weeks ago we wrote about GoEco, an organization founded by Jonathan Gilben and Jonathan Tal in 2005 that has pioneered bringing the concept of volunteer eco-tourism to Israel. […]
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Kibbutz Sde Elihuya, home to organic agriculture in Israel. Mario Levi brought the idea of manure for compost from Italy
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Barn owls as biological control. Arab farmers in the Levant use nesting boxes to encourage the owls to move in. This means much less pesticide to control rodents.
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A green oasis in Amman – the King Hussein Park, Jordan. Greetings from Amman, where I’m representing the Green Prophet at the URI MENA 8th annual conference. What’s URI MENA? It’s the Middle East – North Africa (MENA) region of the global United Religions Initiative (URI), dedicated to promoting interfaith cooperation. About 50 representatives of […]
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The zimmerbuses in Ezuz drive the concept of eco-tourism home. Beep beep! Eco-tourism is a broad term and can encompass a wide range of green vacations. For some, it may mean experiencing life in an eco village, for others it may mean volunteering to make a positive green impact on a community. And for certain […]
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Loving wild places gives us the impetus to protect them Before I started writing about green building and eco-tourism in Israel and the Middle East, I was a tour guide in North America. For three years I taught foreigners about camping, ecology, geography, and history in National Parks throughout the lower 48, Alaska, and Canada. […]
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Be an alternative tourist with one of GoEco‘s volunteer eco-tourism programs this summer. Earlier this week we wrote about an alternative to the normal ways of spending the summer, in the form of an eco-touristic organic goat cheese farm in northern Israel. Good for your tummy and good for the environment, that’s definitely one of […]
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There is life after plastic. Ban the bags, and save the camels
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There are no clear solutions to the fight between conservation and capitalism [image via flickr] Tempers flared out at sea as environmentalists and fishermen sparred over the endangered Bluefish Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea just around World Ocean Day. In the last few days, Greenpeace activists and Maltese fishermen engaged in one violent and one […]
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