In two weeks, a team of international athletes will attempt a world first by swimming across the Dead Sea, one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth, at the planet’s lowest point. The sea, which is technically a lake, resonates with deep historical and spiritual significance that partners perfectly with environmental activism. This risky swim […]
A recent study released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) concludes that the current drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant – which includes Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey – is the region’s worst dry spell since 1100 C.E.
Last Monday, Orthodox Christians across the Middle East kicked off the 40-day Lenten season with a wonderful food-based tradition called Green Monday, when folks tuck into a delicious (and usually outdoor) luncheon of greens, olives, potatoes and seafood.
Fresh water shortage issues are virtually normal now in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in Cyprus, which has worse water shortage problems than Israel, Syria and Lebanon. The water shortage situation in Cyprus has gotten so bad that lakes are going dry (see photo).
Turkey has started constructing what will be the world’s longest undersea water pipeline. The 107 kilometer pipe will draw water from the Dragon River and unite the Turkish mainland with northern Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. Proponents are hoping it will unify the island, divided for the past 39 years.
It’s illegal to serve this disgusting delicacy in restaurants, but despite being outlawed some 1.5 million songbirds will have been killed in Cyprus this year to make a dish called ambelopoulia.
Cyprus has one of the worst fresh water shortage than other regional countries, including Lebanon, Israel and Syria. The problem is so bad that reservoirs have gone dry and trees are dying.
With space labs, astronaut gloves and even a toothbrush floating in space, is there no limits to where we’ve flung our junk? Thirty-four years ago the charred remains of a spaceship fell to earth. The spaceship was named Skylab and it was the last orbiting remnant of NASA’s grandiose Apollo era when Saturn V moon rockets […]
Animals the world over are changing where they live as humans effect changes on the land. Beyond the bees (see what this market would look like without bees!), the latest decline to be noticed are fruit bats in Cyprus
Better call out that airborne Mediterranean pollution surveillance crew Tafline just wrote about! Last Tuesday, an oil tanker delivering fuel to a power plant in the Turkish Cypriot-controlled north of Cyprus spilled approximately 40 tons of oil into the Mediterranean Sea.
It is a little known fact outside of conservation and hunting circles, Sherif Baha el Din from Nature Conservation Egypt told The Guardian, but Egyptian hunters will destroy thousands of migratory birds in the coming weeks as they make their way from Europe back to Africa for the winter.
Want to go from one high fashion look to a completely different one without getting undressed? Hussein Chalayan is a high-end transformer clothing designer.
Mediterranean sharks risk extinction while “serious implications” feared for marine ecosystems and beyond. Accidental catches and sharks for fin soup are to blame Shark populations in the Mediterranean and Black Sea have dropped dramatically over the last two centuries and now risk extinction, with serious implications for the region’s entire marine ecosystem and food chains, […]
A new research paper traces the roots of the wild olive to one location. Olives, staple of Mediterranean cuisine, have dubious origins. Called the “tree of life” for the sustenance it provides and its myriad non-food uses (read our list of 10 weird and wonderful ways to use olive oil), the domesticated olive tree is central […]
Humans have been plucking the fruit off olive trees for over 10,000 years, so it’s no surprise we’ve found creative ways to use olives and their oils. They’re native to the Mediterranean-basin, and probably first domesticated in Crete, but who first hatched the recipe for extracting olives’ oils remains an mystery. We know the stuff is tasty, and […]