The news that the American University of Cairo (AUC) would be the first from North Africa or the Middle East to participate in a US Department of Energy-sponsored Solar Decathlon competition was a source of great pride for all design and environment enthusiasts in our region.
Dr. Mamdouh Khalil, a professor of environmental sciences at Cairo University, told Al-Shorfa there is currently a waste disposal crisis in Egypt, because of the lack of waste recycling plants.
A nuclear bomb wipes out all of Tel Aviv and central Israel, using the Ground Zero app. There was much disagreement around the dinner table the other night about whether or not Israel will be obliterated if Iran drops a nuclear bomb. Will there be something to spare? Should Israelis expect a bomb to melt […]
Find out how Middle Eastern and North African nations fared in the recent global Ocean Health Index (I’ll give you a clue – not very well) With a recent Greenpeace report urging action to tackle the toxicity of Lebanon’s waters due to trash, now seems the perfect time to look into the health of the […]
Iranians may have turned to aubergines due to chicken shortages – but the world over may be forced to go vegetarian due to food shortages in the next 40 years According to the latest findings, the world’s population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid […]
What can Islam do for the environment? That’s a question I have been asking myself for some years now and, in all honestly, I am nowhere near answering it fully. I have definitely enjoyed looking into the green ethics of Islam in a bid to help Muslims worldwide take up the environmentally-friendly path, but I […]
A beautiful image is making the rounds on social networks and news websites. It shows three bright planets, Mercury, Venus and Saturn with each poised directly over one of the three pyramids at Giza Egypt. According to the story, this conjunction will occur on December 3, 2012 for the first time in 2737 years. Skeptics […]
On August 9th an electrical power outage hit people in parts of Cairo. This happened only ten days after India’s massive blackout grew to cover 22 northern states and impacted 600 million people. Both outages snarled traffic, stopped trains and turned off the lights for millions of people. But they also shared a common cause. When […]
Local press and environmentalists in Egypt claim that the unofficial garbage workers of Cairo – the Zabaleen – are being sidestepped by President Mohamed Morsi’s Clean Homeland campaign, which resolves to solve the country’s overwhelming garbage issue within 100 days. This was a dangerous promise to make given that so many of the systems required […]
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, landed on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He continued on to Uganda and Kenya, where he will inaugurate two Israeli-cooperation projects in agriculture and health. According to Gil Haskel, Israel’s ambassador to Uganda, the Jewish state is interested in strengthening agricultural cooperation and collaboration with Uganda. Agriculture and water are […]
The show isn’t over yet. Sky gazers traveled to Mitspeh Ramon, a town on the edge of the Ramon Crater in the Negev desert this weekend. Others followed onthegotours.com to Jordan’s Mt Nebo, Madaba and Wadi Rum. Still others traveled with adventurecompany.co.uk to the Sinai desert in Egypt. These isolated places all have a resource […]
Nothing escapes the watchful eye of Manar Moursi, the brains and the heart behind Studio Meem. You’ll recall that she recently displayed her sassy Off the Gireed furniture line at the Design is a Verb exhibition at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Arts Center and continues to work with local artisans to produce unique, sustainable products that also celebrate Egypt’s cultural […]
Jordan’s armed security forces have been enlisted to protect the Kingdom’s scarce water resources from recurring vandalism and theft. Jordan is dealing with an increase in water theft. Ironically, as I type, I am awaiting a water truck arrival to refill our new apartment’s tank: I’d jumped in the shower, turned the knobs, and was met […]
In 1946 Hassan Fathy, Egypt’s Green architect, built a model village near Luxor called ‘New Gourna’ out of mud. But what happened to this stunning village? Hassan Fathy, author of Earth & Utopia is the Middle East’s father of sustainable architecture. Before it was fashionable or even fathomable, he was championing earth architecture in the […]
Building with earth can be beautiful, especially when viewed through the lens of Sicilian photographer Giusi Cosentino. We featured her work once before in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution. One of her most renowned images depicts a veiled woman holding a used canister of tear gas – a particularly lethal brand of which was […]