With input from over 100 Middle Eastern leaders, the Swiss government has produced a positive tool that could transform regional water policies. There are no foregone conclusions. How the next few decades proceed depends on us, on actions that we take today. We know that the Jordan River barely exists six months every year, such […]
Despite this water fountain in Kurdistan, water there is scarce. This is not how poor Iraqis perceive their own shortages. We have long suspected that in the coming years, as climate change and population expansion put pressure on natural resources, conflicts will arise. The ongoing Egyptian protests demonstrate how repressed rage eventually surfaces when autocrats […]
The Guangzhou Opera House will open soon, ushering in yet another building of mass ecological destruction. Occasionally, readers accuse Green Prophet writers of being killjoys. Israel finds the Leviathan gas field and throws the party of the century, but we hang our heads, certain of the environmental and social destruction that will follow. And when […]
No turkey here; but plenty of other good things that can make holiday meals festive yet veggie. Although I admit to sometimes being a meat eater, I do agree that eating meat can go overboard on national secular holidays like Thanksgiving in America, and especially when I look back on how it was celebrated back […]
We’ve only got one life, and one planet. Time to get off your armchair folks and learn a little more about your planet. Green Prophet challenges you to think over a trip to the Middle East for your next eco-holiday. We’ve picked out 7 places worth seeing, and preserving. 1. The Dead Sea See from […]
Traveling sandstorms force Middle Eastern countries to cooperate, despite former water disagreements. Approximately two thirds of the Middle East is comprised of desert, including as it does the largest continuous expanse of sand (in Saudi Arabia) known as Rub’ Al Khali or the empty quarter. With so little moisture there are no hovering clouds, and […]
The best designers from the Arab world - ever.
$5 Billion couldn’t put their country back together; will Iraqis be able to pick up the pieces? What is more wasteful than war? Bomb a place, destroy its infrastructure so that ordinary citizens lack basic services, topple a few monuments important to the national identity targeted, kill several thousand people, including approximately 100,000 civilians according […]
A heat wave in Russia topples its wheat supply, leaving Egypt in the lurch. And threats of shortages, have international media in a panic. Due to the weather in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan’s wheat production will drop by as much as 27 per cent in 2010/2011. And recently, a wheat fungus in Iraq due to […]
Named after his father who died of cancer in 2002, Joshua Mater established the Michael Scott Mater Foundation (MSMF) to create sustainable solutions to world problems Just today, reports came in that a suicide bomber killed and injured more Iraqis in Baghdad, soon after the United States committed to its withdrawal from the country, and […]
Despite best intentions, Saudi’s Mahazat as-Sayd reserve fence led to the deaths of hundreds of animals between 1991 and 2008 After realizing the damage that plundering humans have had on wildlife habitat, conservationists have developed schemes aimed at reversing some of that damage. Recent programs include tagging turtles in Qatar to better understand their habitat, […]
Get mad about poor energy policies that are heating up our planet, and then get organized on 10-10-10 I was taught the value of balanced writing free of slanted language. “Let the facts speak for themselves,” my noble university professors proclaimed. “Don’t appeal to emotion.” But as a working environmental journalist emotionally and intellectually saturated […]
Inspired by Babylon’s Hanging Gardens? Weber Thompson’s Vertical Farm pyramid concept can be used in Abu Dhabi or Dubai as well. American cities like Newark New Jersey are a long way from Abu Dhabi or Cairo; but vertical farming concepts now being planned for American cities, are also being considered for locations in the Middle […]
We understand the impulse to stay cool and protect blood and brains from cooking, but it is wise to exercise caution in order to ensure a lasting electricity supply for everyone while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.
Our weekly series looking at the Middle East Arabic blogosphere. This week: Iraq. And a green blog that began after Saddam Hussein’s demise. After looking at Mazen Abboud’s environmental blog from Lebanon and at SAWA for A Better Syrian Society, we are flying this week to Syria’s next-door neighbor, Iraq, and to a blog written […]