Can a city relying on oil revenue and desalination really be labeled “eco”? (Image by dislona via flickr) At first, we felt a surge of pride to learn that Muscat, Oman, is the only Middle Eastern city on Mercer’s top 50 eco-city ranking. It ranks 48, just behind Glasgow, but ahead of Frankfurt. We were […]
At stake for Oman is the extinction of traditional handicrafts in the face of cheaper, machine made imitations. Man making khanjars (traditional Omani daggers). [image via: v.williams46] Omani handicrafts – such as silver items, woven cloths, and pottery – may have been passed down from generation to generation and faced difficulties such as material shortages […]
The Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza shut off their lights for one hour on Saturday evening in Egypt to mark Earth Hour, a global protest for climate change initiatives. The whole world sat in darkness for one hour as an attempt to bring awareness to the growing concerns facing the planet in terms […]
A water conference in Jordan was a call to arms in Arab world to fight water insecurity. Photo: Water tanks on the roofs of buildings in Madaba, Jordan. There are people in over 17 Arab countries living well below the water poverty line of 500 cubic metres annually, said Arab decision makers from around the […]
Could this “dry” setting be the entire Middle East one day if we don’t take environment issues seriously? Business concerns in the Middle East, especially real estate developers in countries like the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are not being concerned enough about the environment, according to a study just released by the UAE […]