Billboard in Honor of World Breastfeeding Week, Sydney, Australia. The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) sponsored the 2010 celebration of World Breastfeeding Week on August 1-7. The theme, “Toward a Baby-Friendly World,” highlights ten steps to ensure success in breastfeeding. Breastfeeding reduces the rate of infant illness and mortality and protects mothers from post-partum […]
Social housing can be eco-friendly too, in Syria, Lebanon, and Tunisia [image courtesy of seir+seir] Syria says no to plastic bags, Lebanon is pushing for more sustainable transportation, and Tunisia makes good shakshuka. But what do these three countries have in common? They are all participating in the So’Eco program under the auspices of the […]
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 […]
The Mecca of green? “Green” activism has defined Jewish and Christian culture for decades already. Now, Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia keen to “green” the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Yussif Osman sits quietly by his desk, a framed piece of cloth behind him next to a picture of his father who died just a few years […]
Miriam’s series on medicinal Middle Eastern spices is reaching the end of the alphabet! Middle Eastern cuisine sometimes regards roses as a spice or flavoring. (above) R is for…Rose Buds. The Tunisian version of Baharat spice blend has crushed, dried roses in it. The complex Iranian Advieh spice mixture also contains rose buds. You find dried […]
Farming the sun from hot climates to Europe? This is the plan of DESERTEC. Today we speak with Oliver Steinmetz. Oliver’s a co-founder and volunteer board member for the DESERTEC Foundation, a small NGO founded in 2008 to promote the DESERTEC concept of supplying clean energy from desert regions to regions with less sun, like […]
Every day is a beach day in Morocco. In a smart move, the country unveils its plans to solar-ize the nation. Image via joaomaximo Countries in the Arab world are starting to wake up to the potential of solar energy, especially those with no known oil reserves. Morocco is the latest to announce its intentions […]
Destertec and Masdar (above) are heating up solar energy opportunities in the Middle East. Tap into this new energy at the 2nd Annual MENASOL conference, this year in Egypt. Image via Masdar website. Green Prophet wants to remind you about MENASOL –– the major solar energy conference taking place in Cairo, Egypt this May. You can […]
Want to accelerate your solar idea and move more developments into the Middle East? The MENASOL conference in Cairo’s gathering a critical mass of opinion leaders, experts and financing personnel this May. In a part of the world where it can take centuries for there to be something new under the sun, Cairo will be […]
Known for its health benefits, olive oil is such a defining part of the food culture in the Levant and Mediterranean region. Turkey aims to be #2, reports Arieh O’Sullivan. Government incentives and intensive planting of vast new plantations hope to set Turkey on path to topple rivals Italy, Greece and Tunisia for number two […]
Borj Cedria beach in Tunisia. This North African country speaks up after Copenhagen. The fallout from the failure of the Copenhagen climate change summit that ended last Friday continues to see world leaders lash out at the international community’s missteps. This time it is Tunisia’s Minister of Environment Nadir Hamada, who said the global leadership […]
I decided to take some minutes away from the hectic running back and forth to attend sessions in the UN Conference of Climate Change (COP15), taking place in the Danish capital Copenhagen, to grab some lunch. I stood in a long line and 20 minutes later had a tray of horribly tasting food (but filling) […]
Plant pathologist Norman Borlaug, 95, died this Saturday, raising questions about the legacy of industrial food in the Third World. In 1970, Borlaug received a Nobel Peace Prize for averting famine through bringing fertilizers, pesticides and new plant strains to countries like India, Mexico and Pakistan. But environmentalists argue that his plant engineering only delayed […]
Israeli solar energy companies such as Solel Solar, Aora, Ormat technologies, and a host of others are now world leaders in the development of sun power to produce electricity. But Israel, a small country of 7 million, with more than half its land area being desert, has been a solar energy pioneer virtually since its […]
With its Mediterranean climate Syria is a natural home to the olive tree (read about the history of the olive tree here). It is ranked 5th in the world in production of olive oil, behind Spain, Italy, Greece and Tunisia, with a share of 4.6% of world production. This makes the olive sector one of […]