Springtime in Jordan means sandstorms, not downpours, but a solid week of rain just pummeled Amman – lashing, cold, complete with thunder! Here’s how we locals beat the doldrums caused by Jordan’s Arab Spring – on the cheap!
Some countries like Canada are trying to say goodbye to human-delivered postal mail forever. But a new initiative from the United Arab Emirates puts a little 21st Century technology into the old mail carrier.
Severed goat heads, bloody and besieged by flies, lay side-by-side on a butcher’s slab. A dozen lethal serpents, coiled and poised to strike, wove back and forth before a snake charmer in the Marrakech souk.
Dubai’s record-breaking skyline is the stuff of imagination bolstered by immense wealth, a powerful combination that mostly results in epic fail architecture. A new rotating skyscraper is in planning stage, an investment in gimmickry over game-changing sustainability, moving this city a step closer to its looming 22nd Century reality as the world’s best bad building […]
Pablo Picasso once said, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” So, it’s off to the art galleries all you in Abu Dhabi: your meteorological agencies are warning of epic dust storms ahead.
New life for old oil fields? Last year Oman inaugurated a 7MW solar pilot plant that produces steam to loosen thick, stubborn oil. Petroleum Development Oman has since hailed the four acre complex of glass houses a scorching success, and the supplier GlassPoint is preparing to become the “Ikea of solar,” Forbes reports.
Dubai is prone to frequent dust storms. A new solar panel dust particle remover made in Israel boosts power and cleans off dust at the same time Solar voltaic panels, which at their best only have about 25 percent efficiency for converting direct sunlight into electricity, have even less efficiency than this when dust and […]
Following the inauguration of Suntech’s new research centre in Arava, we speak to their Chief Technology Officer (pictured centre) about the future of renewables in the Middle East As one of the largest producers of solar panels, Suntech is undoubtedly a world player. In Israel alone, out of a total of 220 solar megawatts produced, […]
Pollen and ash in Nile river delta sediment provides evidence of ancient climactic events including mega-droughts and wildfires which wiped out pyramid-building civilizations, says a study published in the recent July 2012 edition of Geology. They waited seventy days for her to reappear. Finally she came. For a moment just before sunrise, the bright star […]
The 19-month conflict in Syria goes from bad to worse – and there are environmental impacts for the region too “The situation is bad and getting worse,” U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said today, lamenting the collapse of the truce he helped broker over the Eid al-Adha holiday. A car bomb which exploded near […]
Eole Water from France has developed a water-producing wind turbine and Gulf states are drooling at the jowls to have at least one of their own. The WMS 1000 currently undergoing testing in Dubai following tests in France and Abu Dhabi captures moisture in the air that is then condensed and filtered to standards exceeding […]
Earth’s dust storms and sand storms are becoming more frequent. How does that affect your health? Here in the Middle East, powerful hot winds sometimes drop fine yellowish sand down from the sky, coating the skin and lips irritatingly and making it hard to see across the street. It’s the lashing tail of giant storms […]
Your reusable totes may be full of bacteria and can turn you seriously “green”. Time to practice good bag hygiene. Researchers at the University of Arizona tested 84 reusable shopping totes and found over half were contaminated with harmful bacteria, including the dangerous E.coli. Contamination occurs when fluids such as fruit juices and meat blood leak […]
The world’s largest solar thermal plant – nearly double the size of the original largest in Denmark – is now online in Saudi Arabia, reinforcing the notion that this Gulf country has the potential to maintain its current oil wealth by exporting solar power for the next twenty centuries. Originally awarded to Jordan’s Millennium Energy […]
A host of eco-tourism initiatives in Egypt are moving away from the packaged tour to nature-based experiences Nature has been developing solutions to its own challenges for the last 3.8 billion years, so two women in Egypt have set up an eco-tourism venture that tunes into that infinite wisdom. Biologists Sara el-Sayed and Betty Khoury […]