The Alhambra palace and fortress in Granada, with its mesmerizing series of courtyards, gardens and vistas that turn light and shadow into toys, may be the Moors’ crowning achievement. But the world heritage site has become so popular, visitors must wait hours just to get inside. Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza hopes to change that.
Alvaro Siza makes it easier to visit the spectacular Alhambra palace in Spain
5 unusual and environmental places to stay in Dubai
It’s no trouble to find a place to stay overnight in Dubai. Hotels and luxury is begging and calling. But what if you are the green and eco persuasion? You’ve promised to replace your polluting air miles with a softer landing. Green Prophet gives you 5 earth friendly hotel alternatives in Dubai.
1. Surf couches in Dubai. Yes it’s possible. Not all Dubai couches are lined with gold. Well, maybe faux gold (not like the white gold Mercedes here). Read our backgrounder on couch surfing in the Middle East and surf away. Who knows maybe you’ll meet a Middle Eastern prince. Tafline shows you how it’s done.
2. Camp in Dubai. Pack your tent on the plane and get set to camp in Dubai. You might feel out of place running into the jet set with sand under your fingernails, but you will feel what it’s like to be a desert nomad, for a least a couple of days. For the spoiled ones, this list even suggests some place where you can do 5 star camping. Our fearless traveller Tafline has even spent nights out in her car, while travelling in the United Arab Emirates.
3. Rent a house, apartment, yacht, cave, caravan… you name it, on AirBnB. In the real world, most of the actual listings in Dubai are for rooms with views (like of Burj Dubai) in luxury buildings, but it’s certainly softer to tread on the planet this way.
4. Hostel it. Some of the rooms offered are at a school campus in Ajman for about $15 a night. Other rooms in small hostels are from $50 to about $100 a night. My experience with youth hostels in the Middle East is that they are not only used by youth but also by foreign workers and male travellers from other Middle East countries. If you are comfortable with the clash of cultures, go for it.
5. Like Green Prophet’s Tafline who has been on a sailing journey for months, it is possible to sail or boat into Dubai on a modest sailboat or a luxury cruise ship. We prefer the modest options, obviously, but we’d be okay with your ship if it were powered by renewable energy like this one.
Ski the Middle East with a natural born skier
The Middle East, in spite of unusual indoor places like Ski Dubai is not exactly on the main track of international ski sites and resorts like Cortina in Italy or Aspen. But the Middle East has some stunning and relatively unknown locations worth hitting. Ever think about skiing Iran? Or sliding down slopes in Lebanon?
How pesticides kill your brain
The tragedy of two little girls dying from pesticide poisoning in Jerusalem, while their older brothers fight for their lives highlights the immediate daners of pesticides. This tragic incident has finally succeeded in bringing to the forefront the seriousness of overuse of pesticides in a country whose best loved vegetables carry heavy pesticide loads.
Health issues from pesticides on crops and in the home is nothing new. Whether or not these toxic chemicals are directly sprayed on food, they eventually reach our underground water supplies and are present in the air we breathe as well.
The end result of exposure to various types of pesticides, especially DDT, is now being ascertained in studies made by medical authorities in the USA which found correlations between people who had been exposed to the pesticide DDT having greater chance to be afflicted with neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia later in life.
Studies carried out by Jason Richardson, from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey found that although the debilitating mental condition known as Alzheimer’s disease is linked genealogical and lifestyle factors, being exposed to pesticides like DDT may also be contributing to mental deterioration later in life.
Altzheimer’s patients had 4 times the amount of DDT vs control
“DDE can last in the body for a number of years,” said lead author Jason Richardson of Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “When you are looking at DDE levels, it is basically a snapshot of a person’s lifetime exposure to DDT as well as DDE in the environment.”
The findings were published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
Richardson said that while he expected to see a correlation between Alzheimer’s and DDE levels, he did not expect it to be so dramatic. The average amount of DDE in the serum of the 86 people in the Alzheimer’s group was four times greater than the average amount in the control group of 79.
The studies found that those people who were exposed to DDT and related pesticides had much higher levels of a substance called DDE, which is a broken down form of DDT.
“More than likely you’re looking at complex gene-environment interactions. What we found really gives us a starting off point. Now we can use that information to try to understand who is at risk, when and ultimately, why,” said Richardson.
“This is one of the first studies identifying a strong environmental risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” says co-author Allan Levey, MD, PhD at Emory University School of Medicine. “The magnitude of the effect is strikingly large — it is comparable in size to the most common genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s.”
Another researcher, Kathleen Hayden of North Carolina’s Duke University says that researchers would want to follow people prospectively to see whether or not they later become afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
“DDT exposure is not destiny that you’re definitely going to get Alzheimer’s disease. These are things that might increase your risk,” Hayden adds.
The use of DDT was banned in the USA during the 1970’s; but is still in use today in many parts of the world.
People known as “baby boomers” in the USA who were exposed in their youth to DDT and other strong pesticides are now reaching their 70’s and this may account for the rise in mind related illnesses.
In Israel, many immigrants during the 1950’s were literally hosed down with DDT by health works when arriving, due to fears that these people carried lice and other forms of vermin in their hair and on their bodies.
By far, the heavy use of pesticides like DDT being sprayed on crops in some countries is an issue that requires public attention as to what affect these pesticides have on humans.
From the tragedy of the deaths of two little girls, aged 1 1/2 and 4 from pesticide poisoning, the effects on humans of pesticides can be very sad indeed. The take home message is support organic agriculture, and even better yet buy products that support organic regenerative agriculture. And if possible, grow your own food. Start with a Victory Garden.
More on pesticides, including those in food:
Pesticide Poisoning Kills Two Kids in Jerusalem
Sustainable Table Film Shows what’s on Your Plate
Israel’s Best-Loved Vegetables Carry Heavy Pesticide Loads
Pesticides in Pregnant Jerusalemites Higher Than NYC Counterparts
Iraq’s leaning Hadba Tower is dangerously close to collapse
Wait a minute, there, Pisa, you’re not the only contortionist building on the block! A beloved old minaret in a Mosul mosque that leans 8 feet off its perpendicular axis may soon topple; an unusual casualty of ongoing unrest in one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities.
Provocative Israeli art explores the fake and fraudulent – but why?
Israeli photographic duo Wyse + Gabriely concluded their first European exhibition at London’s Neu Gallery this month; an attention-grabbing presentation that purportedly explores “the fake and the fraudulent”.
Masdar sues Spain over solar energy subsidy cuts
Masdar has sued the Spanish government. The multi-pronged company funded in part by the government of Abu Dhabi helped build the world’s first 24/7 solar power plant in Spain, a feat made possible in part with subsidies. But Spain has now cut incentives for renewable energy, which eats into Masdar’s investment.
Arab Gulf recycles paper, plastic, and cars!
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) does everything big, including recycling, and this week they’ve officially opened their first plant dedicated to recycling cars! An estimated 11,000 UAE vehicles get scrapped every month.
Some simply reach their shelf-life, others are abandoned at airport parking lots and city back streets by debt-ridden expatriates and native boys who no longer can pay for their luxury toys.
Now all that automotive litter will be put to better use: “This is the only facility today that can deal with end-of-life vehicles in the country. We encourage insurance companies, dealers and government departments to use this service,” said Najib Faris, chief commercial officer of Bee’ah, the plant operator.
Dumped cars will be manually dismantled, then sliced and diced to allow valuable metals to be salvaged, and plastics, tires, upholstery, cables and mechanical parts to be recycled or refurbished within the Bee’ah compound. Previously, old clunkers were sold to scrap dealers, who stripped off spare parts and sold the car carcasses on the international market.
Workers separate cables, which are sent to electronic waste traders, and foam cushions that can be recycled locally. Window glass is pulverized and used for landfill cover. The company aims to sell engines and transmissions to international companies that refurbish them.
The facility began trial operations in October and has already processed about 350 old cars. Its capacity is much greater; Darker El Rabaya, director of waste processing at Bee’ah, told The National that its “shredder” (the equipment for processing car bodies) has a capacity of 60 vehicles an hour.
“Recycling consumes a lot less energy and a lot less water than producing virgin materials,” said Faris. It also diverts waste from landfills.
While the facility is now technically ready, a key issue for the next few months is to ensure a steady supply. As long as car dumping remains an Emirati epidemic, that ought not be a problem.
We’ve heard that some Emiratis prefer to just abandon unwanted cars, even Mercedes, Jags and BMWs at the airport, rather than get them scrapped. This initiative could change that.
Image of the Bee’ah “shredder” from The National
“Pop Arak” Arakino raises eyebrows and elbows in Israel
There are usually no great surprises at the major wine festivals, which are held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. You tend to bump into the same winemakers over and over again. Some stands represent not wineries, but fruit-based liqueurs, or beer. At the Wine Jerusalem festival held last week, I was surprised to find a new twist on the classic Middle Eastern tipple, arak.
Dubai, Abu Dhabi ban high energy incandescent light bulbs
After July, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the world’s largest oil producers, will no longer import high energy incandescent light bulbs. And by the end of the year, it will be impossible to buy them. Hit the jump to find out what this means for you.
5 reasons to go “no poo” and ditch shampoo
A new trend is sweeping across America: scores of people are ditching shampoo for more earth and hair-friendly alternatives – including nothing at all. But would this work in the Middle East? Would the lovely ladies of Lebanon ever give up their luscious shiny locks? Turns out, they wouldn’t have to. Check out five reasons to embrace “No poo.”
In Jordan, 33 percent standing can’t see their feet
Jordan is becoming a heavyweight on the global stage, but this is nothing to puff up about. The kingdom is among the world’s worst countries for obesity according to Oxfam’s World Food Index 2013, with 33% of standing Jordanians unable to see their feet. Over 14% of the population is also diabetic.
Dubai’s Burj Al Arab earns green globe certification
Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab hotel has earned an international Green Globe Certification. Not as news-worthy as when Tiger Woods teed off its rooftop, or when it served as cloud-touching tennis court for Andre Agassi and Roger Federer, but this nod from a recognized green rating system is making headlines for sustainable urban tourism.
Desert Breath spirals on Red Sea remind us of troubled Egypt’s immense beauty
To many Egyptians, the desert is a hostile place: water is scarce, terror cells hide in its vast expanse, or land mines make crossing them a death trap. But the Desert Breath land art project near Hurghada on the Red Sea coast reminds us that Egypt, despite its many troubles, is a place of extraordinary beauty.
Masafer Yatta: the Palestinian cave dwellers of Firing Zone 918 (photos)
Many environmentally aware people from the global middle and upper class choose off-grid living, though that lifestyle is usually supplemented with solar panels and other accoutrements. But for the 1,300 Palestinians who call Masafer Yatta home, living with almost nothing is no longer a choice.