Hydroponic Farms Sustain Urban Gazans
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Gaza has set up a project addressing Gaza’s food insecurity, reports The Star. Where a buffer zone now stands on former agricultural land, farming has disappeared.
Religions Sign On to Save the River Jordan
Our favorite peace-water NGO Friends of the Earth Middle East have just held a conference in Jordan last week and there had faith leaders sign the “Covenant for the Jordan River” to save the Jordan River.
Hawa Akkar Wind Farm to Illuminate 60,000 Lebanese Homes in First for Country
Lebanese renewable energy have fallen short of its ambitious goal of reaching 12 percent of Lebanon’s energy needs by the year 2020. But now it is in the middle of building its first wind farm at about 60 MW in the country’s north.
ShelterBox: You Can Help Philippine Survivors NOW
The number of people left homeless by the devastating Philippines typhoon Haiyan has topped 800,000 according to the latest United Nations estimate. Haiyan was the biggest storm ever recorded to reach landfall, wiping out entire villages and killing over 4,000 people (numbers continue to rise). Feeling the inevitable urge to assist?
Abu Dhabi is Phasing Out Cars and Siemens Wants to Help
Dubai’s metro started running in 2009 (don’t fall asleep though) but Abu Dhabi, the wealthier Emirate, is only now reducing its dependence on cars with a swanky new rail and tram system. And Siemens hopes to hop on board.
Green Roofed and Wi-Fi Enabled Tawseela Micro Buses Cut Through Cairo’s Traffic
There’s traffic. And then there is Cairo traffic, which can drive even the saintliest men and women to a special kind of madness. But a new public transportation option has popped up that could make getting from point A to point B significantly less stressful.
Design a Bridge for the Strait of Hormuz – Crucial Passage for Global Oil
It is one of the most important bodies of water in the world, the only one to link the Persian Gulf with the open ocean, and it is frequently at risk of closure due to politics. Here’s your chance to design a new bridge for the Strait of Hormuz.
Ruslan Khasanov’s Microbeads “Psychedelic” Soap Are Polluting Our Seas
A photographic series entitled Pacific Light captures a spellbinding dance that begins when ink, paint and soap collide. Watch stunning color combinations puddle and swirl. Visual artist Ruslan Khasanov snapped gorgeous photos, but his video and GIFs (short for Graphic Interchange Format, a form of computer image that moves as soundless animation) are spectacular.
Israeli Researchers Make Oil from Greenhouse Gas
A replacement for oil has become a burning need in the 21st century. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers in Israel have invented a process to make a green feed alternative for crude oil out of two of the most common substances on Earth – water and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Beirut Residents Revolt Against Plan to Destroy Iconic Massad Stairs
Beirut residents are fed up: everywhere they look there are cranes and bulldozers turning their city into a giant concrete mess and even the smallest efforts to beautify the city are destroyed. This time they are saying no to a municipal plan to demolish the iconic Massad stairs.
Solar-Powered ‘Desert Cascades’ Cube Gushes Water in the Desert
The same team behind SunGlacier, an extraordinary solar-powered artificial leaf that produces ice in the middle of the desert, has come up with a new concept – ‘Desert Cascades.’
Formula One Drivers Take On Dubai in an Electric Twizy Frenzy (video!)
A tiny two-person electric car may be the last choice for Formula One race car drivers, but that was the electric ride of choice last week as Formula One drivers rode around Dubai. With massive luxury cars as the status quo, the Twizy was an unusual choice. But alas, it was all about promotion by Renault.
Middle East Deserts as Seen From Space: Far-Out Photos!
The European Space Agency (ESA) publishes satellite photos of Earth (and photos of space taken from Earth) in an incredible archive that’s updated weekly. Each image is paired with a brief explanation about what you’re looking at. Check out this selection – if the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could take “selfies”, these would […]
Greenhouse Gases Peak at Record Levels for 2012, Highest in 800,000 Years
Just in case you thought that UN’s 95 percent certainty that climate change is happening is a gimmick, the same United Nations body assessing our fate and its connection to greenhouse gas emissions released last week another shocker that’s no big surprise: last year 2012, saw the greatest amount of emissions to our planet yet.
Israel’s Energy Industries Wins Power From Garbage Contract in Ghana
Who says that garbage can’t be used to create energy, including electricity? The same garbage that created eyesores like the Tel Aviv Garbage Mountain, where Israel hopes to build the Middle East’s largest recycling plant will also be used to create power from natural gas.