The Hula Valley Bird Park offers unique bird and nature-watching opportunities. We birdwatchers sat in a covered safari wagon as lines of cranes criss-crossed the evening sky. More and more cranes began to appear, and soon the air was full of powerful-looking birds calling in hoarse, creaking voices. Hundreds landed to roost in a field […]
‘Rafea – Solar Mama’ marks a young mother’s battle to bring solar power to her village in the deserts of Jordan Green films have been making a real splash across the region right now. From Eco Qatari folktales about drought to hard-hitting documentaries about trash in Turkey, environmentally-aware movies have been on the up. Now, […]
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz walks to the podium to speak during a ceremony marking the start of exploratory oil and gas drilling by Turkey in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot northern half of Cyprus, near Singrasi village, in April. Turkey’s onshore wells near Singrasi came as hostilities ratcheted up between Turkey and the Cyprus Republic […]
Water scarcity is not a new dilemma in the Middle East, but as populations grow, desertification spreads and temperatures creep higher, leaders in the region are understandably concerned for the future. Poorer countries like Yemen or the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan are particularly vulnerable, while oil-rich nations can at least use their wealth to explore new […]
The poorest country in the Arab world is addicted to chewing catha edulis or khat leaves, which gives men, women and children, an amphetamine-like high. Abdulmalik, a 13-year-old boy from Yemen’s capital city Sana’a, started chewing khat leaves at the age of seven. “My father would pass me small handfuls at weddings,” he told The […]
Wayne Westerman poses in front of his beloved Fisker Karma which is greener than his former Aston Martin DB9. He tells Green Prophet: there is no risk. The Fisker Karma plug in hybrid electric vehicle, which is now being offered to buyers in several Middle Eastern countries, has been the subject of controversy. According to […]
Every year it’s the same thing. Hundreds of delegates from around the world fly somewhere to agree to climate change solutions. Journalists bemoan the lack of progress, environmentalists criticize the amount of carbon emissions spewed into the atmosphere as a result and the public at large completely loses faith in the process. The UN Convention of […]
German project developer juwi has installed their first combined wind and solar plant in Egypt to be used for desalinating and pumping irrigation water for farms and it is monitored and controlled remotely from Germany. Located halfway between the bustling cities of Cairo and Alexandria in Wadi El-Natrun, the new plant is comprised of four 12 […]
It might seem like I haven’t picked up an atlas in a while since Green Prophet is devoted to Middle Eastern issues, but this story about a Brazilian beekeeper and his appropriately-suited helper was just too sweet not to share. After all, donkeys are essential to thousands of residents from Morocco to Yemen, and beekeepers from […]
A plant-rich diet is best for your sexual and reproductive wellbeing. The Mediterranean Diet is often hailed as an excellent choice for those who want to ensure lifelong vitality, fertility and reproductive stamina. This diet is noteworthy for what’s it in – whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables, fatty fish and […]
Hurricane Sandy bulldozed my home coastline with a ferocity rarely seen outside the big screen. It ploughed through lives of friends and family, shredding homes, floating cars, and drowning pets. We can debate the causes of climate change, but the increasingly damaging effect of extreme weather upon basic civil services is indisputable. In a crisis, […]
Over the past week, there has been much fanfare and reporting on Spain’s surprising absence from the signing of the first Desertec project, leaving many to question if Spain was pulling out altogether from the project. Certainly, it was not the right move by Spain to simply not show up at the signing event, but […]
The last global climate meetings weren’t considered very successful in finding an acceptable successor to the Kyoto-protocol, one with emission targets that would include all the countries and not only developed ones. China recently became the world’s biggest emitter, and it will be hard to limit the temperature variation if the developing world, and more […]
One of the most recognizable and untamable architects on earth, Iraqi Zaha Hadid is celebrating two grand openings of her creations this week, including the Galaxy SOHO commercial and retail complex in Beijing, China. Swooping and fluid, and reminiscent of dunes and rivers and other natural features common in the Middle East, the sprawling 330,000 […]
It’s real-life Hunger Games, and the Middle East is among the busiest land-grabbers. In the last decade, nearly half a billion acres of land – eight times the area of Great Britain – were sold or leased in transnational deals, according to a 2012 report published by the Land Matrix project, a coalition of research […]