Famous for designing the Hoberman Sphere, Chuck Hoberman has since turned his talents to Saudi Arabia, where two luxury spas will feature his latest invention – a moving mesh facade that dapples harsh sunlight.
Like giant greenhouses, each three story polygonal spa boasts a vast atrium and all manner of plants. A custom perforated skin comprised of no fewer than four layers of titanium, two of which are kinetic, provides natural light and ventilation.
King Mohammed VI rode with French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and head of Moroccan government Abdelilah Benkirane on Casablanca’s spiffy new tramway during its debut run, which traversed the distance between United Nations Square and Mohammed Square on 12 December, 2012.
Designed to reduce air pollution, ease vehicular congestion and increase economic development in what is arguably Morocco’s busiest city, the 31km Y-shaped line connects all of the city’s hot spots, but not everybody has rolled out a red carpet for the new Rapid Transit Tram System.
We focus on sustainable eating in the Middle-East/North Africa region. Try Kabsa, a one-pot dish from Saudi Arabia. It’s the Saudi Arabian national dish, served with fried almonds, pinenuts, and raisins, and parsley sprigs.
What does eating sustainably mean to you?
By definition, sustainable food is nutritionally healthy, supports local agriculture and guarantees a fair wage to workers. Sustainable agriculture maintains and enriches the natural resources that our food supply depends on.
On a personal level, eating sustainably entails more than picking up a kilo of organic apples at the supermarket. It’s reading about humane conditions on local farms and slaughter houses, finding out where your staple foods come from and making informed choices. It’s about choosing produce that’s in season, then taking it home and cooking it with the flavors of the place you live in.
It’s amazing how right food tastes when it’s appropriate to the locale.
As vegewarian as we may be – which means choosing less meat in our diet – it would be futile to deny that Saudi Arabians eat meat as often as they can. Lamb and chicken are the main meats, most often grilled, fashioned into kebabs, combined with rice or packed into a revolving rotisserie spit as shwarma. Saudis eat an enormous amount of chicken. (But here’s a meatless Saudi vegewarian recipe.)
The Beduin drink sheep, goat, or camel milk. Labneh is a popular base for sauces. Ful beans, rice and wheat, and dates are important elements in the traditional Saudi menu too. And the traditional flatbread, khubs, is eaten at all meals, sometimes being used to scoop food out of one’s plate or mop up delicious traces of sauce. Other breads are laffa, a large, flexible flatbread often used as a wrapping, and fatir, or barley bread.
Saudi Arabian cuisine features rich textures and big, spicy flavors. This chicken and rice recipe proves it.
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
cup basmati rice, washed and rinsed
2 tablespoons oil
2 bay leaves
1 diced onion
2 diced garlic cloves
6 whole green cardamom pods
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 dried limes (available in Middle Eastern shops) or juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup mixed pine nuts and raisins
Soak the rice in water to cover for 15 minutes.
Saute onions, in an 8-quart stockpot on medium-high heat, until golden. Add garlic and bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon sticks, dried limes, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, ginger and cardamom. Blend well and continue to fry for 30 seconds.
Add tomato sauce. Mix well until sauce thickens. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add chicken and sauté for a 1 minute.
Stir the chicken to absorb flavors on all sides.
Add water until chicken is completely covered. Bring to a full boil then reduce to low. Cook for 35 minutes covered.
Remove the chicken from the sauce to a broiling pan.
Measure 2 cups of sauce. In a separate saucepan, cook the rice in the measured sauce, bringing it to a boil then reducing heat to low. Cook 10 minutes.
Broil the chicken 5 minutes.
Spoon the rice over a platter and arrange the chicken on top. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, pine nuts, and raisins.
Enjoy!
More on sustainable eating in the Middle East:
6 Slow Food Revolutionaries in Lebanon
7 Books On Sustainable Food
Israel’s Best-Loved Vegetables Carry Heavy Pesticide Load
The traditional Middle Eastern concept of Hima, which means a protected area, has been explored and modernised as a type of sustainable development system under a new Hima Initiative.
“Compared to what you have experienced, the Hima concept we are promoting is different,” Walid Saleh who is part of the Hima Initiative told GreenProphet. And he is not kidding. Traditionally, Hima which has been practised for over 14,000 years in the Arabian Peninsula, is believed to be the most widespread system of traditional conservation in the Middle East. It helped protect pastures, trees, grazing lands and set aside natural resources for the public good. Today, it has been modernised by a group of thinkers to mean a Human Integrated Management Approach (or HIMA) which is “standalone Sustainable Development System based on Islamic Environmental Ethics, & Laws, and indeed the lessons learned from the Hima system.”
Israel’s electric car concept company Better Place has assured media that the company is able to secure investment to continue its mission of pushing the electric car market forward in Israel and other countries such as Australia and Denmark. Two months after firing its iconic CEO Shai Agassi, the company’s new CEO announced that the company has a new business plan set in action which will put the company at the center of providing “services” to electric car owners. This is over developing and providing electric cars to consumers. But Evan Thornley the new Australian CEO was vague on how this business plan will roll out in real terms.
According to Thornley in the business newspaper the Marker, Better Place will operate battery-charging services for electric cars and in this capacity would operate much like a chain of gas stations for electric vehicles, whether they be the Better Place produced Renault-Nissan Fluence models or the EVs of other electric car companies (like the mini EVs that could be rented in Tel Aviv?). Thornley did not mention that the company will lower prices as he believes this is not the barrier to selling more Better Place EVs. Drivers, he said, must be willing to pay more for the electric car experience, for the status, just as they do to drive BMWs.
A couple of months ago Better Place had sold a little more than 500 of its electric cars and if I had bought one (the company had hoped to sell some 10,000 by around now) I’d probably have felt as though I’d bought a liability. What happens if the big vision flops? Will the battery swap stations become redundant? Will Better Place lift the tariff charge to use their controlled EV networks? Time will tell.
Above image of Green Prophet Maurice about to embark on a Better Place test run.
Live export controversy hits Middle East with full force: Australia may be merciful when raising its cattle at home. That all changes once they head to the Middle East market.
Animals and animal rights are not top on any agenda in the Middle East, but in 2012, a number of incidents brought the controversial live export trade to the forefront of environmental and animal treatment in the region. First with Egypt, then with Bahrain and as a result, Pakistan. The deaths of tens of thousands of cows being transported from both Brazil and Australia to the region have once again put the controversial live export industry in the spotlight. 2012 was not a good year for animals in the region. Read on.
Earlier this year, some 30,000 cows died on a ship destined for Egypt after the Egyptian government refused to allow the ship to dock at a Red Sea port. They were slaughtered as a “precaution,” the ministry said.
Animals Australia, the leading organization reporting on the controversial live export trade to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, said the incident was among the worst the industry had witnessed in years.
Animals Australia’s Campaign Director, Lyn White, said in a statement that the ship was anchored at sea after being refused port in a number of countries in the region, including Egypt, where the cattle were supposed to be offloaded.
It’s understood that ventilation problems on the converted livestock vessel, the MV Gracia Del Mar, had caused the deaths of more than half of the animals on board since the ship left South America for Egypt a few weeks ago.
The ship was anchored in the Red Sea for weeks and saw more animals perish as a result.
“This is nothing short of an animal welfare disaster. If remaining cattle are not offloaded more of these animals will suffer appalling deaths at sea. We are appealing to authorities in Egypt to offload the remaining cattle at al-Sohkna, as was originally intended.
“This disaster is just another example of the inherent risks of transporting animals by sea. It was only nine years ago that 5,000 Australian sheep perished on board the MV Cormo Express after country after country refused to allow it to berth.
“And this isn’t the first time that mechanical issues have caused mass deaths on live export ships. We only need to look to the breakdown of the Al Messilah in Adelaide last year. Had that vessel broken down on the open ocean it would have caused a similar welfare catastrophe — as thousands of animals would have died.
“Australia also exports cattle to Al Sohkna Livestock company in Egypt. Whilst we have an MoU with Egypt which should ensure the offloading of our animals, it has never been put to the test. The Egyptians thus far have flatly refused to allow the MV Gracia Del Mar to dock despite the mass suffering of the animals on board.
“If they continue to refuse to allow the surviving animals to be unloaded it would provide little confidence that the non-binding agreement with Australia would be honoured if a similar incident were to occur on an Australian livestock ship.
“It should not matter if these cattle aren’t Australian and if Brazil doesn’t have a similar piece of paper, they should not be abandoned to suffer and die at sea. We are appealing to Egyptian authorities to offload these cattle as a matter of urgency.”
Bahrain helped to bring another tragedy to the forefront of international animal-related media after they refused to allow a ship carrying some 20,000 sheep to dock on its shores, forcing the vessel to Pakistan. The sheep fared even worse upon arrival in Pakistan.
Pakistan tried to bury sheep alive
Four Corners revealed that the sheep had survived the Pakistani government’s attempts to bury the animals alive.
“His fleece matted with blood and dirt — a reminder of the brutal mass slaughter he had lived through the night before,” Animals Australia said in a press release on the horror.
Animal abuse as “entertainment” in Gaza:
<iframe src=”https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/world/video/2013/dec/12/cattle-abuse-gaza-video” width=”660″ height=”390″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
“Perhaps more than any other live export disaster (and there have been many), the horrific sight of frightened animals being chased, beaten, stabbed, and then thrown mercilessly into trenches (many while still alive), shatters any belief that Australia can maintain control over the fate of live animals once exported from our shores,” added Animals Australia in a statement to its supporters.
The video expose is another shocking reminder of the horrific conditions animals are placed in as part of the live export industry, of which Australia is a leader.
But a positive for many animal rights activists is the decline in Australia’s live sheep exports over the past decade.
In 2010, three million sheep were exported compared with 6.3 million in 2001.
Australia’s government last year was to see a bill that would have banned live export to the world, but industry lobbyists fought back and forced the legislation off the table in a move that angered animal activists in the country and across the world, notably the Islamic world, which receives the lion’s share of live cattle and sheep from both Australia and Brazil.
READ related: animal abuse at meat slaughterhouse in Israel
The Tel Aviv municipality is considering a plan to rent out small electric vehicles on a short term basis to cut down on air pollution, clear the roads and free up parking. Building on the success of its Tel-o-Fun bike sharing program and a similar launch in Paris, the city will send out an international tender for an operator some time during 2013. Director General of the municipality Menahem Leibe announced the plan at a recent budget meeting in the city.
It is almost certain that a new green wall installed in Kuwait is the emirate’s very first. The 175 square foot vertical garden was installed in The Avenue Mall’s West Elm store to mark the first time the American furnishings company has opened an international branch.
Featuring resilient plants as diverse as Dracaena, White Butterfly, and Ficus Elastica Robusta, the living wall livens up the space while also conveying to clientele the firm’s growing environmental commitment.
Students from the American University of Beirut have worked with the Forum for Environment and Development to create a documentary on the environmental challenges facing the Arab world
The youth of the Arab world have had a particularly inspiring – if turbulent – last couple of years. Protests, revolutions and taste of real empowerment has made it into their lives and encouraged them to work to shape the future they want. As well as political corruption, one issue that is worrying young people is what the future holds if climate change isn’t dealt with. The formation of the Arab Youth Climate Movement ahead of COP18 has seen some of that concern realised into action. Now, students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) have worked with the Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) to create an informative and touching documentary on the environmental challenges facing the Arab world titled ‘That They May Have Life’.
Exploring issues such as clean energy and air pollution, the FeliCity exhibition in Tehran focuses on the need for green solutions
The environmental state of Iran is far from rosy. Pollution is amongst the highest in the world, their groundwater supplies are being overexploited and lack of food security means Iranians are turning veggie (part-time, of course). There is hope however that all these problems could be resolved and the solution may even come in the shape of green graphic design. That’s what the secretary of an Italian design festival titled FeliCity which was hosted in Tehran recently insists. A firm believer in the “power and importance in graphics in ordinary life”, Stefano Meneghetti says that highlighting the problems experienced in urban life can help encourage innovators to explore solutions as well.
Caught by Kolbotek’s hidden camera: a former dairy cow gets shocked on the way to being slaughtered
Following the TV exposure of severe animal abuse in Israel at the Tnuva Adom Adom livestock slaughterhouse a public outcry has been raised among Israel animal rights activists over the cruel tactics used on livestock brought there for slaughter. In addition to public demonstrations outside the Dairy Giant Tnuva’s headquarters in Tel Aviv petitions are being circulated to have the slaughterhouse closed down due to cruel and unusually harsh treat of animals.
Saudi Arabia has a lofty goal of storing CO2, known as carbon capture, by increasing oil recovery and reducing waste.
Carbon capture utilization has become one of the most innovative means of recycling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the globe, but has largely remained an untouched endeavour in the Middle East. Until now. Saudi Arabia’s Aramco research and development center believes that it has the ability to establish new technology that will facilitate carbon capture (also known as carbon sequestering) to dispose of the greenhouse gas emissions in a meaningful manner in its depleted oil reservoirs.
According to a local report published by The Peninsula in early December, the country and its national oil company hopes to implement an innovative system that will capture CO2 from industrial facilities across the Gulf Kingdom.
Chief Technologist at Aramco’s Carbon Management and Hydrogen Production Team Mohammed Al-Juaied said the country hopes to launch the Saudi Arabia Carbon Capture System (SACCS).
The move aims to enhance oil production in underground reservoirs. Basically, what happens is that through carbon capture, large quantities of the gas is taken and injected into oil depleted areas, which can then increase oil recovery and reduce waste from such facilities.
“The main objective of such a method is to safely and permanently store CO2. This is the only commercially viable technology for CCS and it has the potential to be greatly expanded, enhancing efforts to reduce CO2 emissions while enabling additional hydrocarbon recovery from mature fields,” wrote The Peninsula.
According to Al-Juaied, “it will give long term benefits.”
The engineer believes that removal efficiency can reach as high as 90 percent and will reduce oil-related pollutants that enter the air and are harmful to people’s health.
While this new technology is largely new, in Germany it has been used successfully to reduce harmful greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and furthering climate change destruction across the planet. The German government is hopeful that this will help reduce waste.
The thinking is that by capturing CO2 from major emitters, such as factories or refineries, and transporting to storage sites it can then be deposited into areas underground, such as Saudi’s idea of using it to jumpstart largely depleted reservoirs. In doing so, the CO2 remains outside the atmosphere and prevents the release of large amounts of CO2 into the air, a major cause of climate change today.
Saudi, like Germany and other countries, believe that this technology will help mitigate their contribution to fossil fuel abuse and emissions, enhance its oil recovery and create the means to limit their global footprint of GHG.
Update, in 2022 Saudi Aramco signed
Saudi Aramco signed a joint development agreement with SLB and Linde to establish a carbon capture and storage hub which will potentially be able to safely store up to 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2027, the company’s CEO, Amin Nasser, said. Aramco is set to contribute around 6 million tonnes, with the rest to come from other industrial sources.
The facility will be located in Jubail on the east coast of Saudi Arabia with a goal of making a significant contribution to the 44 million tonnes the kingdom plans to capture by 2035.
Read more on carbon capture:
Saudi Arabia holds out for carbon capture
Masdar’s carbon capture plan could cause comas
Masdar to and US DoE to Collaborate on Carbon Capture and Storage
Masdar and the Dicey Science of Carbon Credits
Falafel anyone? Saudi Arabia and Indian company will erect a biofuel plant based on used cooking oil.
Biofuel is coming to Saudi Arabia. After much success in neighbor Egypt in low income areas, Saudi Arabia hopes that a new joint venture between Jeddah-based Middle East Environment Protection (MEEP) and the India-based Biomax Fuels will help spur the renewable energy source for the Gulf Kingdom.
The announcement last week comes on the heels of a number of ambitious solar and wind energy prospects for the country, and with global oil expected to see drops in the coming decades as resources are depleted, Saudi wants to position itself as a leader in renewable energy. With Biomax entering the market, it could do so, and quickly.
A new trend is emerging throughout the Mediterranean and we kinda like it: a growing number of food artists and restauranteurs are bringing street food indoors. There’s a new joint in Cairo that serves Egyptian classics in a fresh, contemporary setting and now there is Souk – a vibrant space in Athens, Greece that serves up delicious Lebanese dishes around the clock! Designed by K Studio, this delightful eatery combines industrial-chic design with Islamic accents, creating a friendly, warm atmosphere.
A quiet little technology blog called Upworthy just posted a pie chart that, despite the solid pedigree of its source data, is likely to provoke debate so heated it may accelerate climate change. Kudos to Luigi Montanez, the site’s founding engineer, for recycling that ancient truism “a picture’s worth a thousand words”. Let the arguments begin.
Image from Luigi Montanez on Upworthy
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