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Renault’s Electric Mini Car is More Electric Bang for Your Buck

Maurice Picow
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1
Renault’s Electric Mini Car is More Electric Bang for Your Buck

renault electric zoe miniNot exactly the 2014 Corvette, this smaller and cheaper electric model may be popular for older purchasers and the eco-aware in the Middle East

This past year, a lot of adverse publicity issues surrounded the Better Place electric car network company, that  included the firing of its international CEO Shai Agassi.  This was followed  by news yesterday that the new CEO Evan Thornley has been fired. These revelations have at least partially resulted in France’s Renault Group looking for new alternatives to the battery switching concept as devised by Better Place and its former CEO.

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Post Mubarak Egypt Struggles to Supply Wheat to Hungry Country

Green Prophet
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1
Post Mubarak Egypt Struggles to Supply Wheat to Hungry Country

toshka new valley project egyptTaking irrigated water from the Nile, the Toshka pumping station in upper Egypt was supposed to help combat encroaching desert

Political tension in Egypt in the aftermath of the revolution which began nearly two years ago, has hit tourism, led to high food prices, and caused an economic slowdown which is raising food security concerns. In 2012, Egypt was the world’s largest wheat importer (read this story on how wheat connects the planet), shipping in 11.5 million tons, and highlighting the gap between official food sustainability goals and reality.

“There is an urgent need to increase wheat productivity,” said Nagui Saeed, head of Egypt’s Wheat Producers’ Association – not just to conserve foreign currency but also to cater for Egypt’s growing population, which has nearly doubled in the last 30 years to 83 million.

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Masdar City Unveils Phase B For the First Time (PHOTOS)

Tafline Laylin
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2
Masdar City Unveils Phase B For the First Time (PHOTOS)

Masdar, Masdar City, clean tech, renewable energy, green design, sustainable design, Estidama, Future Build, Siemens, Abu DhabiOn a VIP media tour of the zero-carbon city Masdar, Tafline unveils these new pics of the stunning green oasis in the desert

A lot has happened at Masdar City since our first visit two years ago. Back then the “zero carbon, zero waste” development received a pile of bad press for falling short of its ambitions. The New York Times criticized the facility’s compound aesthetic and critics around the world predicted that the government-backed initiative would fail.

But… we were all wrong. In the seven short years since its launch in 2006, the many branches of Masdar – Masdar Institute, Masdar Capital, Masdar Clean Energy and Masdar City – have grown from a seedling of an idea into a full fledged engine of economic, social and technological progress. And we’ve been fortunate to see sections of the city never before unveiled to the press. Hit the jump for details.

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After Pep Talk to Better Place Car Buyers Last Week, New CEO Fired

Karin Kloosterman
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5
After Pep Talk to Better Place Car Buyers Last Week, New CEO Fired

better place car company electric EVIs Better Place hiring a new CEO?

In a surprising article in the Israeli business newspaper Globes today, Israel’s electric car network company Better Place seems to have lost its new CEO, Evan Thornley from Australia. This is after a short three months on the job. Thornley was put in place to start a recovery program for the flailing company which has been burning through millions of investment capital with little more than 500 of its Renault built battery-swappable cars sold in Israel. The company was hoping to gain 1 percent of the market in Israel by now, and has set up an electric charge network in Denmark to do the same. 

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Experts: Tel Aviv Will Flood Again

Green Prophet
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Experts: Tel Aviv Will Flood Again

tel aviv flood train 2013 rain storm

Tel Aviv University professors tell Green Prophet that it’s just a matter of time: Tel Aviv will flood again.

It’s warming up again this week in Israel, just after a series of storms last week that began with major flooding on the Mediterranean Coast and ended with Jerusalem of Gold turned to white after a serious snowstorm. Reports on the flooding of the Yarkon River, which shut down large sections of Tel Aviv for a day, including its major highway, have addressed the insufficient drainage system, but little has been made of the connection between climate change and severe weather events.

Professors Pinhas Alpert and Colin Price, lecturers at the Porter School of Environmental Studies’ International MA Program at Tel Aviv University, have predicted that increased flooding will result from global climate change. Alpert helped to pioneer the use of cellular phone networks for monitoring the amount and intensity of precipitation and water vapor – measurements which are virtually free of charge and can be used for studying global climate systems.

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Israel’s Kishon “Cancer” River Gets Oasis Upgrade by Canadian Firm EnGlobe

Karin Kloosterman
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Israel’s Kishon “Cancer” River Gets Oasis Upgrade by Canadian Firm EnGlobe

kishon river haifa bay israelThe Kishon River where it enters the Haifa Bay

Unlike pastoral rivers in Europe where bathers can jump in without alarm, Israeli rivers are all too toxic to swim in. Most toxic of all is the Kishon River. The Kishon was once a notorious dumping ground for seven chemical plants, with the result that the entire ecosystem died and the river was even blamed for causing cancer in Israeli infantry units. But good things and green progress is happening all across the Middle East this year (see our live coverage from Abu Dhabi) and now the Israeli government has pledged $50 million USD to turn the river into an oasis for Israel’s northern residents reports the Jerusalem Post.

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Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future

Karin Kloosterman
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Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future

lakiya sidreh weaving workshop with bedouins
A few short decades ago, the ladies of Lakiya had a very different life. Their traditional Bedouin clans lived in encampments throughout the Israeli Negev Desert, herding animals. When their families were relocated to government-built towns, the women became aware of how their illiteracy, and their society’s rule against mingling with men who are not related to them, severely hampered their progress in the modern world.

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$4 Million Doled Out to Green Innovators at Zayed Future Energy Awards

Tafline Laylin
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$4 Million Doled Out to Green Innovators at Zayed Future Energy Awards

Zayed Future Energy Awards, Queen Rania, Masdar, Abu Dhabi, $4 million Prize, NewsUsing words like catastrophe, calamity and critical, Jordan’s Queen Rania, the Presidents of France and Argentina and other world leaders sounded the clarion yesterday morning at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Albeit a somber gathering that laid out the full weight of our shared responsibility to reverse the course of global warming and subsequent climate change, the day ended on a more hopeful note with $4 million worth of prize money doled out to several green innovators from as far afield as Mexico and Tanzania.

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Israel to Drill for Oil in Underwater Nature Reserve Illuminates Schizophrenic Government Policies

Karin Kloosterman
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3
Israel to Drill for Oil in Underwater Nature Reserve Illuminates Schizophrenic Government Policies

oil drilling in nature reserve in israel illustrationAn absurd situation where one ministry approves the marine reserve and and another gives a license for oil drilling. Nothing new for Israel.

If Greenpeace has won the battle against Zara and its use of toxic chemicals, this new potential environmental threat should have the Greenpeace Mediterranean headquarters on full alert: the Israeli government eager to become energy independent has agreed that a drilling company can start survey drilling off the Israeli coast in an area designated to be a marine reserve. While Israel’s part of the Mediterranean Sea has proven to have a bounty of natural gas reserves – ones that could make it energy independent for 100 years (according to reports I’ve read), prospectors are now drilling deeper, because where’s there’s gas, there is often oil. But the greens in Israel aren’t pleased with this new development. And the government is giving its own mixed message.

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Israel Floods Replenish the Med and Dead Sea

Maurice Picow
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2
Israel Floods Replenish the Med and Dead Sea

israel water floods oasis camel

Israel, like other rich countries in the Middle East, has had to rely a lot on desalination plants to supply much of its drinking water. Desalination now supplies Mideast countries like Saudi Arabia, which is said to have the world’s largest desalination plant. The country receives almost all its fresh water supplies from this energy-intensive process.

In addition to using a significant amount of energy to remove salt and other minerals as well as various pollutants from sea water, the process also is responsible for contributing to raising the salinity levels in sea water due to the highly saline outflow that is returned back into the sea during the desalination process. Studies that have been made to this effect indicate that as more and more desalination plants are used, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the sea water in these regions will become more and more saline which will be very damaging to marine life.

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Jordan’s Queen Rania Featured at World Future Energy Summit

Faisal O'Keefe
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Jordan’s Queen Rania Featured at World Future Energy Summit

queen rania jordanGreen Prophet is on a VIP media tour in Abu Dhabi. We hope to meet Jordan’s beautiful Queen Rania; or at least catch a glimpse of her today as she pushes a sustainability message. 

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has a history of environmental stewardship. She will join French President François Hollande as keynote speakers at the opening ceremony of the sixth annual World Future Energy Summit and first International Water Summit today, January 15, in Abu Dhabi. Our Tafline is there as part of the VIP media group. The event is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW): the largest “green” gathering in the history of the Middle East, taking place January 13-17.

“It is an honor to have Her Majesty as a featured speaker,” said Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, in a press release. “Her Majesty is an influential voice and a strong advocate for sustainable development throughout the region.”

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Imagine… A World Without Trees

Arwa Aburawa
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1
Imagine… A World Without Trees

seurat without treesA UK-based scientist has removed trees from world famous works of art to highlight the threat of deforestation

In the field of climate change, we are constantly asked to imagine nightmarish scenarios. Situations where water may run dry, where mass migrations are provoked by food shortages or where extreme weather events on the rise. These are all, however, future events we have to conjure up and not our present or past. But what if you had to edit the world’s history to reflect its future? What if there were no more trees? What would our past look like? What would world famous works of art look like without trees? An Edinburgh University scientist has used photo-editing software to imagine just that.

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HWKN’s Spiky Air-Scrubbing Wendy Pavilion Debuts in Abu Dhabi

Tafline Laylin
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1
HWKN’s Spiky Air-Scrubbing Wendy Pavilion Debuts in Abu Dhabi

architecture, art, Wendy, HWKN, Abu Dhabi, Masdar, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, pollution, land art, green design

Now in Abu Dhabi, a wild 56 foot tall pavilion cleans air around it; like taking 260 cars off the road at any given time.

New York’s HWKN (Hollwich Kushner) is a New York based architecture and design office whose projects span the worlds of architecture, branding, and development. Their spiky blue air-scrubbing pavilion called Wendy has landed in Abu Dhabi, prompting among locals what can only be described as awe. It’s day one of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) and we’re in the capital as part of a Masdar-sponsored VIP media team along with the winner of Masdar’s eco blog competition and journalists from ABC News, Cleantechnica, Triple Pundit and other esteemed outlets.

While returning from a visit to the Shams 1 CSP plant (more on that soon), we talked to Marc Kushner and Matthias Hollwich of HWKN, who placed first in the 2012 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program in New York with their design of this curious purifying structure. Both art and architecture, Wendy divests the atmosphere of harmful pollutants with a titania nanoparticle spray that coats the pavilion’s blue shell. 

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Go On A Spicy “Date” With This Health Drink

Kelly Milone
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Go On A Spicy “Date” With This Health Drink

vitamix turbo blender

Of my most prized possessions is a new blender I recently purchased, the Vitamix.  Mine is a model called the TurboBlend VS.  The Vitamix is advertised as “more than a blender,” as its high performance quality enables the user to blend the toughest of ingredients to produce the widest variety of food creations.  It’s the choice blender for most vegans (especially raw vegans) and vegetarians, a necessity in their kitchens, as it encourages them to get creative and use the fruits and vegetables stored in their refrigerators and on their windowsills in new ways, in different combinations.

In the amazing cookbook that came with my blender, Live Fresh: Raw/Vegan/Vegetarian Recipes, one of the over 200 recipes that I tried almost immediately was for a beverage called “The Spicy Date.”  I loved it at once and had to share it here, as dates, the unique sugar-packed Middle Eastern fruits, form the heart of the recipe.

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Floods, Climate Change and the Garden of Eden?

Brian Nitz
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Floods, Climate Change and the Garden of Eden?

Cole Thomas Expulsion from the Garden of Eden 1828 paintingAre Jordan’s snow and Israel’s floods signs of climate change or are they simply flukes of weather?  People might argue this for decades there is strong evidence that Mideastern climate has changed dramatically over thousands of years and there is evidence that humans can negatively impact their environment over a much shorter time period.

The fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates have long been known as the cradle of civilization. It is where the wheel, writing and cities were invented. It contained the marsh where the Sumerian’s creation took place. It was the biblical Eden. The Garden of Eden was described with such beautiful language in Genesis:

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Paris Modest Fashion Week offers style without exposure for Muslims

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France is home to around 5 to 7.5 million Muslims according to estimates, and Özlem Şahin, head of the organization behind Modest Fashion Week, has described Paris as "one of the leading modest fashion capitals in Europe".

Kids are vaping. The media shock that made them stop

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On one side: aggressive anti-vaping campaigns from the FDA, Truth Initiative, and state programs, backed by over $100 million in annual spending. On the other: a public health crisis. Screenshot

Baby teeth read like tree rings paint a picture of toxins in early life

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A new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York offers a striking insight into how the environments we are born into can quietly shape our brains years later. By analyzing naturally shed baby teeth, the ones tucked under pillows for the tooth fairy, researchers have reconstructed a detailed timeline of exposure to environmental metals during pregnancy and early infancy.

Shebara hotel Saudi Arabia – is it eco-luxury dream or desert illusion?

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A new breed of luxury has landed on the Red Sea, mirrored pods floating above coral reefs, reflecting sky and sea like something not entirely of this Earth. Energy powered by solar powers, drinking water pulled from the sea using desalination. 

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