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

Travel

Karin Kloosterman

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January 16, 2013

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

The 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.

Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future

Karin Kloosterman

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January 16, 2013

Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future

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.

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

Karin Kloosterman

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January 15, 2013

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

An 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.

Israel Floods Replenish the Med and Dead Sea

Cities

Maurice Picow

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January 15, 2013

Israel Floods Replenish the Med and Dead Sea

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.

Jordan’s Queen Rania Featured at World Future Energy Summit

Faisal O'Keefe

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January 15, 2013

Jordan’s Queen Rania Featured at World Future Energy Summit

Green 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.”

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

Cities

Tafline Laylin

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January 14, 2013

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

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.

Go On A Spicy “Date” With This Health Drink

Health

Kelly Milone

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January 14, 2013

Go On A Spicy “Date” With This Health Drink

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.

Floods, Climate Change and the Garden of Eden?

Travel

Brian Nitz

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January 13, 2013

Floods, Climate Change and the Garden of Eden?

Are 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:

10 Smartphone Apps to Green Up 2013

Tech

Faisal O'Keefe

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January 11, 2013

10 Smartphone Apps to Green Up 2013

Did December gifting or a year-end bonus put a new smartphone in your hand? Check out ten mostly-free apps that will help you live healthier, smarter and more sustainably in 2013.

Call It Quits is for smokers wishing to quit and quitters who could use some added support. It provides cessation tips, motivations and coaching access to helpline pros. It also enables you, using your phone contacts, to build a trusted support group and then keep that support group with you in the palm of your hand. This ought to be basic software on all smartphones sold in tobacco-loving Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. (Free.)
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