Imagine it’s 2020, what do you see? Poverty or abundance, environmental destruction or nature flourishing? War or Peace? Polly Higgins, voted one of the World’s Top 10 Visionary Thinkers by the Ecologist and named the Overall Champion of the 2012 People and Environment Awards, has a very bright outlook for the future. For Polly, 2020 is a future […]
An investigation is underway to determine the deaths of dozens of sea turtles that washed up on Egypt’s Mediterranean shore last week. Initial forays prompted suspicion that the turtles had eaten deliberately poisoned fish in Lake Bardawil, but conclusive results have not yet been published. Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Mostafa Hussein Kamel established […]
ProGen, a Turkish seed developer and supplier, has specialized in crop varieties that can withstand the hot Mediterranean climate. As climate conditions in European countries increasingly resemble those of their southern neighbors, European farmers are seeking new strains of staple crops that can adjust to the new climate. A pan-European research project, EASTBRED, brought European […]
Just when we thought that urban cycling had reached its zenith, Israeli designer Udi Rimon essentially rendered Tel Aviv’s cars redundant with his design of Tel-O-Porter – a genius bike trailer that connects to the city’s shared Tel-O-Fun bicycles. Made of aluminum tubes and stainless steel mesh, the trailer doubles as a hand held cart and […]
The Fisker Karma electric hybrid sport: Not everybody’s car at $98,000 Electric cars cruising the roads of the Middle East and elsewhere in the world have been frequent Green Prophet clean technology articles ever since Better Place’s founder Shai Agassi launched his unique electric car network concept back in early 2008. Since then, a number […]
There really isn’t a better market than the Arabian Gulf for Fisker’s luxury electric vehicle, that smooth and opulent 5,000 pound Karma, so it comes as no surprise to learn that one of the world’s most expensive electric vehicles will soon be spotted flying down roads throughout the Middle East. While many western buyers are […]
Izhar Gafni and the same team behind the already world-famous cardboard bicycle have added a few other items to their repertoire, including a cardboard wheelchair. After news of the dirt-cheap cardboard bicycle raced around the globe, an international non-profit organization contacted Israelis Nimrod Elmish and Izhar Gafni of I.G. Cardboard Technologies about developing a cardboard wheelchair […]
Friends of the Earth Middle East state that half of the record shrinkage of the Dead Sea is caused by Israeli and Jordanian fertilizer companies Over the last year alone, the Dead Sea has shrunk by a record 1.5 metres. This ecological catastrophe however isn’t caused by environmental factors alone – according to the environmental […]
Seaweed is prolific in Israel’s Mediterranean Sea. It makes sense, then, that Middle Eastern ancients used it to help alleviate a host of ailments from peptic ulcers to fungal infections and wounds. Based on past and present literature, archeology, history, biology, linguistics and botany, the Natural Medicine Research Unit for the Study of Complementary, Alternative […]
An Israeli company makes a mini-sewage plant to help small wineries, olive oil and cheese-makers deal with the pollutants from their industries. Waste from small olive presses, cheese factories and wineries is not good for the water or soil. Organic farming and the 100-Mile Diet have influenced new college graduates to establish farms instead of seeking […]
Shuk Bites – for $26 you can eat your way through Jerusalem’s famous food market There are plenty of self-guided tours in Jerusalem, and even a few culinary tours. But combining the two approaches, “Shuk Bites” is the first self-guided culinary tour. [“Shuk” is the Middle Eastern word for market place, seen commonly throughout the […]
A novel way to turn cow poop into profits. Would you wear this molded fibre on your wall? The quest for construction materials with low environmental impact is leading product developers to new pastures. Literally, in the case of Noble Environmental Technologies Corporation, whose ECORE line of bio-based panels are made from cow poop. American […]
A handful of new lakes popping up in the vast and formidable Arabian desert are creating whole new ecosystems and attracting rare bird species that breed among the dunes. And, technically, it’s not a naturally-occurring phenomenon. NPR traveled to the United Arab Emirates to witness firsthand one such lake that rose 35 feet in the […]
Even as some solar projects are just taking flight in Israel, underlining a new wave of optimism about the technology’s ability to succeed in the country, other solar giants are taking their leave of Israel. International energy and infrastructure giant, Siemens, announced last Monday that it was closing down its Siemens-Solel plant in Beit Shemesh, Israel. In […]
Amateur slaughterers are often injured on the job. Should slaughtering be left to the professionals? The annual Hajj pilgrimage, on which we wrote about efforts to make it more green, has also become an event in which animals are being slaughtered inhumanely for the accompanying Ein al-Adha or the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice holiday. […]