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Will Dark-sky Ecotourism Spread to the Mideast?

Brian Nitz
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Will Dark-sky Ecotourism Spread to the Mideast?

petra candle light dark sky tourism

Israel’s Negev Desert, Jordan’s Mount Nebo, Medaba and Wadi Rum are a few dark sky destinations for stargazing.

Paris is known as the city of lights. So is Medina Saudi Arabia, Be’er Sheva Israel and Las Vegas, Nevada. We shouldn’t overlook Baltimore Maryland, Varanasi India, Quanzhou China and Milford Pennsylvania. Each of these cities is also known as the city of lights. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few. Developer Tamouh plans to complete a city of lights project in Abu Dhabi by 2014 and the entire Benelux region of Europe has more than enough eye-watering glare to qualify as one colossal city of lights. The message seems to be that if you want tourists to visit, make sure you have plenty of lights. But that isn’t how it always works.

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Abu Dhabi’s Eid al-Adha Waste Cleared by 3,000 Workers

Faisal O'Keefe
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Abu Dhabi’s Eid al-Adha Waste Cleared by 3,000 Workers

arab family eating picnicAbu Dhabi’s key attractions received a special makeover over the Eid holidays thanks to an army of extra workers equipped with special cleaning gear.

Public places and picnic spots received focused attention by 3,000 waste workers on duty across the Emirates for the holiday: waste generation skyrockets during Eid. Eid al-Adha, also called Big Eid, is an important 3-day Islamic holiday that occurs in the last month of the lunar Islamic calendar, after the start of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.  The holy days, or days of remembrance, recall the willingness of Ibrahim to obey God by sacrificing his son, Ismail. God of course intervened, and a sheep was sacrificed instead of the boy (read here about one Green Prophet writer who got close to Eid meat).

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WISH20: One Big Wish Which Could Change The World

Tafline Laylin
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WISH20: One Big Wish Which Could Change The World

Ecocide, Wish20, crime against humanity, earth first, law, environmental law, Polly HigginsImagine 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 where governments and business put people and planet first; where nature is flourishing, and where the future of our children’s children is assured.  To get there, Polly has one big wish which could literally change the world; to end all Ecocide, the extensive destruction of ecosystems, by 2020.

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Dozens of Dead Turtles Washed up in Egypt

Tafline Laylin
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Dozens of Dead Turtles Washed up in Egypt

Mediterranean, Sinai, Lake Bardawil, Egypt, Sea Turtles, Mass Deaths, Poison, Nature Conservation, IUCN

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 a committee to explore the cause of death of the 84 dead sea turtles, though some critics claim the ministry, the Egyptian Authority of Fish Resources and the Sinai governorate were all initially slow to respond. It isn’t clear which species have turned up in Egypt, but six out of seven marine turtles species are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

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Turkish Seed Developer Helps European Farmers Adjust To Warming Temperatures

Julia Harte
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Turkish Seed Developer Helps European Farmers Adjust To Warming Temperatures

progen turkish seed company seedsProGen, 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 agronomists together with ProGen to start selecting the new crops and introducing them to fields in central and eastern Europe.

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Clever Tel-O-Porter Bike Trailer Boosts Israel’s Shared Bike Program

Tafline Laylin
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Clever Tel-O-Porter Bike Trailer Boosts Israel’s Shared Bike Program

green transportation, design, Tel-O-Fun, Tel Aviv, urban cycling, shared bicycles, bike trailerJust 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 holds up to 45kg of cargo.

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The Best Electric Cars of 2012, According to the American Buzz

Maurice Picow
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The Best Electric Cars of 2012, According to the American Buzz

The Fisker Karma electric hybrid sport: Not everybody's car at $98,000The 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 of other electric car players have entered the electric or “zero emissions” (ZE) field, especially companies like Ford, General Motors Volt electric hybrid, which began rolling into GM dealerships in late 2010; Nissan’s total electric Leaf Model; and particularly Tesla Motor’s hot and expensive sports and roadster electric car models. But out of all these cars which translate well in the Middle East?

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Luxury Fisker Karma Electric Vehicle Hits the Middle East

Tafline Laylin
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Luxury Fisker Karma Electric Vehicle Hits the Middle East

Middle East, MENA, GCC, Gulf, Arabian Gulf, Fisker Karma, Electric Vehicles, eco-friendly car, eco-transportationThere 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 crippled by economic hardships, except for the so-called one percent and Justin Bieber, certain residents of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia coasting on oil money can still afford the $136,000 – $163, 320 (AED 500,000 – 600,000) price tag that comes with this ‘eco-friendly sedan.’

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Israelis Design Cardboard Wheelchairs for Africa

Tafline Laylin
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Israelis Design Cardboard Wheelchairs for Africa

cardboard bike, cardboard wheelchair, Izhar Gafni, Israel, recycled materials, I.G. Cardboard Technologies, Nimrod ElmishIzhar 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 that could be distributed to disabled Africans. So they set about making a prototype, which, it turns out, was actually less complicated than the bicycle.

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Steep Decline of Dead Sea Levels Due to Fertilizer Industry

Arwa Aburawa
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Steep Decline of Dead Sea Levels Due to Fertilizer Industry

dead sea shrinkingFriends 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 organisation Middle East Friends of the Earth, half of the shrinkage was caused by two local fertilizer companies. Speaking to Bloomberg, Gidon Bromberg who is the Israeli director of the Friends of the Earth Middle East, urged Israel Chemicals Ltd and Jordan’s Arab Potash to stop siphoning off so much water and allow the Dead Sea to recover. 

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Natural Holy Land Healing Research Center in Jerusalem

Karin Kloosterman
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Natural Holy Land Healing Research Center in Jerusalem

univerve-seaweed biofuel

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 and Integrated Medicine at Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem is looking into how seaweed can be utilized for its nutritional and medicinal properties. Staffers have been working with Canadian partners to grow the novel idea into commercial projects.

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Green Waste Processing for Boutique Olive Oil Presses and Wineries

Karin Kloosterman
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Green Waste Processing for Boutique Olive Oil Presses and Wineries

green waste refinery water treatment for olive oil press, boutique wineries

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 jobs in finance. The last decade has seen an explosion of cottage industries in everything from cheese- to wine-making.

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Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda Market – How to Eat Your Way Through It

Linda Gradstein - The Media Line
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Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda Market – How to Eat Your Way Through It

Jerusalem shuk bites food tour at Machane Yehuda

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 region. It often suggests an outdoor presence. – ed.] A cross between a treasure hunt, a scavenger hunt and a walking tour, “Shuk Bites” offers stops and tastings at ten different shops within the Machane Yehuda market, central Jerusalem’s “shuk.”

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Wallboards from Waste Using Cow Pies

Faisal O'Keefe
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5
Wallboards from Waste Using Cow Pies

man standing beside cow piesA 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 farms produce an estimated 2 trillion pounds of manure each year (comparable stats for Middle East ranchers not readily available).

The smartest way to turn a buck is to convert a problem into a solution that gets you paid both coming and going: get paid to collect a waste (or buy it at deep discount over alternative raw material), and then convert that waste into a resale product.

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New Lake Rose 35 Feet in the Arabian Desert This Past Year Alone

Tafline Laylin
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2
New Lake Rose 35 Feet in the Arabian Desert This Past Year Alone

desert, United Arab Emirates, lakes, Arabian desert, desalinated waterA 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 last year alone. It was populated by cormorants, herons and even Ferruginous ducks, as well as fish and other species that couldn’t normally survive the harsh desert environment.

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