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Morocco to Welcome Solar Impulse Pilots Tonight

Tafline Laylin
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2
Morocco to Welcome Solar Impulse Pilots Tonight

cleantech, solar power, MASEN, Solar Impulse, green transportation, solar plane, Morocco, Madrid, SwitzerlandWe would give anything to be in Rabat as the world’s first solar-powered transcontinental flight comes to an end at roughly 11pm local time. Despite the relatively late hour (chosen to avoid dense air traffic), delegates from the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) and others will be at the airport to congratulate pilot Bertrand Piccard on completing this historic milestone.

André Borschberg flew for the first half of the Solar Impulse’s 2,500 km journey, from Switzerland to Spain, which proved that it is possible to fly a plane night and day without a drop of fuel, but Piccard will cross the Mediterranean Sea – the first time a solar-powered airplane has completed such a feat. 

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Details Emerge of Saudi’s $109 Billion Solar Plan

Susan Kraemer
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6
Details Emerge of Saudi’s $109 Billion Solar Plan

BrightSource Solar Tower SaudiSaudi Arabia could be running one third of the planet’s CSP plants by 2030.

With the recent announcement of the most ambitious solar plan in the world, solar developers are now headed to the oil-rich Kingdom to help make it happen.The first of a planned 25 GW of CSP (Concentrated Solar Power: mirrors to heat liquids to drive turbines) and 16 GW of PV (PhotoVoltaic: direct electrical conversion, like on rooftops) to supply Saudi Arabia with a $109 billion plan to solar-power a third of the Kingdom have been put out to bid now. Some of the fine print details have now emerged from CSP Today. Once it is complete, 25 GW would be a third of the expected global CSP in 20 years, according to current plans. Bids will be initially for about 1,000 MW each for the first year.

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Jet Fuel from Carbon Dioxide – New Science Project in Israel

Green Prophet
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1
Jet Fuel from Carbon Dioxide – New Science Project in Israel

jet fuel carbon dioxide israel
More clean tech innovation from Israel? Researchers Prof. Moti Herskowitz and Prof. Miron Landau from Ben Gurion University in Israel were recently awarded a highly competitive Israel Strategic Alternative Energy Foundation (I-SAEF) grant to further their groundbreaking research in liquid fuels. Herskowitz heads the BGU Energy Initiative, which is developing multiple alternative fuels from solar energy to biomass to replace the world’s dependence on oil. He was also recently appointed to head the National Committee on Energy research and development. Their focus will be on jet fuel.

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Olive Prices Hit Hard – Explained

Linda Pappagallo
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0
Olive Prices Hit Hard – Explained

olives lebanon

Middle Eastern olive oil producers are baring the brunt of falling oil prices

Olive oil prices have hit a 10 year low, severely impacting producers in Spain, Italy , Greece and Protugal- which produce more than 60 percent of the world’s olive oil. However, Middle Eastern Farmers in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Israel and Palestine will also be severely affected. Part of the recent olive oil price crises is as a result of surplus production due to heavy olive oil subsidizing in the EU and the subsequent unsuccessful attempt by the EU commission to maintain prices relatively high and stable by paying farmers to stockpile olives.

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Grim Greenhouse Gas Milestone Dims Hope for Less Climate Change

Tafline Laylin
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4
Grim Greenhouse Gas Milestone Dims Hope for Less Climate Change

greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, climate change, carbon dioxide, methaneMonitoring stations all over the arctic are reading greenhouse gas concentrations of 400 parts per million – a grim new milestone that dims hope of reversing runaway climate change. Millions of pounds of methane lay dormant in arctic ice, threatening to accelerate climate change when it melts, violent weather, drought, flooding and other disasters are on the rise, and yet the fossil fuel industry continues to function virtually unabated.

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Natural perfume maker

Karin Kloosterman
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Natural perfume maker

perfume bottles, glass, middle east scents, ayala morAyala Moriel has captured and bottled natural Middle East smells and made them into natural perfumes.

With captivating names, perfumer Ayala Mor from Canada has distilled the best scents of the Middle East and has turned them into bottles of perfume. From Israel, her scents are reminiscent of her roots: the Old City in Jerusalem, Israel in spring, Arab coffee in winter, and a walk through the Yemen Spice Market in the Carmel Market anytime.

I’ve bought samples of her perfumes and they transport me to the Middle East and my favorite places every time I wear them.

Having travelled throughout the Middle East her scents do capture the time and place, as one smells their way through markets.

For a moment Moriel has bottled those old world smells travellers and spice route traders probably met along the way. Find the smells of etrog, finjan-brewed coffee, cardamon. Wearing these smells keeps you travelling even when far from the East.

citron etrog
Here is a citron or etrog from the Hebrew holiday of Succoth

I wish I could add a scratch and sniff window to this blog to share with you the eight tester bottles that Moriel sent in the mail. Normally I am not a perfume wearer, and dislike the smells of people who wear commercial scents. But these are different.

Natural in their origin and true to their name, Moriel’s scents are gentle, leaving just a trace an hour after application.

While some people might want their perfume to last a day, I like the idea of leaving the house with a scent, having it drift away with me as I go on with my day. You can carry a little bottle in your bag for a top off later. This could be handy for people who do not wear deodorant and who find themselves in sticky situations.

Perfumer, Time Traveller, Olfactory Story-Teller, Anthophile, Incensor, Teaist, Alchemist. Lead by the nose since 2001. That is how she describes herself.

Follow her, easily.

::Ayala Moriel

A Gold Porsche 997 GT2 – The Latest in Ungreen Super Luxury

Maurice Picow
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1
A Gold Porsche 997 GT2 – The Latest in Ungreen Super Luxury

gold porscheHigh performance and gold plated to boot: a Porsche 997 GT2 on sale in Dubai. Photo: GT Spirit.com

We’ve  written lots about super luxury cars in the Gulf region on Green Prophet. While one of them, a white gold Mercedes sports coup was touted to be able to run on bio-fuel; others like a gold trimmed armored plated Rolls Royce is strictly designed to enable its owner to ride in protected style. For those who are bored with such cars and wish for super luxury versions of high performance sports cars will now be happy to hear that also in that part of the Middle East is none other than a gold version of a gold  Porsche 997 GT2 twin turbo that was advertised for sale in the glitzy city of Dubai.

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Carmen’s Opera at Masada Leaves No Trace

Leigh Cuen
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3
Carmen’s Opera at Masada Leaves No Trace

carmen masada opera

Israeli Opera Festival 2012 will feature five performances of the classic opera, Carmen, June 7 to 11 at Masada. According to the Israeli Opera’s Artistic Director, Michael Ajzenstadt, 50,000 people from across Israel and all over the world are coming to experience opera at the lowest point on earth, beneath the mountain of Masada and across from the Dead Sea.

Choosing the location for this momentous performance was a delicate balance between aesthetic appeal and the imperative to not effect the historic site in any way. “We wanted to perform opera in the desert, not just to have an opera performance at a desert location,” said Ajzenstadt. “There is no stage. There is sand and rock beneath the mountain. The set is an extension of the surrounding habitat. In three weeks we will deconstruct the set and leave no trace.”

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Cheap Olive Oil Threatens to Destroy Middle East Growers and Suppliers

Arieh O'Sullivan - The Media Line
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Cheap Olive Oil Threatens to Destroy Middle East Growers and Suppliers

arab man olive grove palestineCan there be ways to protect olive oil prices and the sustainable ways of olive farming in the Middle East?

The price for olive oil has dropped to its lowest level in a decade and farmers in the Middle East are bearing the brunt as Spain and Italy dump their government-subsidized stocks at below cost. “The international market prices are going below sustainable levels,” Nasser Abu Farha, the director of Canaan Fair Trade that works with some 1,500 Palestinian farmers, told The Media Line.

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Refugees to Jordan Flow More Freely Than Water

Faisal O'Keefe
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Refugees to Jordan Flow More Freely Than Water

arab refugees water jordanJordan’s hosting of forced migrants is overburdening already stressed water resources.

Humanitarianism has an unanticipated knock-on to fresh water supplies, as Jordan is starting to realize. Syrian refugees harbored in kingdom are draining the desert nation’s scarce water resources, reports Lebanon’s Daily Star. This presents a new setback for Jordan, one of the world’s most water-poor countries, where regional water shortfalls have been making alarming headlines.

Jordan’s average water consumption approximates 900 million cubic meters annually, with more than half consumed by agriculture. Annual per capita share is expected to fall to less than 500 cubic meters within three years: less than a tenth of the average world citizen’s share.  Annual per capita share below 500 m3 threatens human life.

This tiny kingdom has historically provided safe haven to refugees from neighboring Arab conflicts. Palestinians and Iraqis have emigrated for decades; more recently, Egyptians and Libyans sought entry.  It’s estimated that Syrian violence has resulted in over 120,000 new refugees, and inflow is steady.

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Dubai’s ‘Sustainable City’ to Include Horse Transportation

Tafline Laylin
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1
Dubai’s ‘Sustainable City’ to Include Horse Transportation

Dubai, horses, green transportation, urban, architecture, sustainable developmentNot to be outdone by Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Dubai will soon begin construction on its own ‘sustainable city,’ where green transportation options include horses. Lest it seem that the new 743,000m2 development project entails a remarkable step backward, solar-powered vehicles are also planned, which is every bit as ambitious (and unlikely) as Masdar’s long-since-abandoned zero carbon, zero waste pipe-dream.

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Asbestos Exposure Raises Cancer Rates in Lebanon

Miriam Kresh
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2
Asbestos Exposure Raises Cancer Rates in Lebanon

image-worker-asbestos-roof mesotheliomaAsbestos, linked directly to mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer, is still present in many products used daily in Lebanon. But there’s no protection for workers or the population at large.

In 1998, Lebanon submitted to popular pressure and banned asbestos imports. In 2000, Eternit, the country’s major importer of asbestos closed down. But almost no action has been taken to prevent usage of remaining asbestos products or to find substitutes for them.

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Why Did the Saudis Just Go Big in Solar? Oil Prices.

Susan Kraemer
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0
Why Did the Saudis Just Go Big in Solar? Oil Prices.

Saudi solar oil prices
Saudi Arabia will save an estimated 690,000 barrels of oil a day by investing in renewables.

Wonder just why Saudi Arabia finally got serious about solar with a $109 billion plan to solar-power a third of the Kingdom? I did. After all, for a long time, while its greener neighbors have been adding thousands of megawatts of clean climate-friendly power, the kingdom has ignored its solar potential. It has next to nothing installed, 50 MW.

What changed? Oil prices are high. With rapidly growing electricity demand, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil consumer in the Middle East.

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Jordan Gets REEL About Renewables

Faisal O'Keefe
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Jordan Gets REEL About Renewables

nuclear energy jordan protests greenpeaceJordan’s nuclear industry is wildly volatile, especially when you consider it doesn’t actually exist.

Arwa reported on last week’s parliamentary vote to shelve Jordan’s first nuclear reactor. Exploratory mining for uranium was also stopped. The program will surely resurrect once new feasibility analyses are complete, but against a backdrop of a pressurized economy, scarce water sources and corruption investigations, success is anyone’s guess. The time is now for Jordan’s renewable proponents to demonstrate the viability of alternative energy. Take a page from regional legend David and Goliath, and slay the nuclear beast.

Last April, Jordan’s Parliament adopted the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Law (REEL). REEL is aimed at inciting private-sector investment in Jordan’s nonexistent commercial renewable energy sector, but the law targets homeowners and small businesses too:

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The Middle East Environmental Law Project Kickstarted By Vermont Lawyers

Joshua Basofin
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1
The Middle East Environmental Law Project Kickstarted By Vermont Lawyers

John D. Echeverria vermont law school

Environmental law has proven to be quite dynamic in the Middle East.  Some countries have made great strides toward protecting resources and preventing pollution.  Others have done little to tackle environmental problems head on due to competing interests or public funding shortfalls.  Although the majority of countries in the Middle East are Arab and Muslim, each has a different approach to its regulatory system.  Vermont Law School, recognizing the complex issues surrounding environmental law in the region, recently launched the Middle East Environmental Law Project (MEEL).  We caught up with John Echeverria, Director of Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center.  He explains why environmental law is important in the region, and what MEEL is doing to advance it.

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