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Investing in Ramallah’s Children Key to Sustainability

Leigh Cuen

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May 22, 2012

Investing in Ramallah’s Children Key to Sustainability

Ramallah is leading the way as the heart of Palestine’s environmental awakening. City-dwellers are planting trees, creating and restoring open, natural community spaces and reviving bygone environmental protections. But there is still much work to be done. There will need to be a complete shift in culture.

A recent history of crumbling infrastructure and inadequate public services has proliferated habits such as chronic littering and burning trash, tires, plastics, chemical household products and all. According to Malvena Aljamela from the environmental directorate of Ramallah’s municipality, 10 percent of Ramallah’s waste goes uncollected every day.

NaanDanJain’s Irrigation Technology Strengthens Ties Between India and Israel

Leigh Cuen

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May 22, 2012

NaanDanJain’s Irrigation Technology Strengthens Ties Between India and Israel

Last week Kibbutz Naan sold 50 percent of its stake in the irrigation technology company NaanDanJain Irrigation Ltd. to its Indian business partner, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. Representatives from both groups met in Tel Aviv for the Agritech 2012 Conference and Exhibition in Israel. The joint company currently employs 120 workers at Kibbutz Naan. Jain director, Amnon Ofen, said that the company’s operations in Israel would “not be effected” by the transfer. The deal has an estimated value of around $35 million USD.

This move comes as part of a larger movement to bolster relations, particularly in agricultural and environmental fields, between Israel and India.

Volvo’s C30 Electric Car Combines Green Technology With Safety

Transportation

Maurice Picow

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May 22, 2012

Volvo’s C30 Electric Car Combines Green Technology With Safety

Volvo’s new C30 electric model emphasizes safety over performance

Electric cars, including the Better Place Renault Fluence EV, of which 100 cars were launched on Israel’s roads in January of this year; are having issues involving safety factors. This includes GM’s Chevy Volt where lithium battery packs were catching fire in side impact crash tests. But now, Volvo, the car company that for years held one of the best auto safety records in the auto industry, is now coming out with an electric car model of its own: the Volvo C30 electric.

EcoReef Antlers For Coral Reef Restoration

Travel

Linda Pappagallo

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May 21, 2012

EcoReef Antlers For Coral Reef Restoration

Installed already in Qatar, reef recovery time can be decreased from 50 to 100 years to 7 to 15 with these ceramic antler-like artificial reefs.

One of the great dilemmas for marine protected areas is ensuring marine ecosystems overcome issues related to “shifting baselines”: the extent to which marine areas have been driven from their “natural baseline state” due to anthropogenic activity and natural changes. Unfortunately, conservation plans often select baselines that already represent a disturbed state. The result is a continuous decline in ecosystem integrity, as next generations of managers resets their baseline to even lower marine ecological states. A partial solution to this is restoration – an active form of conservation. However coral reef restoration (either as coral reef art or ugly electric cages) been no easy task given the lengthy period of time it takes for corals to grow – between 0.06 to 3.9 cm a year.

Thankfully, a new product called EcoReef has been on the market and it is showing to be an effective coral reef restorer that could work for the Middle East reefs in the Gulf and the Red Sea.

Ancient River Valley Reclaimed: Saudi’s Sweet Success Story

Cities

Tafline Laylin

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May 21, 2012

Ancient River Valley Reclaimed: Saudi’s Sweet Success Story

For hundreds of years, Saudi’s Wadi Hanifah River carved out a scenic valley extending from sand dunes and agricultural land pocked with date plantations into the heart of Riyadh before it seeped underground. But the city’s expansion into a thumping metropolis of 7 million people brought the 4500 sq km catchment area close to extinction as sewage and construction waste was dumped in the river.

As a result, the Arriyadh Development Authority commissioned the Canadian architecture and planning firm Moriyama & Teshima and Buro Happold – a UK engineering firm – to submit a Master Plan and Restoration Program to restore the area’s ecological health. One decade later and the Wadi is once again a thriving desert oasis.

Textually Transmitted Conservation of Water

Faisal O'Keefe

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May 20, 2012

Textually Transmitted Conservation of Water

Jordan’s mobile phone users will soon receive SMS tips on smart water use.

It’s part of a public awareness campaign to alert Jordanians to the vital need to protect against pollution and reduce water consumption. (Well, at least alert Jordanians with cell phones, or more accurately, those with cell phones and contracts with the Zain Group). Mobile users will get regular tips on how to conserve water. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation, in cooperation with telecommunications company Zain, is aiming for radical transformation in national behavior. Here’s the plan:

Hijab Ban Lifted for Women in Sport – Hats off to Prince Ali of Jordan

Lifestyle

Faisal O'Keefe

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May 20, 2012

Hijab Ban Lifted for Women in Sport – Hats off to Prince Ali of Jordan

Prince Ali of Jordan believes that Muslim women shouldn’t be disqualified from world-class sports because they wear the hijab, the traditional Islamic head covering. This youngest vice-president of the world football’s governing body Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is a vocal supporter in the campaign against the hijab ban. In 2007, FIFA, banned players from wearing hijab, citing safety concerns.

“This is not an issue of religious symbolism. It’s simply a case of cultural modesty. And I’m tackling this because it is a big issue for many, many women all across the world. It’s not an issue which will go away,” said the prince in a statement to Yahoo Sports recently. The Prince’s pitch to grant everyone equal rights to play soccer has United Nations backing. Sports are good for heart health and we’d be thrilled to see more religious Muslim keeping fit through Sport. The ban is an obstacle to Muslim women athletes.

Better Place Electric Car Network Begins in Israel

Transportation

Brian Nitz

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May 20, 2012

Better Place Electric Car Network Begins in Israel

Better Place revs up its charge spots in Israel

Shai Agassi hopes Israel is ready to embrace the efficiency and economics of electric cars. His company Better Place rolled out four electric car charging stations in northern Israel. He plans to quickly grow this network so that every place in Israel with be within range of one of their network stations. This is intended to eliminate, the “range anxiety” which frightens some consumers out of considering electric cars. Better Place contracted with French automaker Renault to produce a customized version of their Fluence electric car.

Why Solar Cookers Should Spread Like Satellites in Morocco

Tech

Tafline Laylin

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May 20, 2012

Why Solar Cookers Should Spread Like Satellites in Morocco

Women in rural Morocco are often responsible for the grueling task of trekking miles to collect fuel for cooking, which requires not only energy but also time that might have been used developing or applying other skills. Lacking access to natural gas, these villagers have had no choice but to burn biomass to produce the family’s meals – a situation that also has grave environmental consequences.

But a new initiative brought to our attention by Hicham Semlali has already profoundly improved the quality of life for residents of Ouffi Ait – a small, sunny village southeast of Marrakech. The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECI) introduced 150 new solar-cookers, which allow women to spend time on cottage industries and give the surrounding forests a much-needed break.

What Can Rio+20 Do For The Arab World?

Cities

Arwa Aburawa

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May 20, 2012

What Can Rio+20 Do For The Arab World?

We speak to Mohamed Abdel Raouf, a green researcher who will be attending the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) about what it could do for the Arab world

According to the latest reporting, the preparatory talks ahead of the Rio+20 summit have been inconclusive and raised real concerns that the conference will be a complete failure. Many delegates are frustrated at the lack of progress made around the global plan of action, entitled The Future We Want, which they hope world leaders will sign up to in Brazil in June. But Mohamed Abdel Raouf, remains hopeful that some progress will be made and also wants to encourage the Arab world to take a stronger position in favour of a Green Economy.

An independent environmental researcher, Abdel Raouf insists that “even if there is just tiny progress at Rio+20, it will be better than nothing” and it’s only through small steps that big progress can be achieved. The Rio+20 summit will be a follow-up to the landmark 1992 Earth summit in Brazil, at which international treaties to tackle climate change and conserve the Earth’s diversity of plants, animals, and other life forms were agreed.

Israeli Military Uses Biomimicry to Design Butterfly Drone

Tech

Tafline Laylin

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May 20, 2012

Israeli Military Uses Biomimicry to Design Butterfly Drone

Biomimicry is one of the smartest contemporary approaches to design, so it was inevitable that Israeli researchers would apply this science to their military designs. Like the Iranian home that mimics a snail’s form in order to stay cool and a bottle inspired by the Namib desert beetle that can harvest water in one of the driest places on earth, Israel Aerospace Industries’ (AIA) latest insect drone, their smallest to date at only 20 grams, takes its intelligence, form and other properties from one of nature’s finest creatures: the butterfly.

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