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Jerusalem camel abuse

Maurice Picow
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Jerusalem camel abuse

No Dancing Camel here; but a definite example of animal abuse

We are no stranger to animal abuse: ranging from cruelty toward circus animals, to abuse towards animals in private and public zoos.  Cases of wild animals like cheetahs and baby tigers being kept as pets by jaded wealthy people in various locations, including the United Arab Emirates have also been reported.

These are occurrences that happen all too frequently, unfortunately; and despite concerted efforts by animal rights activists and various public awareness groups, the practice of abusing, torturing, and killing both wild and domestic animals continues unabated all over the Middle East and the world at large.

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Tektuğ Elektrik Group Enters Turkey’s Expanding Wind Energy Sector

Julia Harte
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1
Tektuğ Elektrik Group Enters Turkey’s Expanding Wind Energy Sector

wind farm turkey german company adiyaman
German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex will construct eleven 2.5 MW turbines for the Tektuğ Elektrik Group’s first wind project.

This autumn, on a mountain ridge in southeastern Turkey’s Adiyaman province, construction will begin on the 27.5 MW “Sincik” wind energy farm, Nordex announced today. It will be the flagship wind energy project of the Tektuğ Elektrik Group, a Turkish firm specializing in renewable energy.

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Polish Kite Surfer Fights Off Red Sea Sharks With a Knife

Tafline Laylin
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0
Polish Kite Surfer Fights Off Red Sea Sharks With a Knife

Red Sea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, travel, nature, Red Sea SharksThis white tip shark is found in the Red Sea, where a Polish kite surfer who for two days used a knife to fight off sharks up to 6m long.

A professional kite surfer and instructor from Poland recently survived two days of drifting in the Red Sea by fighting off sharks with a knife. With just a couple of energy bars and drinks and a small amount of water, the first kitesurfer to cross the Baltic Sea set off from El Gouna in Egypt to Duba, Saudi Arabia. But then the wind died.

SOS fail

Jan Lisewski’s sail deflated when the wind stopped, forcing the 42 year old to drift with the waves. But as the swells grew larger and the sun was setting, he finally lit an SOS signal.

Saudi Arabia’s coast guard failed to reach him for another 40 hours.

Related: Egypt dive boat sinks

While drifting through the water at night, he claimed that he attacked by sharks that were up to 6 meters long, according to Vancouver Sun.

“I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills,” Lisewski told Polish state news agency PAP.

A sea full of nearly extinct sharks

Few Egyptians would attempt such a bold feat since the Red Sea is well-known for its shark population, even though conservationists point out that their danger is exaggerated.

Most shark attacks are accidental and occur when snorkelers or surfers are misidentified as prey. Sharks almost never hunt humans.

In 2010 three Russian tourists were attacked by a White Tip shark while snorkeling off the Sinai Peninsula. Their injuries were not fatal, but just one week later in 2010 an elderly woman was killed.

An apex species, the future of Red Sea sharks is uncertain. Protection legislation designed to protect them has alerted Yemini fishermen to Red Sea sharks‘ whereabouts and even locals are guilty of hunting them for their fins, which sell for a hefty sum in Asia.

Green Prophet writer Miriam Kresh reported earlier this year that “since last year’s political uprising, and consequent deterioration of law enforcement, poachers supplying restaurants with illicit shark fins have driven the Red Sea shark population down by as much as 80 percent” and put them at risk of extinction.

More on Red Sea Sharks:

Protection Legislation Endangers Red Sea Sharks

Egypt’s Red Sea Sharks Face Extinction

Three Russian Red Sea Snorkelers Attacked by White Tip Shark

Leafy Narcotic Khat Trade May be Funding Terror

Tafline Laylin
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6
Leafy Narcotic Khat Trade May be Funding Terror

Khat, Al Shabaab, Horn of Africa, narcotics, water issues, environmental issues, SomaliaAnalysts believe that this benign-looking plant popular in the Middle East may be funding the Al Shabaab terrorist organization in southern Somalia.

A very popular narcotic in the Middle East, khat maybe be funding the terrorist organization Al Shabaab in Somalia, CNN reports. Chewing the red stems of Catha edulis produces mild euphoria and an alertness akin to that produced by caffeine, and it is openly and widely use in the Horn of Africa. In Yemen, growing Khat uses more water than the country can afford and takes priority over more sustaining crops.

Now Dutch officials are banning khat in the Netherlands, where a large Somali community imports large quantities of the plant from farmers in Meru County, Kenya. Government spokespeople insist that this decision was taken to protect against grave economic, health, and social concerns, but analysts believe that funds generated by the trade are funneled to Al Shabaab and that the Dutch aim to curtail that.

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Masdar Students Contemplate Earth’s Future En Route to Antarctica

Tafline Laylin
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0
Masdar Students Contemplate Earth’s Future En Route to Antarctica

Masdar, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, Renewable Energy, Water Issues, Antarctica, Two Masdar students on the 2012 “Leadership on the Edge” expedition in Antarctica share their reflections so far.

For Masdar Institute of Science and Technology students Reem Al Junaibi and Maitha Al Kaabi, traveling half way across the globe to Antarctica has provided an opportunity to reflect on the future of our planet.With respective interests in renewable energy and water issues, the pair left their warm desert environs to spend 16 days touring the frozen frontier, where they hope to gain insight that will further their research in Abu Dhabi.

After a long plane ride and a stopover in Buenos Aires, they finally landed in Ushuaia – the world’s southernmost city in Argentina, and then Reem began to reflect on their combined experience through a series of short journal entries recently published in The National.

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Are Renewables Just Freeing Up Oil For Export?

Arwa Aburawa
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Are Renewables Just Freeing Up Oil For Export?

masdar city mashrabiyaDoes an expanding renewables market in the Middle East (such as that showcased in Masdar) just mean more oil can be exported and more profit made at the expense of the world climate?

Here are GreenProphet, we have been carefully following the Middle East’s slow but steady uptake of renewables technologies. Every solar project or wind farm in the region is a small step in the right direction- away from oil and fossil fuels and towards green energy. However, some commentators state that renewables should be used to support local energy needs so that more (profit-making) oil can be exported to other countries instead.

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World’s 13th Tallest Building Towers Over Kuwait City

Tafline Laylin
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1
World’s 13th Tallest Building Towers Over Kuwait City

mixed use development, Al Hamra Firdous, Kuwait City, sustainable development, 13th tallest tower, unsustainable development, SOM, architecture, urban designThe Al Hamra Firdous Tower in Kuwait City is the world’s 13th largest

Kuwait is now competing with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to build the biggest, baddest skyscrapers. The recently completed Al Hamra Firdous Tower also called the “Enshrouded Figure” is 412 meters tall and is ranked by the Council on Tall Buildings as the world’s 13th tallest. Only one other building in Kuwait has found a spot among the world’s 100 tallest buildings: at 300 meters tall, the Arraya Tower garnered 56th place. Step in to learn more about Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s (SOM) latest project in the Middle East.

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Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute Files U.S. Patent for Advanced Battery tech

Susan Kraemer
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Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute Files U.S. Patent for Advanced Battery tech

masdar-institute-battery-patent

Masdar Institute makes first foray into advanced lithium battery technology.

Continuing its pioneering of renewable energy technologies that have great relevance for the Middle East – such as its recent work on sand-resistant solar – the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates has just filed a provisional patent application with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office for a new solid polymer electrolyte technology for Li-ion batteries.

The idea was to increase the temperature range at which lithium batteries can work, an essential first step to the widespread adoption of electric cars in the hot Middle East where temperatures can go as high as 48 degrees C (118 degrees Fahrenheit).

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Communal Breast Milk Bank a Resource for Eco Friendly Baby Food

Karen Chernick
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Communal Breast Milk Bank a Resource for Eco Friendly Baby Food

"breastfeeding environmental benefits"When mothers want to give their little ones the best (and most environmentally friendly) nutrition there is – breast milk – but can’t, they can turn to the breast milk bank.

The health benefits of breastfeeding have been praised by health care professionals for years, and breastfeeding is obviously a healthier choice than formula.  What is lesser known, though, is that breastfeeding is also much healthier for the environment.  It comes down to being a local food issue.  Breast milk does not need to be imported, transported, or wrapped with packaging before it reaches its destination.

Not all mothers are able to breastfeed, however, and for health and/or environmental reasons they may want to supplement their baby’s formula with some mom-made milk.  A newly founded communal breast milk bank in Israel helps mothers obtain the precious material.

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Egyptian Researchers Aim to Clear Landmines Using Bacteria and Plants

Tafline Laylin
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5
Egyptian Researchers Aim to Clear Landmines Using Bacteria and Plants

biotech, cleantech, agriculture, science, technology, land mines, EgyptEgyptians researchers believe that sugar beets like those pictured above can help to clear the country’s stockpile of land mines.

20% of the world’s land mines are planted in Egypt, where they have killed or maimed a total of more than 7,000 people in the last 25 years. They are scattered in the western desert and Sinai and pose an enormous impediment to development as well as considerable risks to animal and human safety.

Researchers from the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT), the government body responsible for funding research in Egypt, believe they have found a three-tiered solution to this problem that involves plants and bacteria, but critics doubt whether their laboratory tests will prove effective in the field.

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IUCN to Make Nature’s Solutions Central to the World Water Forum in France

Tafline Laylin
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0
IUCN to Make Nature’s Solutions Central to the World Water Forum in France

water issues, World Water Forum, Rio Summit, IUCN, water pollution, population increase, water shortagesA leader in conservation, IUCN aims to demonstrate that nature has the solutions to our upcoming water crisis.

Thousands of people will gather for the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, France between the 12th and 17th of March, 2012 in order to address the escalating challenges presented by water shortages, pollution, and population growth. And the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – a leading conservation group – has announced that they will be on the scene to promote nature as the most effective solution. 

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The Arab Feminist Who Laid the Groundwork for Today’s Green Activists

Faisal O'Keefe
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5
The Arab Feminist Who Laid the Groundwork for Today’s Green Activists

A “green” Arab renaissance cannot be accomplished without the rise of women in Arab countries. Recently in Jordan, the Google image was of Middle Eastern intellectual, feminist and writer, the late May Ziyade. 

Don’t you love peeling the evolutionary onion, seeing who came before to take us where we are today? A century ago, in a pre-digital world, ideas were exchanged as they’d been for millennia: via dialogue and debate, and for educated elite, through writing.  Literary circles were de rigueur in North America and Europe.  Artists and thinkers gathered in these original “chat rooms”, investigating modern ideas emerging from clashing ideological tectonic plates:  culture, politics and rapid industrialism.

“We should free the woman, so that her children won’t grow up to become slaves. And we should remove the veil of illusions from her eyes, so that by looking into them, her husband, brother and son will discover that there is a greater meaning to life.”  So wrote May Ziyade, a leading figure in literary circles during the al-nahda, or Arab Renaissance. A hundred years befor the Arab Spring, she demonstrated words can change the world.

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SlutWalk Israel in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem – a First for the Middle East

Karin Kloosterman
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15

slut sign slutwalk manchester, Slutwalk israel, tel aviv, jerusalem, haifa
Karin draws a line between women’s rights and green issues in light of upcoming SlutWalks in Israel.

Last April Green Prophet asked: Should the Middle East Have More Sluts? Of course we wanted to attract our reader’s attention, and we did with thousands of readers, hundreds of “Likes” and dozens of comments. Although I am not a feminist, I do recognize a critical link between women’s rights and environmental values. Look at the women from Barefoot College in Jordan: Women are often the first ones to transmit these values to their societies and children, and women without basic rights are not empowered to do anything. I know that linking sluts and the Middle East is a tough pill to swallow in the ultra-conservative Middle East but we wrote this article to grab your attention. To make you think.

Readers and activists were listening. According to DIY Tel Aviv the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem will be organizing their own slut walks, starting next week.

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Low Carbon Economics Aligns With the Sharia Law of Islam

Faisal O'Keefe
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0
Low Carbon Economics Aligns With the Sharia Law of Islam

green sukuk sharia law islam The people promoting bond sales to fund climate change turn to Islamic investors.

Gulf nations may prove to be a prime market for Climate Bonds as they diversify beyond fossil fuels into long-term green energy projects. To spur investment, financial vehicles that support a low-carbon economy are being developed to align with Islamic Sharia law. It’s a simple concept: expand Middle East renewables for home use, and maximize oil surplus for foreign trade. It begins with raising funds.

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Time to Drink Water From Air Con Units

Maurice Picow
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15
Time to Drink Water From Air Con Units

water from airWater from air! AC water conversion and treatment unit illustration. Photo: Watergen Ltd

A while ago I wrote about the possibility of creating drinking or agricultural usage water from the cooling coil condensation from air conditioners.   This idea has been around for years, and has in the past been met with more than its share of skepticism, even though inexpensive methods exist to purify polluted water from bacteria other biological impurities that may be present in such water.

A recent program on the CNN Earth Matters environmental show dealt with special water cleansing units that were originally developed for US and other troops stationed in hot desert areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan that collects and purifies the run-off water from military vehicle AC units and turns this water into pure, tasty  drinking water in the field.  The water is sent through a series of filters to clean and remove harmful bacteria and other organic substances. And the technology is here. 

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