A search is underway to find whoever stole a safe containing radioactive material from Egypt’s first nuclear power station.
While hundreds of protestors surrounded the El Dabaa nuclear power plant in Egypt last week, someone managed to sneak in and steal some of its radioactive material. One safe containing radioactive material was seized while another was broken open and some of its contents removed, according to Khaleej Times.
Solar panels at the Kuraymat CSP planet in Egypt require precious water resources to stay clean but Masdar & Siemens aim to change that.
When coated with layers of dust, solar panels lose their energy-absorbing efficiency and require a regular cleaning schedule. But spending this precious natural resource on energy when many people in the Middle East don’t have enough water to grow food “is simply not possible,” according to Dr. Anthony Patt.
A researcher from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Dr. Patt explained at a Desertec conference in Cairo last year that CSP projects in North Africa using current technology could use up 20 percent of the total water supply. Instead of abandoning solar altogether as a result, Masdar’s Institute of Technology and Siemens AG have jointly committed to developing a new generation of sand-resistant solar panels better suited to our desert region.
In the wake of a 6-day trip by China’s Premier Win Jiabao to Saudi Arabia, China and Saudi Arabia have forged an alliance on developing nuclear power. Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with China for assistance in the development of nuclear power, using the last of its oil wealth to invest in the most controversial form of a low carbon energy future for its energy hungry nation.
Nearly 3 billion people lack safe and efficient cooking gear. It’s time to make the problem in the kitchen sexier.
Half the world’s households prepare their meals over open fires or with jerry-rigged cookers fueled by scrap wood, coal, combustible waste and dung. Fatal burns are common and foraged fuel dangerously degrades indoor air quality. The World Health Organization reports that toxic smoke from inefficient stoves is the fifth biggest health risk in the developing world, killing 2 million people annually. This shocking statistic puts unsafe cooking nose to nose with HIV/AIDS on the global killing field, with women and children most vulnerable. Who knew?
For decades, aid advocates insisted that more efficient stoves using cleaner fuels could eradicate the problem in underdeveloped communities where electricity was unreliable and fuel supplies scarce. Now safe-stove news is popping up relative to refugee camps and “Occupy Wall Street” outposts. In the ‘90s, American inventor Peter Scott helped design low-cost portable “rocket stoves” which run on electric, gas or solar power and include powerful filters to limit harmful smoke. The New Yorker christened Scott the movement’s Thomas Edison, adding, “The average cooking fire produces as much carbon dioxide as a car, and a great deal more soot. Cleaning up these emissions may be the fastest, cheapest way to cool the planet.” But why isn’t this idea selling?
Rollercoaster speeds can turn you “green”, but the ‘coaster itself is hardly energy friendly. Time for a stroller coaster.
United Arab Emirates might hold the Guinness World Record for Holding the Most Guinness World Records, and one of those prizes goes to the world’s fastest ride: the Formula 1 Rollercoaster at Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World (itself a record winner as the world’s largest indoor theme park).
Fasten your safety goggles to protect against Abu Dhabi dust and blast onto the track at a denture-rattling speed of 150 mph in under four seconds. Enjoy an extreme gravity Botox-face as you shoot 52 meters into the sky. It’s rollercoaster as RACECAR <– spell that backwards or forwards, it still screams fast! But Global financial markets provide enough public titillation: perhaps it’s time to reinvent these thrilling rides? How about a human powered roller coaster for a change?
Mars rock rarer than gold and called Tissint falls in Morocco.
This might explain mystical Moroccan men: maybe they really are from Mars? Or at least influenced by the Martian planet? Scientists have just confirmed that a meteor shower that brought a 15 pound rock hurtling into Morocco really did come from Mars. This is the fifth time that science has confirmed Martian rocks on earth, and the latest weren’t discovered until a month or so ago.
The rocks could reveal whether or not Mars could sustain life. These are among the only samples of the Red Planet we have on earth as no astronauts have ever made it to Mars.
Rarer than gold, the rocks are worth big bucks since there are only 240 pounds of them known to science. According to ABC News the last time a Martian rock fell and was found fresh on the Blue Planet was in 1962. But it is plausible that many more have fallen and we just don’t know about them. Since two thirds of the earth are water, most likely fell into the ocean.
Image via the Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Because cheetahs don’t belong on leashes, Dubai’s neighbor, Ajman, has passed a law that makes it illegal for anyone to have wild animals or reptiles in their homes.
Remember the Porsche driver in Dubai who thought it was cool to walk his pet cheetah on a leash in the middle of a busy urban center? It turns out that if he is a resident of neighboring Ajman, he could have received a massive fine and the animal would have been confiscated. In a move that makes our green, animal-loving hearts sing, one of the smallest of seven Emirates and the home of our very own Green Sheikh, is the first Gulf Country to pass legislation which makes it clear that keeping lions, cheetahs, and crocodiles at home is not ok.
New drilling results from the Dead Sea provides clues that the Dead Sea almost dried up because of climate change — 125,000 years ago!
The rapidly dropping water level of the Dead Sea, a cause of much concern today, occurred as well in the distant past, resulting in the severe drying up of the lake, an international drilling project there has shown. The project opens a window into the climatic and seismic history of the Dead Sea over the past hundreds of thousands of years.
The project discovered that about 125,000 years ago, the lake had dried up almost completely as a result of climate change. This finding arouses worry about the present status of the Dead Sea – the lowest place on earth — in which human intervention is causing acceleration of the drying-up process.
International water management policies in Morocco have disrupted the Berber’s perfectly good and longstanding system.
In 2009 I travelled to the High Atlas mountain region of Morocco to reach some friends that ran an eco-lodge in a very lonesome village with a wholesome lifestyle. The mother of Houssa, the owner of the eco-lodge, revealed the interesting methods used in the Berber tradition to manage their water supply. Sadly, these indigenous traditions have been falling apart since dam projects funded by the World Bank have disrupted local practices. “Now families are fighting over water, this was never the case in the past, our system was perfect, we don’t know why international organizations have come to help” Houssa’s mother said.
News that the French Parliament accused Israel of using water “apartheid” unleashed a fury of water war rhetoric that Friends of the Earth Middle East’s Director Gidon Bromberg is trying to calm.
Yesterday the Israeli paper Haaretz reported that the French Parliament accused Israel of using water as “a weapon serving the new apartheid.” Socialist Party MP Jean Glavany wrote that “450,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there.”
In response, Israel’s Government Press Office released a report yesterday entitled The Israeli-Palestinian Water Conflict: An Israeli Perspective by Haim Gvirtzman of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. Gvirtzman places responsibility for Palestine’s water shortages squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian Authority’s ineffective governance.
Walnut floors and bookshelves gives “warmth”, but at a cost of live trees that take 50 years to grow
The use of ornate wood products in building homes, furniture and ships has been part of humanity since time began. Even the Bible gives note to using wood for ornate construction projects with such examples as King David living in “a palace made of cedar”, and of King Hiram of Tyre sending his best wood craftsmen and “trunks of cedar” to King Solomon in Jerusalem for use in building the First Temple for the Jewish people. With world forests being depleted at a very rapid rate, continued use of wood in architectural projects as well as for furniture has often been put into question as whether this practice is sustainable in today’s climate changing world. Wood can be used as a carbon sink, but what if it’s being shipped around the world?
A permaculture garden and a mud-brick house, the Dead Sea Harmony Centre in Jordan spreads the word on sustainability
William Alajalian, who was born and raised in the Dead Sea area of Ghor Mazraa, may be new to environmentalism but he is more passionate and pro-active than most campaigners. Around three years ago, his passion to build a garden and host visitors staying in Jordan collided in new ways. “Through hosting different people from different cultures I became more open minded and educated in sustainable solutions and projects,” he explains to Green Prophet. “Every new person gave me a new idea and more energy to keep going.” Three years on and with the support of locals from his neighbourhood, he has set up an flourishing eco-centre which showcases green methods of growing and water conservation .
Through his free movie First Earth David Sheen is passing on the positive transformation that occurred in his life after learning about ecological architecture.
When David Sheen first decided to make a film that depicts the history, necessity, and straight-up sensibility of ecological architecture, he had no idea what a massive task he had set for himself. It took four years to scout out both ancient and contemporary natural homes on four continents and hundreds of hours of footage to create First Earth – Uncompromising Ecological Architecture.
Remarkably, the Canadian-born Israeli designer and reporter has never sought fame or fortune. Instead, he hopes to pass on to everyone, regardless of their demographic, the positive transformation that learning about healthy homes has created in his life. First Earth has been translated into 12 different languages and costs absolutely nothing to watch. This is not a trick – we promise.
The US Navy has trained dolphins to detect underwater mines since 1960.
Last week the Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi denied that Iran had threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – a crucial 54km wide strait through which Gulf countries export petroleum – but the United States press has been abuzz with reports that oil exports are in jeopardy.The Atlantic Wire recently reported that instead of dispatching a heavily-armed military arsenal in defense, the U.S. Navy is poised to send in a pod of mine-detecting dolphins. If this happens, it will be their 3rd tour of duty in the Persian Gulf.
Fossil-fueled til 2004, Oman is now making bold moves into solar
The Sultanate of Oman, despite its small population of under 3 million, is forming an unusual partnership arrangement with Terra Nex for financing and project development of solar infrastructure capabilities locally.
Terra Nex, a Switzerland-based wealth management company that develops investment opportunities, acts as a project and business developer in the Middle East, and it partners with institutional investors in Europe that are able to further the projects it develops.
In collaboration with the Middle East Best Select (MEBS) Group of Funds, Terra Nex plans to invest $2 billion to develop local solar power factories in the Sultanate, with the capability of producing 400 MW of solar panels a year.
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