Made from sawdust and plastic bags alone, these adhesive-free lamps take leftover materials and make them shine again. Plastic bags are an (unfortunately) abundant material that have been used in many ways by designers, but sawdust – though abundant as well – has not been used as frequently by sustainable Middle Eastern designers. One other […]
This flashy car gives a whole new meaning to recycling! Image via Virendra Saklani/Gulf News Reflecting the Emirati obsession with flashy cars, a Pakistani man has painstakingly coated a Chevrolet Camaro with thousands of “recycled” coins worth nearly $6,000. A longtime resident of the United Arab Emirates, Tarek Javaid has put 3,000 hours into the project since October last […]
The study, based on data collected by the Kinsey Institute's Women's Well-being study, which used an online questionnaire, found that the women reported similar levels of sexual satisfaction, which included things such as intimacy and romance, but the women using hormonal contraception experienced less arousal, fewer orgasms, difficulties with lubrication, decreased pleasure and less frequent sex.
Saudi Arabia is so confident that this postage stamp-sized will change the solar industry, they’ve invested $10 million into the project. Photograph by: Tim Fraser, Postmedia News Saudi Arabia has no intention of falling out of power when its oil runs out, which is why the kingdom has backed a potentially “game-changing” solar cell project […]
What’s an Aqaba trip over Eid Ul Adha without some snorkeling at the coral beds off Tala Bay of the Red Sea? It’s your chance to star in your own National Geographic special. Get knocked out by the natural beauty, then repulsed by the manmade trash.
Join a design contest and network with Jordan’s LEED-minded professionals. Sometimes a simple link with like-minded souls can jump-start connection to fascinating places. As an American architect with a strong environmental bent, recently relocated from Dublin to Amman, it’s taking some time to find my professional sea-legs in Jordan. Idle Google-ing, fueled by cups of […]
Green Bar makes local, natural beauty products in an industry pumped with chemicals and toxic preservatives. It’s tough enough being a woman without having to worry about nasty preservatives in cosmetics, or the loads of other bad things pumped into beauty products. The natural world is filled with plants and flowers that have been used […]
A year after the fire in Israel, Joshua finds new life at the ravaged Carmel Forest. Israel experienced the largest wildfire in the country’s history nearly a year ago. The blaze broke out near Isifiya, in the Carmel region, on December 2, 2010. Spreading over large swaths of land overnight, the fire quickly consumed 5,000 […]
Ostrich steaks on the “hoof”? Not at Israel’s Yotvata Hai Bar wildlife refuge Is it right to raise what should be wild animals for use as leather goods or exotic food menu items in offbeat theme restaurants? These issues came to the forefront recently in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper: private “farms” are raising African crocodiles for […]
Water murals in the Gaza Strip explore the daily struggle with water shortage and water contamination The Gaza Strip is known to indulge in political murals but water murals are definitely a new thing. Over the summer months, US activists along with local artists, teachers and school children got together to paint 8 murals exploring […]
Nokero solar light bulbs charge by day and provide hours of light each night for about a year and a half before the battery must be replaced. If only every relief effort were this sustainable. More than one thousand ShelterBox relief kits have been sent to southeastern Turkey since a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the province […]
One way to make musical performances more sustainable is to use renewable energy (such as human cyclists, for example) to power them, but what about making the music itself more sustainable? What is the carbon footprint for making a piano or a guitar?
Residents of Sharjah – the Emirate just north of Dubai – enjoy drying off in giant human dryers like these pictured above, which reportedly slash carbon emissions by half in some situations. With average temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit during summer months, you’d think residents of Sharjah – an Emirate just north of Dubai – […]
UN scientists say rapid coastal development, booming populations and the fossil fuel industry is wreaking havoc in the Arabian Gulf The Arabian Gulf, which is also known as the Persian Gulf, is a semi-enclosed area of sea in the Middle East region that has eight bordering countries from Iraq down to Oman. As a major […]
Inspired by the Arab Spring this past summer, Israelis from a rainbow of different ethnicities, political leanings and backgrounds banded together to form a protest movement unlike any in recent history. Their tent cities influenced the Occupy Movement in the world. As the Arab spring spawned protests by the disenchanted across the Middle East, Israelis […]