We speak to Fazlun Khalid who set up The Islamic Foundation For Ecology And Environmental Sciences about the highs and lows of over two decades of work The link between Islam and the environment is slowly gaining recognition amongst the wider public and The Islamic Foundation For Ecology And Environmental Sciences (IFEES) may have something […]
Gaziantep is the only city in Turkey with its own climate change action plan. Everything from sustainable agriculture to waste-to-energy technology will be on the agenda today, as dozens of mayors, academics, and NGO representatives assemble in Istanbul for the 2011 Sustainable Cities conference, a project of Turkey’s Regional Environment Center. Municipalities often accomplish environmental goals […]
Could a bike sharing system work in Beirut? Bicycle sharing has become all the rage in certain cities in the past few years, ever since the Parisians got the trend going with the Vélib’ shared bike rental system approximately three years ago. In the Middle East, Nicosia implemented a bike sharing system a few weeks […]
Ocean bricks are underwater infrastructure for wind turbines and more futuristic ideas. Here’s a business that might do really well in the future. Israeli inventors Yoram Alkon and Dr. Eli Kent have come up with a giant “ocean brick” concept that would have many uses in the strange new world that we are inadvertently creating – […]
An SSC Tuatara at 444km/hour or a Nissan Leaf? As Europe, North America and even Israel rolls out modest EVs and hybrid cars, they are a no-go for the luxury brand shoppers in the Gulf region. “Hybrid cars still can’t cut it in United Arab Emirates,” is the sub-heading sum-up of an article in this […]
Meet Karin at the WATEC conference this week in Tel Aviv. It happens every two years, and this week delegations from all corners of the planet are expected to converge in Tel Aviv, Israel for the two-day water conference and expo called WATEC. I interviewed Booky Oren this year, the conference chair, about what to […]
A pregnant me at the very sunny Better Place visitor center last year. With the launch of the first nationwide electric car networks rolling out in Israel and with Denmark just months away, the electric car company Better Place today reports that it has secured another $200 million in financing, on top of the $55o […]
Origami and some creativity saved these Earl Grey tea bag wrappers from the recycling bin and made them functional again. We are constantly surrounded by paper. It is in our mailboxes, surrounding our dry food items, and pretty much everywhere. It is all too easy to toss unwanted or used papers into a wastepaper basket […]
Greenpeace Israel calls on Jerusalem and other municipalities to stop recycling their promises and start recycling trash. Recycling has improved over the past decade in Israel. Hiria, a large garbage dump in Tel Aviv, has transformed into a recycling center, metals are starting to be recycled, and some urban recycling bins have become targets for […]
A Jordanian oil shale company owned by Shell is funding university courses on the environment As a global oil and gas company, Shell has a murky history not just environmentally but politically. Yesterday we commemorated the death of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was murdered for his campaigns against oil companies – and particularly Shell […]
A huge hydro-wind hybrid power station will double Morocco’s entire installed hydropower capacity – and be a world’s first. Morocco is developing a project that will be the largest in the world to combine two natural clean power allies, wind and water, in a hybrid power project rated at a little over 1 GW (1,070 […]
Used copper bullets found at a firing range transform into sculptural objects incorporated into rings. Bullets are, objectively, ugly things. They have an ugly purpose, and are not much to look at, either. But what would happen if you removed a bullet from its violent context? Could it be beautiful? Israeli designer Adi Zaffran Weisler […]
What do the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Arab Spring have in common? A desire for radical change The Arab Spring protests which swept through the Middle East show us that despite years of apathy, humans do have the ability to make radical changes. As such, the difficult decisions we need to take to avoid the […]
Philips has created a plastic, urban beehive. Honey, I am home! When I told my husband that I want to build an urban beehive on the roof, he thought I’d flown the coop. It’s enough that we have 15 chickens running around the urban homestead. Bees sting, he reminded me. I, like many other “informed” […]