The Great Man Made River: 70 percent of Libya’s fresh water comes from it. Muammar Gaddafi, the eccentric strongman of Libya for more than 42 years and often referred to as the Mad Dog of the Middle East, wound up dying like a dog at the hands of his own people. Now that he is […]
German-Palestinian society NIJMAH is working on renovating a kid’s playground using natural materials and setting up a permaculture garden Permaculture may be new to the Middle East but with Jordan hosting the recent permaculture world conference and various organic farms sprouting up, the region is slowly catching up. In Palestine, there is already a permaculture […]
A devastating earthquake has hit Turkey near its border with Iran. A 1976 earthquake in the same vicinity killed 5,000 people. The Kandilli Observatory has reported that a very powerful earthquake measuring up to 7.3 on the richter scale has hit near the city of Van in eastern Turkey. Described as devastating and expected to […]
Every year trappers in Cyprus kill millions of migrating songbirds that are boiled or pickled – a national delicacy called ambelopoulia. Wildlife conservationists want authorities there to do more to prevent this “ecological disaster.” One songbird is illegally trapped or killed every four seconds to provide residents of Cyprus with ingredients for a dish called […]
With forty days left till the latest climate conference held in Durban, South Africa, faith leaders are preparing to fight for the environment I think we can all agree that Copenhagen was a bit of disaster but rather than giving up on international climate conferences, faith leaders are insisting that we need to double our […]
Israeli clean tech innovators comprise 8 percent of the world’s best clean tech companies according to this 2011 award. It’s the third year running that the Cleantech Group has put together its Global Cleantech 100. Last year, 7 Israeli companies were on the list. This year we see some repeats, with 8 on the list […]
Solar energy is predicted to be important energy source in USA by 2031 The just completed Solar Power International Conference and Exhibition in Dallas Texas painted a bright future for the use of solar energy in the USA, according to Julia Hamm, President and CEO of the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). Hamm, who addressed […]
Announced with much fanfare, the plans to build an new bus transit in Jordan have been quietly shelved pending further review Back in early 2011, the Jordanian government announced that it would be building a new impressive bus transit aimed at reducing congestion along Amman’s busiest routes. The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plans entailed operating […]
Maimonides, a Jewish scholar, prescribed tahini almost 1,000 years ago. It’s a calcium food for vegans. When my friend Elia consulted her doctor complaining of debilitating pain in some of her joints, she was surprised to hear him suggest tahini (or tahina) paste rather than prescribing a pill. He explained that this cure came to […]
When Steve Jobs died, the world mourned. But the Arab World is throwing a party at news of Gaddafi’s violent end. How are these two men different and how can we prevent the rise of future Gaddafis? Tafline explores these questions in the following opinion piece. After Steve Jobs died, the world poured out their […]
Regional Etsy shops unite to form old-fashioned collaborative studios, online. Etsy, the online handmade and vintage shopping platform, has done amazing things to help people buy handmade, eco-friendly and local products. Artisans who are marketing their own products can easily set up online shops on the site, and on the buying end, Etsy has made […]
This Syrian olive tree is loaded with fruit, most of which will fall to the ground, unpicked. The autumn olive harvest is still in full swing, and those of you who are now enjoying picking and preserving this ancient Middle Eastern fruit are surely aware that this year’s crop is much better than the poorer […]
The demand for exotic animals in the Middle East – and particularly in the Gulf and Egypt- is putting animal’s lives at risk From pet cheetahs on the streets of Dubai to python and falcon egg smuggling, the Middle East clearly has a wildlife trafficking problem. Even more troubling is that the market for these […]
BrightSource Energy is making a big bet on CSP while others switch to PV The third huge US solar project from BrightSource Energy is its largest yet. At a whopping 750 MW it is the size of three or four US coal or gas plants. Its Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility in California will use the solar tower technology it inherited from Israel's Luz, its parent company (Luz Rises Again as BrightSource for California) in which a field of mirrors on poles reflects sunlight onto a tower to create steam to drive a turbine to make electricity. But it comes at a time when many utility-scale solar companies are switching to PV (photovoltaic) solar - those traditional rooftop solar panels that most people associate with solar - from Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) such as this. Why?
Scientist Harold Vinegar says there is a huge quantity of oil shale in Israel and, despite protests and risks, he still wants to extract it A project to explore the Elah Valley of Israel (pictured above) for oil shale has been underway since 2008 and despite protests from locals and environmental campaigners, those behind the […]