Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Adults who are 21 or older can carry up to 30 grams. This amount applies to personal use within Pittsburgh’s limits. Carrying more could lead to confiscation or legal action. Staying under the limit avoids problems during any public stop.
In the study, the scientists didn’t just test one plant compound at a time. They tested two traditional Chinese medicine compounds together — luteolin (from flowers like honeysuckle and chrysanthemum) and astragaloside IV (from astragalus root, Huang Qi). These plants have been combined in Chinese herbal formulas for centuries to help the body recover from injury and inflammation.
A new collaboration between luxury brand Coach and textile reuse pioneer Bank & Vogue attempts to stitch those two worlds together: high fashion and the global textile waste stream.
Stepping up to democratize the moon is an EU-funded company, Deep Space Energy, which has just raised more than $1 million USD as a seed fund to help it create energy generators on the moon.
Get your weekly dose of green news snippets from the region
It’s been another great week of green news coming from the Middle East. We hope you managed to catch our interview with Green Hajj expert Dr Husna Ahmed, our coverage of the quake-proof straw houses as well as Tafline’s time at the Desertec conference in Cairo. And we have more bite-size news to keep you busy this quiet Sunday too. Read on for green courses on climate change, mega-rail projects and record high fines for an oil spill in Israeli waters.
Educating people about sustainability in the Middle East – while having fun.
The eco-curious public thronged Masdar’s open organic market and street fair last week. As at last April’s first event, people experienced renewable energy in the flesh, riding in neat little driverless pod cars that shuttled between the parking lot and the fair grounds. Once at the market, organic shwarma and snacks tempted appetites. Displays of colorful produce and shelves of organic cosmetics appealed to the health and beauty-conscious.
The Little Fair Trade Shop opened again, selling beautiful craft items made from recycled materials. Kids were treated to “Mad Scientist” and recycling workshops, magic shows and more. Education in sustainability lightly disguised as fun.
Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopepmtou is skeptical of the system’s truly positive environmental impact, though, saying that “the purpose [of the system] was to connect the universities and encourage leisurely cycling, not cycling on an everyday basis.”
Zaufishan gives 7 tips on making the Muslim Eid festival more sustainable.
I’m overjoyed and giddy like a child on Christmas eve. As a Muslim, my year is punctuated with two religious festivals, or Eids. Eid-ul-Fitr ended the 30-day fasting in Ramadan two months ago, and Eid-ul-Adha which marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage in Makkah with a sacrifice.
By choosing more quake-proof, sustainable, and cost-effective materials, developers could avoid future scenes like this one in Van, Turkey.
In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that rocked its southeast region in October and rendered 14,000 buildings uninhabitable, Turkey is about to embark on its biggest ever urban renewal and construction campaign. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has promised that the new buildings and property, which will require an estimated $255 billion in investment, will be “safe and sustainable” — unlike their predecessors.
If Erdoğan’s serious about those goals, we have one piece of advice for him: straw bale construction.
The Alliance of Religions and Conservation has launched a special water conservation guide aimed at Muslim women and families
Every year at Hajj, Muslims commemorate the struggle of Hajjar; an Egyptian hand-maid and second wife of the Prophet Ibrahim [pbuh] who was stranded in the desert without water for her child. The hajj pilgrims walk, as she did, between two mountains in the Saudi Arabian wilderness known as Safa and Marwa to remember her search for water. To mark the significance of this event, the Alliance of Religions and Conservation has launched a special water conservation guide which focuses on the story of Hajjar, to accompany its Green Guide to Hajj.
Hobnobbing: Green Prophet attends a new UK-Israeli tech hub hosted at the house of UK Ambassador Matthew Gould. With the UK’s help, Israel can accelerate more clean tech innovation.
The UK is making a bid to leverage investment in Israeli tech start-ups. Ambassador Matthew Gould has launched a Tech Hub in Tel Aviv. This endeavor will foster the growth of Israeli companies in their nascence and connect them to markets in London.
Israel has made a name for itself in recent years for its innovation in emerging fields such as biotech, telecommunications and cleantech. In the book “Start-up Nation,” Dan Senor and Saul Singer discuss how “Israel has beaten the odds to become a major player in the global business world, especially in the technology sector.” They explain that the country has achieved this “economic miracle” notwithstanding its decades-long regional conflict and lack of natural resources. And entrepreneurs there are just getting started.
Sheikh Ali Gomaa is the Grand Mufti of Egypt issuing environmental fatwas.
Sheikh Ali Gomaa is the Grand Mufti of Egypt since September 2003 and one of the highest ranking and respected religious authorities throughout the Sunni world. He holds the second highest religious position in Egypt, after that of Sheikh al-Azhar. As the Grand Mufti, he oversees the premier institution throughout the Muslim world for religious legal direction, Dar al-Iftaa. It turns out his educational approach is also very “green”.
Looking deeper into the pitfalls and promise of Desertec at Dii conference in Cairo. Green Prophet’s Tafline is there and reports from the field.
Instead of scrambling to find funds and legislative support for the Desertec initiative, a handful of people gathered at the Dii conference in Cairo to explore the project’s overall environmental sustainability. The ambitious plan to develop solar and wind energy in North Africa’s deserts could replace harmful fossil fuel alternatives, but researchers are quick to dismiss the notion that renewable energy projects are completely innocent.
Dr. Anthony Patt from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis pointed out that scaled up Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants that utilize wet-cooling technology could use up to 20 percent of North Africa’s already dwindling water supply. And “that is simply not possible,” he said.
This incredible solar-powered artificial leaf that creates ice and water in Egypt’s Sahara desert is well on its way to becoming a reality!
We have learned time and again what a mistake it is to see the desert as a giant wasteland, a fact that artist Ap Verheggen intends to drive home with the incredible SunGlacier project. Based in the Netherlands, Verheggen is developing a giant sun-powered artificial leaf that uses condensation to create ice out of humidity in the Saharan desert.
This may sound like fantasy, but a pilot project that tests the theory behind the SunGlacier proposal is well underway. Instead of a 200m2 elm-leaf shaped structure with an PV cell coated underbelly, which powers cooling condensers that in turn convert humidity from the desert air into ice, engineers have simulated the desert environment inside of a shipping container. And they’ve already made a 10cm slab of ice!
Believe the impossible
The Engineer reports that Ap Verheggen wants to inspire people to “believe the impossible” where climate change and appropriate action are concerned. As bold and counterintuitive as it is, albeit firmly ensconced in science, the SunGlacier leaf project is certain to do just that.
Extracting water from humid air is yesterday’s news in the Middle East. The Gulf countries in particular have very little freshwater so they have had to develop clever solutions for obtaining water wherever they can, including from the air, which is absolutely saturated with humidity.
Too dry? Nope.
But since the Sahara desert is significantly less humid than the Gulf countries, it seems like a poor candidate for this kind of technology. Not so, according to Verheggen, who told the paper that the humidity in Egypt’s portion of the Sahara desert is equivalent to that of the Netherlands and that it is sufficient to generate ice and water.
The engineers have heated the shipping container to 30 degrees Celsius and installed a humidifier that creates moisture. A fan, which simulates the fierce desert winds, is pointed at the ice. As the ice grows from the condensation, water collects at the base – an encouraging sign for water scarce countries in the Middle East.
For once, hotter is definitely better!
According to the Engineer, hotter conditions are favorable to the experiment, since theoretically, more heat means more condensation, which means more ice and water.
The group has not yet achieved the kinds of efficiencies they hope for, but the project is still in its infancy and so far their progress is quite remarkable. Combined with Markus Kayser’s Solar Sinter that produces 3D objects from the sun, it is becoming increasingly possible to envision whole new communities thriving in the desert lands once again.
Axes of power are changing in the Middle East and Israel and Cyprus as an alliance could shift energy focus away from some OPEC oil countries.
The decision for Cyprus to explore its undersea natural gas wells has Turkish government officials crying foul. Turkey occupies the northern half of Cyprus and the southern half is eager to develop its economy and ties with Israel. How this plays out in a quest for power over these cleaner fuel sources is yet to be seen. In the following article I interview a Cypriot businessman, and an Israeli consulate staff positioned in Cyprus to see how these two countries are refueling old ties.
Traditional power plant operators have been loathe to adopt renewables for infrastructure investment. But a new Israeli hybrid invention could make solar a realistic step forward.
While solar energy is the environmentally-friendly alternative of choice for power plants, it’s an expensive option because of the equipment and technology needed to harvest the sun’s rays. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher says that “going hybrid” is a quicker and cheaper route to cleaner electrical power. Prof. Avi Kribus has developed a technology that combines the conventional fuel used in today’s power plants with the lower pressures and temperatures of steam produced by solar power. His new “hybrid” power plant is a potentially cost-effective and realistic way to integrate solar technology into existing power plants.
Gulf States have been drilling oil for decades now. Can we really get them to co-operate at the upcoming climate summit in Durban and re-think oil?
Climate negotiations to get world leaders to agree to a fair and binding agreement that will keep climate change in check have been ticking away in the background for a while now. Around six months ago, climate negotiations continued in Bonn and sadly, the Middle East wasn’t exactly making a positive contribution. Saudi Arabia was criticized for its attempts to delay progress and Kuwait, Oman and Qatar were awarded the ‘Fossil of the Day’ title for holding up the talks. So will this year be any different?
With this in mind, some solar energy system manufacturers, and the ones who market these systems are putting their efforts into the manufacture and installation of smaller individual solar energy systems that can even be used on private homes. Two local Israeli solar energy and smart electrical energy companies Shyrel Solar Energy Systems and Ludivine Solar have teamed up with a Swiss solar and thermal dynamics company Swiss Solar Tech Ltd, and Schneider Electric from France to give homeowners the power to create their own renewable energy.
Shyrel and Ludivine Solar are offering small businesses and private home owner a variety of energy saving systems that include small, ascetically designed solar energy systems with solar PV panels that can be literally integrated into the roof of a building, and provide the user with up to 1,000 volts and 10 amperes of solar generated electricity. The Swiss Solar Tech Ultimate Solar panels are sold in a kit form that can be literally integrated into the roof of a private home to provide a more ascetic look.
Hybrid solar energy kit.
In addition to providing solar module systems in kit form, other smart electrical systems include an Ultimate Air One wind turbine that is also built for private homes, and a unique thermodynamic heat pump that restores 3.5kW of heat for 1kW of electricity used.
Ludivine Solar also markets a hybrid solar air conditioner, the Ultimate Blu Sun that is claimed to save up to 60% of electricity costs during operation, uses a non-polluting refrigerant, and reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by as much as 20 kg per year (equivalent to planting 100 trees).
Pictured on the far left, the Green Sheikh took a break from his environmental activism to support breast cancer awareness at a polo event in the United Arab Emirates.
We must preserve raw materials like energy and water and improve the efficiency of industrialization, avoiding the production of waste in all stages of industrial and marketing operations, and we must replace toxic and dangerous substances with alternative or clean ones.
We must impose penalties on those caught producing emissions (which are expected to double in the next 30 years) after the issuing of the legislation, and we must look to other alternatives and mechanisms for the various stages of the production such as recycling, employing and recovering secondary products and waste as much as possible, in order to convert waste materials into commercial profits.
Get your weekly dose of green news snippets from the region
By choosing more quake-proof, sustainable, and cost-effective materials, developers could avoid future scenes like this one in Van, Turkey.
