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Greenstone Revolutionizes Lebanese Building Industry One Green-Roof Villa at a Time

Tafline Laylin
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Greenstone Revolutionizes Lebanese Building Industry One Green-Roof Villa at a Time

green building, BREEAM, Lebanon, This may look like an ordinary villa on a hill, but it’s not. This villa is part of a growing movement in Lebanon that is revolutionizing the green building industry.

Instead of mistaking Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for happiness, or giant energy-hogging homes for class symbols, Lebanon could learn from Western regret by revolutionizing its green building industry. This won’t happen quickly since ongoing environmental catastrophes such as toxic waste and kerosene leaks into the Mediterranean Sea point to a slow progress, but definitive steps are being taken by concerned citizens to improve the country’s environmental profile and Greenstone Real Estate Developers are leading the way. As the firm edges closer to achieving high BREEAM rankings for La Brocéliande – a “bespoke” four-storey home in the Beirut suburb of Yarzé – a sustainable Lebanon seems increasingly possible.

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Under Siege in Iran, Baha’i Advocate Social Action, Human Rights, Sustainability

Tinamarie Bernard
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Under Siege in Iran, Baha’i Advocate Social Action, Human Rights, Sustainability

bahai gardens haifaMembers of the often persecuted Bahai faith are inherently green.

The terrace of the Baha’i Shrine and Gardens in Haifa is the most stunning destination in Israel’s third largest city. From the eastern side of the city, along the popular route 4, you first catch glimpse of it rising up towards the sky on your left. An expansive swath of green lawn manicured in layers and flanked by date trees span the height of the northern end of the Carmel mountainside. Year round and from a distance, the vision quite literally draws your gaze towards the impressive site, “a geometric cascade of hanging gardens and terraces down to Ben Gurion Boulevard -a gift of visual pleasure to the city that gave the Baha’i religion its home and headquarters.” 

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Solar Bottle Lights a Bright Idea for the Developing World

Karen Chernick
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Solar Bottle Lights a Bright Idea for the Developing World

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBWi3NtND68[/youtube]

This idea is so simple, yet so brilliant.  Maybe it could help light up the Middle East?

Filipinos living in simple corrugated metal homes have had problems lighting their homes for generations.  Even since the invention of electricity, electric lighting has been used sparingly by certain communities due to its cost.  It is frustrating that Filipinos live in such a bright, tropical country and yet that some of them have been living mostly in the dark.  But now a creative and entrepreneurial Filipino man has found a cheap, easy, electricity-free (and eco-friendly) way to light people’s homes and is installing his lighting system one home at a time.

The materials needed to create the lights are simple: a clear plastic soda bottle, water, and some basic tools.

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Jerusalem’s Bus Station – A Pollution Death Trap for Workers and Shoppers

Maurice Picow
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Jerusalem’s Bus Station – A Pollution Death Trap for Workers and Shoppers

jerusalem bus stationShop till you “drop” at the Jerusalem bus station.

Working in a congested bus station, especially one like Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station is not conducive to one’s health. The toxic fumes created by the hundreds of buses that go in and out of this station, and all the free radicals in this air pollution is almost as bad as  “black cloud” infested Cairo Egypt, or Tehran Iran; where as many as 27 people die each day from air pollution .

A recent study was made by Israel’s Environment Ministry, and was reported afterwards in the Jerusalem Post. Findings? Pollution at this bus station includes high levels of ozone, sulfur dioxides, nitrous oxides and particulate matter made the level of pollution in the air four or five times greater than acceptable levels.

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3 Palestinian Men Killed by Wastewater Flood Beneath Gaza

Tafline Laylin
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3 Palestinian Men Killed by Wastewater Flood Beneath Gaza

Gaza, wastewater treatment, EgyptThree Gaza strip smugglers were killed when wastewater leaked into a tunnel, causing it to collapse.

Little is said about the drama that unfolds beneath Gaza each day, where many Palestinians continue to smuggle goods in from Egypt to the Strip. Although the Rafah border crossing was re-opened earlier this year and people can travel back and forth more easily than before, construction materials are still not permitted to cross borders; nor – naturally – are weapons.

But the subterranean smuggling business comes with a dangerous price. Three men were killed when Egyptian wastewater leaked beneath the Philadelphi corridor into a tunnel where the men were working. According to Ahram online, the tunnel collapsed three days ago, and the men were pulled out today in critical condition.

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HCL Clean Tech Finds Sugar for Ethanol in Mississippi Woods

Karin Kloosterman
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HCL Clean Tech Finds Sugar for Ethanol in Mississippi Woods

eran baniel hcl cleantech
Karin speaks with HCL Clean Tech CEO Eran Baniel (above) about wood to sugar developments in Mississippi.

It’s not every day that an Israeli company based on the science of a Nazi collaborator wins a huge US contract. But HCL Clean Tech, which offers a process to turn wood chips into biofuel, just received a $100 million bond package from the Mississippi state legislature to build plants in Grenada, Booneville, Hattiesburg and Natchez for products in the cosmetics, pet food, and lubricants industries.

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Seambiotic Makes Algae for Food and Biofuel

Karin Kloosterman
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Seambiotic Makes Algae for Food and Biofuel

seambiotic algae pondsSeambiotic, an Israeli clean-tech company is enlisting algae in the business of carbon capture.

While bureaucratic red tape has stymied Seambiotic’s commercial success in Israel, the pilot plant there has led to some positive developments for the company and the environment. Now, the company has five business deals in the works in the United States, Italy and in China, where it’s launching its first commercial algae farm this month. Seambiotic is also working with the National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States to develop a commercially feasible biofuel variety from algae that has a higher freezing point that other plant-based biofuels from corn or sugarcane.

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It’s Official- Iran Has The Most Polluted Cities In The World

Arwa Aburawa
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It’s Official- Iran Has The Most Polluted Cities In The World

pollution-city-tehran-iran-whoAccording to a report by the World Health Organisation, Iranian cities are the world’s most polluted with some cities registering air pollution 20 times over the recommended upper limit

Iran is certainly not scoring a lot of ‘greenie’ points this month. First it hits international headlines for its brutal treatment of environmental activists campaigning to save an endangered salt lake and now they have been highlighted as having the world’s most polluted cities. And that’s if we ignore the whole nuclear power issue and the debacle over the recently freed US hikers accused of being spies. The WHO global survey on fine particle pollutants is the first of its kind and found that cities in Iran were amongst the worst on the planet for air pollution.

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Israeli Cyclists From All Over the Country Marked Green Transportation Week

Karen Chernick
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Israeli Cyclists From All Over the Country Marked Green Transportation Week

"tel aviv israel bike"Israeli bikers are hoping that the new year brings them greater cycling convenience and safety.

The Israel Bike Association isn’t a quiet or a shy bunch – they make their opinions about the importance of urban cycling known through naked protests and the like. Which is why it is not surprising that they protested the lack of government support for urban biking last week with a green transportation week celebrated across several cities in Israel (and the world).  Last Tuesday night around 400 cyclists and roller bladers could be seen on the streets of Tel Aviv, joined by other cyclists riding simultaneously in Jerusalem, Haifa, Kfar Saba, Ra’anana, Ramat Gan and Givataim.

“The dress code,” said Alek Mintz of Tel Aviv Roller, “[was] green.”

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Saudi Arabia Goes “Green” To Celebrate National Day

Zaufishan
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Saudi Arabia Goes “Green” To Celebrate National Day

saudi national day green environment Saudis raise flags and wear green to celebrate 81 years of their eco-kingdom

Almost a hundred years ago, somewhere between 1900-1930, the tribes and sheikhdoms of the Arabian Peninsula were consolidated into the modern-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And on the 23rd of September, Saudi Arabia takes this National Day as a great reason to decorate their streets in a renewable green.

Eighty one years later, the Unification of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an annual celebration for Saudis. People living in Saudi agree that ‘green’ is king of all the colours as even though the festivities are over, we still see children dressed in green t-shirts, cars painted green, and green lights illuminating buildings at night.

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Saudi Women Granted Right To Vote (And Save Planet)

Arwa Aburawa
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Saudi Women Granted Right To Vote (And Save Planet)

saudi-women-green-vote-planet-womens-rights-elections-environmentWhy women’s right to vote is important not only for gender equality but for the planet

It been a political roller-coaster of a year for the Middle East and it doesn’t look set to stop just yet. Yesterday, an event many thought would never happen in their lifetime finally happened- Saudi women were granted the right to vote. Not only did this de-bunk claims made by ‘Ethical Oil’ that Canadian tar sands were better than Saudi oil due to the latter’s gender bias but it also meant that women in the country were strengthening their ability to fight climate change and better resist the devastating impact it could have on them.

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Electric Skates – the New Urban Mode of Transportation?

Karen Chernick
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Electric Skates – the New Urban Mode of Transportation?

"electric skates transportation"Give up that car and zip around town on… electric skates?

Some people just can’t or aren’t willing to walk or bike, but still may be convinced to give up their polluting personal vehicles.  In an attempt to get people to forgo their cars and switch to more eco-friendly forms of transportation we’ve seen designers and entrepreneurs develop electric scooters, electric unicycles, and combination bike/scooter electric vehicles.  Now a smaller electric transportation contraption is in the works, and one which is so retro that it may lead you to hark back to your childhood: the electric skate.

Currently in the process of being developed, Skataz (or the electric skate) may be coming soon to a foot near you.

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3 Eco-Svelte Energy Slashing Contracts Awarded in Lebanon

Tafline Laylin
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3 Eco-Svelte Energy Slashing Contracts Awarded in Lebanon

energy efficiency, EEG, energy conservation, solar energy, sustainable development, cleantechSlashing energy consumption and improving efficiency can be eco-svelte too!

Energy efficiency is to svelte new solar fields what a grey tweed coat is to a bright cherry one: decidedly dull in comparison. But shaving off a few kilowatt hours here and there can dramatically improve either a home or business’ bottom line, even without adding an array of shimmering solar panels to the roof.

While some businesses look to cherry-colored changes to enhance their sustainability profile, the Four Seasons Hotel in Beirut, along with both the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Lebanon are taking the grey approach by refining their energy consumption.

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King Abdullah Gives Saudi Women the Right to Vote – Just to Battle EthicalOil.org

Susan Kraemer
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King Abdullah Gives Saudi Women the Right to Vote – Just to Battle EthicalOil.org

Last week Canadian fossil-fuel lobbying group EthicalOil vaunted its ethical superiority to Saudi oil, because Saudi women can’t vote. Today, Saudis evened the playing field.

Saudi King Abdullah announced on Sunday that he was giving women the right to vote and run in municipal elections. What a coincidence. One week after it seemed that Canadian oil was going to beat the Saudis to the gigantic American market by making an inane comparison between the relative ethicality of the two fossil fuel purveyors, according to Zawya: King Abdullah has given Saudi women the right to vote. Suddenly now, dirty energy lobbying group EthicalOil doesn’t have a marketing leg to stand on. If Saudi women can vote, then Canadian dirty fossil fuel is no better than Saudi dirty fossil fuel.

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Turkey Tells Egypt to Bypass Israel and Cyprus With Long Pipeline to Europe

Maurice Picow
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Turkey Tells Egypt to Bypass Israel and Cyprus With Long Pipeline to Europe

Nabucco gas bridge pipelineTurkish PM Erdogan on recent visit to Egypt; more energy influence at Israel’s expense. AP photo by Maggie Michael and Lee Keeth

In a continuation of his anti-Israel and anti-Cyprus governmental and economic policies, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to persuade Egypt to ship its natural gas to Europe, via the Nabucco Pipeline scheme that is being hailed as a “gas bridge” between Europe and Asia. It will bypass Israel and Cyprus, of course.

The idea to send Egyptian natural gas to Turkey has been the subject to acts of sabotage and terrorism to Egypt’s pipeline sending natural gas supplies to Israel may or may not have resulted in Turkey’s fast deteriorating relations with Israel, and changes occurring in Egypt since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mobarak during the so-called Arab Spring. These uprisings also resulted in the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo by Egyptian demonstrators. The drastic change of events in Egypt has forced Israel to concentrate more on developing its own natural gas resources from undersea fields offshore from its Mediterranean coastline.

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