Page 542 – Green Prophet

Bahrain’s Radiation Contingency Plan for Travellers from Japan

Travel

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April 14, 2011

Bahrain’s Radiation Contingency Plan for Travellers from Japan

Bahrain (A) will screen Japanese travelers (B) at airport if radiation levels rise.

It goes without saying that radiation, like air and water pollution knows no borders. Countries close to Japan, and even those farther away like Israel and the United States have already measured radiation from Japan’s troubled nuclear reactors. Now Bahrain authorities, a collection of 33 islands in the western Persian Gulf is bracing for radiation threats from Japan, according to Gulf News Daily. Part of Bahrain’s plan is to screen passengers arriving to the airport, and food, for traces of radiation. China has already found high levels of radiation on Japanese travelers that are cause for concern.

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Limited Power Shackles Armenia to Precarious Nuclear Plant

Julia Harte

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April 13, 2011

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Limited Power Shackles Armenia to Precarious Nuclear Plant

In bucolic but earthquake-prone Armenia, people both fear and rely on a nuclear power plant that has operated for three decades with no primary containment structure.

In the 1970s, a series of first-generation nuclear reactors were built in the former Soviet Union, all lacking the infrastructure to contain major ruptures in the reactor’s primary circuit. Should a large rupture occur and the facility begin to overheat, the reactor would open to the outside air to cool down, exposing the surrounding environment to its contents and whatever accidents subsequently befell them.

One such nuclear power plant was built in present-day Armenia, in one of the most seismically active areas on the planet, a recent National Geographic article reports. Concerned citizens, scientists and international agencies have called on the Armenian government to shut down the plant, but there’s a snag: The plant supplies more than 40 percent of the power in a country that is exceptionally hard-pressed for energy.

The 31-year-old Metsamor power station is one of just five first-generation VVER 440 nuclear plants that lacks a primary containment structure. The rest are in Russia. The Armenian government has started planning to replace Metsamor’s 750 MW of capacity by 2016, but many are worried about what may happen in the intervening five years.

One-third of Armenia’s population live just 20 miles away, in the capital city of Yerevan. At a time when many countries in the Middle East are charging ahead with plans to develop nuclear power, including Armenia’s neighbor to the west, Turkey, Armenians dread becoming a tragic illustration of the dangers of nuclear technology.

At the same time, however, Armenians, are loath to turn off the plant until an equally large power generator has replaced it. Armenia was cut off by both of its nearest neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, so it relies on fuel imports from more distant countries, mainly Russia. After a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Armenia in 1988, the plant was shut down for six years even though it had escaped any damage. Ara Tadevosyan, director of a major Armenian news agency, recalled these years as a time of extreme deprivation in National Geographic:

“There were severe power shortages during the winter months. We had a situation where you had one hour of power a day, and sometimes no power at all for a week. You can imagine—it was as cold in the apartment as it was in the street.”

More than a thousand safety improvements have been made to the plant since it restarted in 1995, but that didn’t stop a United Nations envoy from calling the plant a “danger to the entire region” in 2004, or the United States from underwriting a study that similarly urged the country to replace it.

The European Union required Bulgaria and Slovakia to shut down VVER 440 units in those countries before they could join the EU. Since the EU hasn’t been able to convince Armenia to do the same, it has instead spent more than 59 million euros trying to improve the safety and sustainability of Armenia’s power supply.

Next year, Armenia plans to begin work on a new, $5 billion VVER 1000 nuclear reactor project: first steps toward its emancipation from the aging VVER 440. But that project won’t help relieve Armenia’s dependence on volatile, foreign sources of energy. As Green Prophet recently reported, a huge amount of oil is necessary to extract uranium, the fuel needed to run nuclear power plants.

For true peace of mind, Armenia should seek cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy within its own borders.

:: National Geographic

Read more about nuclear power in the Middle East:

Despite Japan, Turkey Goes Ahead With Nuclear Reactors

Time to Pause: Risks of Nuclear in the Volatile Middle East and North Africa Region

Nuclear Power Continues World Dependence on Middle East Oil

Image via Chuckdad

Google’s Largest Investment Goes To BrightSource Energy

Tech

Tafline Laylin

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April 13, 2011

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Google Invests $168 million in BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System

Google has announced that it will invest $168 million in BrightSource Energy’s Solar Energy Generating System in the Mohave desert. Following a series of fits and starts dictated by the energy politics du jour, the world’s largest solar power plant finally broke ground in October, 2010. Google said in a press release that this investment amounts to their largest ever, and that they have now invested a total of $250 million in reliable, clean energy. Expected to be completed in 2013, BSE’s 392MW solar power plant will provide enough energy to take 90,000 cars off the road over its 25 year lifespan.

More on BrightSource Energy:

BrightSource Cuts World’s Largest Solar Energy Deal With SCE

California’s PG&E Signs Historical Solar Deal With BrightSource Energy

BrightSource One Step Closer to World’s Largest Solar Plant

What’s Better: The Copenhagen Model, Or Masdar City?

Cities

Tafline Laylin

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April 13, 2011

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What’s Better: The Copenhagen Model, Or Masdar City?

Chris Turner from MNN argues that Copenhagenization is the more humble, more widely applicable approach to making cities livable, but there’s something about Masdar he didn’t think to address

We spotted an excellent article over on Mother Nature Network that analyzes the fundamental philosophical differences between the Copenhagen model and Masdar City. Touted as the world’s first zero waste, zero emissions city that will ban fossil-fueled cars and rely instead on electric pod cars (that can be tested at the monthly Masdar fair), Masdar City will rely on state-of-the-art technology to deliver its promises. But Jan Gehl, the guru of “Copenhagenization,” delivers something else.

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Could all-inclusive holidays harm Middle Eastern small business?

Travel

Sarah Irving

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April 13, 2011

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Could all-inclusive holidays harm Middle Eastern small business?

Could First Choice all-inclusive holidays spell the end for small businesses in Middle Eastern resorts?

First Choice, one of Britain’s leading package holiday companies, announced this week that all holidays sold as of 2012 under its brand will be all-inclusive. This means that as well as flights and hotels, the price that tourists pay up-front will include three meals a day and unlimited local drinks, all in the hotels, bars and restaurants allocated by First Choice. The company has claimed that with the British and European economies still in a poor state, more tourists are looking for the cheapest possible way to go on holiday.

But critics have condemned the move, saying that it goes against the principles of sustainable tourism by deterring travellers from visiting locally-run restaurants, cafes and bars, and that the changes could be a death knell for local businesses in First Choice destinations.

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How Do Treehuggers Prevent Pregnancy?

Health

Tinamarie Bernard

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April 13, 2011

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From the rhythm method to condoms, choosing the right eco-conscious contraception choice is trickier than planning how many children to have.

Making love can be a low-impact, eco-friendly form of pleasure that generates warmth and joy without taxing our environment, as long as couples are careful to mitigate the impact of unwanted pregnancies. There are many options for family planning – including opting out of procreating altogether for the sake of an overcrowded Mother Earth – some that are better for peoples’ and the planet’s health, and others that are decidedly less so.

Concerned about hermaphroditic fish and other byproducts of intimacy? Read on to learn the pros and cons on contraception for tree-huggers in love.

The Pill:

No one will deny that the birth control (BC) pill revolutionized female reproduction, and over a half-century after their introduction, scientists are busy searching for a male-pill counterpart. But there’s a dark side to these hormones, known as endocrine disrupters; over time, the amount of them excreted through urine (and also via the use of hormones in agri-business) has meant that they have ended up in our wastewater system.

More research is necessary to fully flush out (no pun intended) the impact of synthetic vs. natural estrogen/progestin (the most common active ingredients in the pill), but there’s no denying some icky truths of hormone over-use: Inter-sexed fishes and amphibians at the tail end of this excretion, and precocious puberty in children unwittingly exposed to hormones via trace amounts in the food chain.

Besides improving the water treatment facilities (which is up to the authorities), what can eco-conscious lovers do? Switch to a pill with lower amounts of these hormones (if possible), or better yet, rethink this ecological gamble and opt for less toxic BC options. The pill is approximately 92% effective.

Condoms:

Most condoms sold worldwide, including here in the Middle East, are made of biodegradable latex (good, right?) but are treated with compounds that aren’t eco or body friendly (bad!). Women in particular can experience unpleasant side effects from the lubrications and hardening agents (they’ve got to withstand a certain amount of friction, after all). Vaginal irritation and dryness, skin reactions, fatigue, diminished libido and pain upon intercourse have all been linked to many lubrications and condoms.

Then there is the issue of waste not, want not. Condoms are one-time use disposable products that end up in our landfills, and many don’t breakdown quickly enough (rubber/latex) or not at all (Polyurethane). Add up all those condoms and wrappers and, well, that’s a whole lotta love waste – tons, in fact.

Another concern: eco-sexuality advocates need to ask, just where do our rubbers come from, and are they made from sustainably harvested, fair-trade materials?

Fortunately, a few condom companies are now in the business of making sex and reproduction safer for you and the planet, including Love Begins with L., a women-focused online distributor that also gives away free condoms to women in underdeveloped countries who otherwise couldn’t afford them. Bottom line: condoms may be the right option for you if you want to prevent the spread of diseases as well as unwanted pregnancy, and you’ll be doing the planet better if you go with the greenest condom options. In general, condoms are about 83% effective.

Cervical Caps/Diaphragms:

Reusable barrier options are on the surface greener than the pill and condoms: reusable is good. One challenge is that they are also known to have higher fail rates unless the user uses them correctly (effectiveness can be as low as 77%, depending on the type and user error). One little mistake can mean that your carbon footprint will increase quite significantly in 10 months time…

Intrauterine device (IUD):

Perhaps the most surprising greenest barrier option is the IUD. It’s hormone-free, long lasting (up to a decade), made from small amounts of cheap, plentiful metal (copper), and 99 percent effective. Stefanie Iris Weiss, author of Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make your Love Life Sustainable (2010) considers the IUD the most sustainable BC method. This holds true particularly for people in long-term partnerships for whom STDs aren’t a worry.

Natural Family Planning:

For those who want to go completely au natural with regards to family planning, there is always the option of monitoring a woman’s menstrual cycle. The Justisse Method, for example, teaches women to monitor and interpret the three primary signs of fertility: cervical mucus secretions, basal body temperature and cervical position.

Women who learn this method chart their fertility according to their own reliable signs, which means in theory that it can be effective despite variations in menstrual cycles. It is certainly cost effective and free of side effects (good!), with the exception of a fail rate (reported up to 23%) strongly dependent on a woman being adequately trained and committed to the daily regime of charting the ebb and flow of her cycle.

More eco-sexuality news:
The GINK Manifesto: Childless, Loud and Proud
The Ins and Outs of Personal Vaginal Lubrication
Five Ways to Make Love to One Another and the Planet

Algeria To Boost Its Food Security

Health

Arwa Aburawa

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April 12, 2011

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Following the food riots that rocked the Middle East, Algeria is bolstering its agricultural self-sufficiency through irrigation projects and tax breaks for local producers

Food security is a tricky topic to grasp because food doesn’t just rely on the water and sun it needs to grow but also on the price of oil, the right climate and suitable agricultural land. These along with other factors such as the health of the economy and political stability all affect the price of food staples which we rely on and illustrate the complexity of food security.

Take for example the recent revolts in the Arab world. Sparked by the rising cost of food, they had the effect of pushing up the price of food higher due to the rising price of oil in the period of instability. In response to its own food riots in early January, Algeria has launched a range of projects to improve its agricultural self-sufficiency and food security.

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Ikea Increases Israeli Design Awareness, but What About Sustainable Design?

Design

Karen Chernick

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April 12, 2011

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Ikea Increases Israeli Design Awareness, but What About Sustainable Design?

After ten years in Israel, what is Ikea’s regional legacy?

When the Swedish affordable home furnishing company, Ikea, came to Israel ten years ago, it filled a void. The store filled the need for a more approachable, affordable place for Israelis to furnish their homes and experiment with interior design. Former Ikea Israel CEO Dov Rochman even called the opening of the country’s first Ikea store a revolution in Israeli furniture and design awareness.

Ten years later, Ikea has proven to increase design consciousness and Bracha Kunda, the head of the interior design department at the Holon Institute of Technology, said recently that “Ikea made interior design more accessible to the broader public, and brought it down to the people, but not in a bad sense. It increased design awareness in Israel and made it more part of mass culture.”

But what about sustainable design awareness? Is it just about saving money in our wallets? The past ten years have brought about great advances in sustainable interior design, including some local cardboard furniture options for both kids and adults.

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Canadians Fight Tar Sands, Israelis Fight Oil Shale

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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April 12, 2011

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Canadians Fight Tar Sands, Israelis Fight Oil Shale

Rachel Jacobson shares the story behind protecting this beautiful view from “Big Oil.”

Last year a small group of people accidentally discovered that Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), backed by Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney and a powerful American oil conglomerate, intended to explore their land for oil shale – potentially a very destructive project. David de Rothschild (of Plastiki fame) responded to our plea to discourage Lord Jacob Rothschild from financing the project, and IEI won the black globe award for their less-than-environmentally friendly intentions.

Following is an interview with Rachel Jacobson, one of a handful of people who has invested countless exasperating hours to fight what many perceive as an underhanded effort to deceive the Israeli public into believing that oil shale is a national interest. Learn more about the ordinary citizens who have taken on “Big Oil” and where their efforts have led.

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Japan’s Nuclear “Dead Zone” Dogs and Cats

Travel

Maurice Picow

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April 12, 2011

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Japan’s Nuclear “Dead Zone” Dogs and Cats

Abandoned Fukushima “dead zone” dog: its face says it all! The radiation, sadly, lingers in its fur.

With escalating rates of radiation, and an upgrade to 7 in terms of severity, it’s not only humans who have suffered from Japan’s 9 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and radiation leakage in northeastern Japan. Thousands of dogs, cats, and other domestic animals have been literally abandoned by their owners and left to suffer and die of starvation and effects of radiation leakage from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, which has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean.

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Egypt Holds On Tight To Nile Water Rights

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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April 12, 2011

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Egypt Holds On Tight To Nile Water Rights

As its grip on the Nile river slips away, Egypt reframes the tone of its negotiations.

Egypt has announced a final effort to re-negotiate the terms of the Cooperative Framework Agreement which apportions water from the Nile River to various basin countries. Since 1929, Egypt has held a near-monopoly on the water, but last year Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda signed the Entebbe Treaty that neither Egypt nor Sudan recognize in order to arrest that monopoly.

At the beginning of April 2011, Ethiopia started construction on the Grand Millennium Dam near Sudan. Egypt asked permission to conduct an assessment to gauge the impact of the 6,000MW hydropower plant on its own water supply, but Ethiopia refused. Almasry Alyoum reports that concerned parties will try one more time to find a fair solution.

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Zionist Group Seeks Agricultural Homestead Where Jesus Traveled

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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April 11, 2011

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Israeli idealists plan to develop a land trust in the northern Galilee to encourage rural homesteading.

Despite its emergence as a developed, industrial country, Israel has a bevy of close-to-the-earth learning experiences to choose from. Several kibbutzim throughout the country offer a variety of useful workshops in permaculture, off-grid living, sustainable building, and organic farming. These programs can be as short as one day or as long as an extended month-long volunteer project. Even so, given our collective agricultural brain drain, the small country could definitely benefit from a resurgence in small-scale, cooperative farming. Which is why the North West Galilee Trust caught our attention.

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West Bank and Gaza’s Economic Growth Isn’t Sustainable

Business

Arwa Aburawa

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April 11, 2011

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West Bank and Gaza’s Economic Growth Isn’t Sustainable

USAID billboard in Ramallah graffiti-ed with words “We Don’t Need Your Aid” but according to latest World Bank report, growth in the West Bank and Gaza is dependent on aid donors.

A stroll around the West Bank is likely to bring you face to face with a project supported by America’s aid agency USAID pretty quickly. The posters and signs seems to be everywhere and although the fragile economies of the West Bank and Gaza are finally showing some signs of growth and development, the question remains: how sustainable can growth funded by aid donors really be?

Well, according to the latest report by the World Bank, not very. The organisation said that the Palestinian economy’s growth isn’t likely to be sustainable as it is largely driven by donor donations, and that it will not be sustainable unless Israeli restrictions are removed. The World Bank report explained that “Aid is what keeps many Palestinians above the poverty line, particularly in Gaza, where unemployment is still 37.4 percent, and a staggering 71 percent of the population benefited from some form of social assistance in 2009.”

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DI Bernhard Gruber Designs Cool Green Playground For Hot Climes

Cities

Tafline Laylin

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April 11, 2011

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Before we know it, the Middle Eastern sun will be hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk and kids will want to stay inside in front of televisions to escape the heat. But DI Berhard Gruber has designed a playground that is not only cool enough to play in, but also teaches kids about the environment. In addition to fun “outdoorsy” games such as climbing and playing in a sandbox, children can learn to generate energy using their own life force.

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Shark finning in the UAE

Travel

Arwa Aburawa

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April 11, 2011

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We speak to the International Fund for Animal Welfare Middle East about the need for stronger legislation to protect sharks in the UAE and how working with fisherman can halt the decline of sharks

Following the recent revelation that the UAE remains an important market hub for the Far Eastern delicacy of shark fins, and UAE divers trying to crack down on the trade of shark fins, we spoke to the International Fund for Animal Welfare about the need to end shark finning and the important role that fisherman must play in protecting sharks- for their own sake.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare was setup in 1969 is one of the world’s largest animals and conservation charities. The Middle East branch works on various projects such as training customs officers to help prevent illegal wildlife trade and promoting high standards for animal welfare, wildlife and habitat conservation in the region. I spoke to Elsayed Mohamed, programme manager for IFAW in the Middle East to find out more about their work to end shark finning.

Aburawa: How did the practice and popularity of shark finning emerge in the Middle East?

Mohamed: There is no exact information on the emergence of shark finning in the Middle East. Catching sharks has been a part of fishing activities for centuries but shark finning is not related to any local tradition here in the Arabian Gulf. The shark finning activities is practiced only for export of fins to the Far East to be used in shark fin soup.

IFAW was recently granted $7,000 from the Ford Motor company conservation programme to help stop shark finning. What do you hope to do with the money to help stop shark finning in UAE?

We are planning to organize a workshop about conservation of sharks in Yemen in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment in Yemen. The aim of this workshop is to produce recommendations for strengthening shark catch legislation and reaching a shark conservation plan in Yemen. We are waiting for a suitable time to start or preparation for the workshop due to the current unrest in Yemen.

Although shark finning was banned in 2008 in UAE, the shark fin trade continues unabated. Do you think that more legal action is needed or useful to halt shark finning for good?

Yes I think there is need for more legal action to implement this legislation and more legislation is needed to protect more species of shark from being over fished in general. But the important point here is UAE is used for re-exporting activities of the shark fin trade to the Far East. many countries in the region are practicing shark finning intensively either due to lack of legislation or lack of implementation of their legislation and exporting the shark fin to UAE to be re-exported to the far east.

Finally, what can ordinary people do to help stop the shark finning trade?

It is not the matter of ordinary people here in UAE or Arabia, it is the fishermen and motorboats owner who need to realise that they are depleting their own resource of sharks. Also it is not reasonable to prevent shark finning altogether, as the fins are a part of the fish and should be utilized like any other part of the fish.

The solution to this problem should be based on establishing shark catch quota for each species. Catch quotas should be based on an appropriate regional conservation strategy and monitoring regime for the species concerned and are not detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.

Read more on sharks in the Middle East:

UAE Divers Organisation Says: “Stop Sharks and Shark Fin Soup”

Sharks Under Attack in Middle East

Despite Ban, UAE remains Market Hub for Shark Fins

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