Yiuco Marketplace for Handmade Upcycled, Recycled, or Reused Products

Design

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March 27, 2011

Yiuco Marketplace for Handmade Upcycled, Recycled, or Reused Products

Yiuco may be the Middle East’s greener Etsy.

Etsy, the global online store, has enjoyed great success due to the fact that it enables individuals to buy handmade, unique items from other individuals around the world with the click of a mouse. It has even spurred what some people are calling the “Handmade Revolution” by encouraging people to buy handmade (as opposed to energy-guzzling machine-made) products. Taking the site’s green message even further, eco-friendly vendors have emerged on Etsy and they sell upcycled, recycled, or otherwise resource-lite items.

While these trends have emerged on Etsy, they are not the online shop platform’s focus. A new online marketplace – Yiuco – has popped up in Greece, though, and it strictly peddles the upcycled, recycled, and reused.

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Foster + Partners Finish Gorgeous Green Building In Morocco

Cities

Tafline Laylin

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March 27, 2011

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Foster + Partners Finish Gorgeous Green Building In Morocco

This beautiful dome-building from Foster & Partners is the first building the firm has completed in Africa.

We haven’t always loved Foster & Partners developments in the Middle East. Although they are visually spectacular, we often wonder at the true sustainability of buildings that cost millions of dollars to construct. But the first of three Moroccan projects commissioned by BMCE (Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur) may be an exception.

Albeit no quaint mom-and-pop straw bale building, the bank is nonetheless slightly less flamboyant than other F&P projects. By incorporating several energy-saving and passive design elements, the firm has kept the building’s carbon footprint to a minimum, while relying extensively on local materials, craftsmanship, and design.

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Natural Gas Line Bomb Averted

Business

Karin Kloosterman

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March 27, 2011

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A bombing attempt of the natural gas line that runs between Egypt, Israel and Jordan was averted today, according to the Associated Press. In Sinai, six gunmen targeted the natural gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Israel and to Jordan. They overpowered a guard and planted a bomb, and then fled. Failing to detonate, the region was spared the need for having to burn, yet again, the much more polluting diesel fuel, as was the case last month when the line was bombed at another location.

Violence doesn’t only hurt people. It cripples the environment.

::AP

Must It Be “The End Of The Line” For Fish?

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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March 27, 2011

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Must It Be “The End Of The Line” For Fish?

If we do not arrest the current rate of overfishing, our oceans could be depleted of fish by 2048.

Following Arwa’s recent blog on shark finning in the United Arab Emirates – a cruel and destructive practice that produces the so-called delicacy that is shark fin soup, and another story about the turtle that pooped plastic for a month, we’re relieved to offer a potential solution.

Like Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth, which enlightened millions about the dangers of global warming, The End of The Line has the power to educate the masses about our destructive fishing practices. Global Ocean will be screening the documentary throughout the UAE this May. Find out more about the film and Global Ocean after the jump.

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Should You Breastfeed Your Baby After Exposure to Nuclear Radiation?

Health

Hannah Katsman

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March 27, 2011

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Should You Breastfeed Your Baby After Exposure to Nuclear Radiation?

When caring for infants after any kind disaster breastfeeding is usually safest because of fears about water supplies.

Whenever there is an earthquake, flood or other large-scale disaster, the first concern is for the infants in the area. Rescue organizations rush to send infant formula to the area, but because access to clean water is usually limited the formula is useless. Continuing to breastfeed protects the baby from diseases that spread through a disaster area, and unnecessary weaning can cause problems if the supply of formula or clean water becomes unavailable. After Haiti, aid organizations are realizing that protecting the breastfeeding relationship and helping women return to breastfeeding (relactation) are the best means to save vulnerable infants.

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Japan Radioactivity in Sea Water 1,250 Times Above Normal as Radiation Levels Approach Those of Chernobyl

Cities

Maurice Picow

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March 26, 2011

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Japan Radioactivity in Sea Water 1,250 Times Above Normal as Radiation Levels Approach Those of Chernobyl

Japan’s PM Naoto Kan apologizes to his nation, and to the world, concerning radiation leakage at Fukushima reactors

Is the Japanese nuclear radiation crises getting better, or getting worse? It depends on who is reporting the ongoing events at the Fukushima nuclear reactors, which were heavily damaged by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit offshore two weeks ago. The radiation leakage at the Fukushima reactors, which many are saying will have a serious affect on the world’s environment, is already having a catastrophic affect on Japan’s immediate environment, with indications of radiations levels even surpassing those of the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl.

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As Energy Demand Swells, Turkey Falls Dark for Earth Hour 2011

Julia Harte

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March 25, 2011

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Istanbul’s incandescent Bosphorus Bridge will join iconic structures around the world in turning off its lights for Earth Hour this year.

For the past four years, Istanbul’s majestic Bosphorus Bridge has been lit all night long by an LED display that consumes electricity at a rate of 90 kilowatts. (That’s roughly 400 megawatt-hours per year, which is approximately the amount of energy consumed by 200 average Turks, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.) But tonight, its glittering reflection will disappear from the Bosphorus — for one hour.

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Cook Persian Fish Stew

Health

Tafline Laylin

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March 25, 2011

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White fish stew is a healthier variation of meat stew and very tasty when treated Persian-style!

There are all kinds of delicious Middle East recipes to choose from on Green Prophet, but not so many from the Persian kitchen. Guest blogger Dave Bishop sent this in and we just had to share. A true Iranian delicacy, this stew livens up white fish with spinach, fenugreek, limes, and turmeric. Although it is possible to use a variety of white fish (preferably farmed or caught sustainably) Persian recipes typically call for sturgeon. It is also usually served with delicious, fluffy white rice, but wholegrain can be used as a substitute.

Persian Fish Stew – Gormh Sabzi Ba Mahi

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of red kidney beans
About 60 grams of butter(you can use a light butter alternative)
4 tablespoons of fresh parsley
2 leeks thinly sliced and thoroughly washed to remove any dirt residue
2 fresh limes (or 4 dried limes) cut in half
500g spinach thoroughly washed and chopped quite fine
3 sticks of celery thinly sliced
350ml of fresh fish stock is best, but bought ready stock is also ok
950g of fresh white fish – usually sturgeon or haddock – chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh fenugreek
2 teaspoons of turmeric
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons of salt
2 cups of rice.

Place the kidney beans in a good size pan, cover with lighty salted water and bring to the boil.

Simmer for one hour.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the parsley, leeks, spinach, celery, and fenugreek, and sauté for a few minutes. Stir continuously.

Add the stock, stir well, cover and cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes.

Add the rice to a pan with 2/3 water and leave to boil at a medium heat with the pan lid on.

Add the limes and fish into the vegetable pan and continue cooking for around 30 minutes on a good heat until the fish skin is flaky.

Switch the rice off and leave with lid on to steam for 10 minutes or until the rice is ready.

When tender, drain the kidney beans and add to the stew. Add pepper, and more salt if needed.

Cook for a few more minutes and serve with the rice. Garnish with a little bit of parsley and your delicious Persian meal is complete. Enjoy!

More recipes from Green Prophet:

Eat The Whole Animal: Lamb’s Testicles

RECIPE: Potato Salad with Fresh Fava Beans

RECIPE: Artichoke Dip

image via Miriam Kresh

Poor Environmental Oversight Leads To Lebanon’s Mediterranean Kerosene Leak

Business

Tafline Laylin

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March 25, 2011

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Poor Environmental Oversight Leads To Lebanon’s Mediterranean Kerosene Leak

This image is of a former oil spill in Lebanon

Despite the best-laid laws, lack of enforcement is a leading cause of preventable environmental hazards in the Middle East. Egypt regularly has oil spills in the Nile and the Red Sea because of lax regulations. This week’s kerosene spill off Lebanon’s eastern Mediterranean (already an apocalypse zone in places) was caused when a pipeline transfering kerosene to oil and gas companies leaked. Last year, the country’s environmental ministry found several companies in breach of environmental law, but The Daily Star reports that none were taken to account.

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A Whirlwind Guide to Palestinian Guesthouses

Travel

Arwa Aburawa

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March 25, 2011

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A Whirlwind Guide to Palestinian Guesthouses

Get your fill of tasty, local food at the Sebastia Guesthouse in Palestine- one of many great guesthouses in Palestine

If you want to get off the beaten track, eat great food and meet locals in Palestine than a stay at a Palestinian guesthouse could be the thing for you. Rather than staying with huge, impersonal hotels that don’t connect with you or reflect your views, you could stay at a number of small guesthouses which support everything from Bedouins, women’s right, environmental conservation to community arts and culture.

A new website by Green Prophet’s very own eco-tourism guide Sarah Irving has been launched with a comprehensive list of guesthouses in Palestine. As Sarah points out, the guesthouses are important ways for the local communities to generate income and jobs, to build personal connections between diverse communities and also help tourists see a little bit more of the real Palestine.

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Easyecar’s Martin Thomson Says Better Place EV Plan Problematic for Denmark

Transportation

Maurice Picow

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March 25, 2011

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Easyecar’s Martin Thomson Says Better Place EV Plan Problematic for Denmark

Denmark’s Thomson prefers “freedom of charge” over Better Place’s forced charging network

When the EV network builder Better Place launched their electric car battery exchange network in Denmark last month, not everyone was overly enthusiastic that the company’s unique system of stations to exchange the special lithium ion battery pack with freshly charged ones would go over with the Danes. This is despite special tax incentives from the Danish government for purchasers of these cars.

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Ramallah Celebrates First Palestinian Environment Festival

Travel

Sarah Irving

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March 25, 2011

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Ramallah Celebrates First Palestinian Environment Festival

Ramallah celebrated Palestine’s first environment festival March 19-21 2011

This past weekend, Ramallah celebrated what is believed to be Palestine’s first dedicated environment festival. Large-scale ‘green’ development has been making big news in Palestine recently. But this event was on a much more personal scale. According to organisers from community support organisation Juhoud, the Basateen (‘groves’ or ‘orchards’) festival attracted between 1,500 and 2,000 visitors, many of them schoolchildren and young people getting their first taste of environmental activities.

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Pythagoras Solar Makes Powerful Glass That Inspires Dreams of a Solar Skylight

Tech

Susan Kraemer

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March 24, 2011

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Pythagoras Solar Makes Powerful Glass That Inspires Dreams of a Solar Skylight

Every time I find more news about the solar-power generating windows made by Pythagoras Solar, I am inspired – for my own house. We are currently selling our own house – which somehow grew too big for us since our kids grew up and left – and switching from reading books to reading on an electronic device seems to make a lot of space redundant, too. Hopefully we will be designing and building again, much smaller.

So when I wrote about their latest – turning Chicago’ Sears Tower into a tower of power – I also started to dream…

…about solar powering our next house too with the see-through glass solar power that Pythagoras has created. We have solar on this house, and I love seeing my tiny electricity bill now. But Pythagoras makes solar that is the next generation- it looks like part of the architecture – glass.

Optics on the surface filter light to let daylight through, while mirrors reflect light onto solar cells laid in thin strips that generate power.

Their powerful glass can be used as windows, but also, and this is my favorite – as skylights. The skylight solar panel makes just as much power as a regular solar panel of the same size – 13 watts a sq foot. It will cost about $125 per square foot – at least in the US – about comparable with solar panels.

One big 200 square foot skylight would be a 2.6 KW solar system, which on average could produce around 400-500 kilowatt hours a month – depending on variables like the region’s insolation and shading of course – and would cost about $25,000, about what equivalent square footage of solar panels cost. (So essentially, the energy saving glass skylight itself – is free!)

Their solar glass is not yet at the commercial stage, but my dream house would be an open space glass house with a transparent Pythagoras skylight-cum-power station in the middle of the roof! As you’d drive up past it, you’d see the sky right through the center of the roof, and never suspect that the gorgeous view of the sky was also supplying all the power!

(Oh! I forgot: then shouldn’t we do the rest of the roof in this glass tile that harvests solar heating? – what do you think?)

::Pythagoras Solar

Pythagoras Solves Solar Energy Equation at Sears Tower

Tech

Susan Kraemer

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March 24, 2011

2

Pythagoras Solves Solar Energy Equation at Sears Tower

Imagine cities full of power-generating skyscrapers!

A solar window that potentially turns any skyscraper into a into massive power producer has just installed a pilot test in Chicago, at the landmark Sears Tower, according to Jetson Green. If the pilot goes well, the Sears Tower could end with a 2 MW solar power station, distributed vertically among its many windows.

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Better Place Unveils Its Mammoth Recharging Plan

Transportation

Tafline Laylin

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March 24, 2011

0

Better Place Unveils Its Mammoth Recharging Plan

Shai Agassi unveils his very thorough recharging plan for Better Place EVs.

No stranger to Green Prophet, we’ve been tracking Shai Agassi and Better Place for as long as we can remember. So it’s pretty exciting to report the company recently announced its recharging plan. In addition to thousands of recharging stations and 40 battery replacement stations, the company has also unveiled its EV logistics center.

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