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Demand for “Anti Radiation” Pills and Vaccine Grows Despite Limited Protection

Maurice Picow
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Demand for “Anti Radiation” Pills and Vaccine Grows Despite Limited Protection

Checking radiation levels. Will potassium iodide work?

When I wrote a Green Prophet article in the summer of 2009 dealing with research into a vaccine to protect against the effects of radiation sickness,  I never realized that this topic would be as relevant as it is today. This is due to the ongoing crisis of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants in northeastern Japan, which if not fully contained soon could wind up being a serious threat to not only Japan’s local environment, but even as far away as the USA and Canada.

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Helping Turkish Wildlife Cross the Road

Julia Harte
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Turkey’s Environment & Forestry minister has demanded that the state highway construction agency build “green bridge” crossings for wildlife.

Although the country’s environmental policy is rather bleak overall, with the prime minister vowing to continue building a nuclear reactor on a fault line in the southern region of Akkuyu, and the country’s clean energy program more rhetoric than reality, at least wild animals won’t have to risk their necks crossing Turkey’s highways anymore. Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu has called on the General Directorate of Highways, the state agency which constructs public roadways, to build wildlife crossings over highways that bisect major wildlife habitats.

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Libyan Violence Dampens Great Man-Made River Project

Tafline Laylin
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Libyan Violence Dampens Great Man-Made River Project

pipe for libya manmade river projectThis pipe was slated for use on Libya’s ambitious Man Made River project.

The Omar Mukhtar Reservoir in Libya’s southern desert is the second largest in the world, and an integral component of the $20 billion Great Man-Made River project (GMMR). Begun in 1984, the mammoth pipeline designed to transport water from the south to Libya’s dry northern cities has experienced huge setbacks as a result of Gaddafi’s power struggle with rebel forces. Despite the recently announced ceasefire, CNN reports continuing violence, which is taking its toll on the Canadian firm Pure Technologies’ bottom line.

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Despite Japan, Turkey Goes Ahead With Nuclear Reactors

Karin Kloosterman
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Despite Japan, Turkey Goes Ahead With Nuclear Reactors

turkey coast akkuyu region seaForty years in the making: Turkey still intent on building the country’s first nuclear reactor on this serene spot on the Mediterranean Coast. Cyprus says the zone falls right on a fault line.

Despite the insanity and the imminent meltdown of Japan’s nuclear facilities now going from bad to worse, countries in the Middle East are announcing their clear intentions to stick with nuclear programs. Earlier this week Israel announced it would continue planning for a nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert, Australia offered uranium to the United Arab Emirates, and now Turkey, the People’s Daily of China reports, is going ahead with the construction of its first nuclear reactor, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. In fact for Turkey, the sooner, the better he urged.

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Bloggers Mourn Four Iranian Parkrangers Shot Dead By Terrorists

Tafline Laylin
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Bloggers Mourn Four Iranian Parkrangers Shot Dead By Terrorists

iranian park rangerIn the last 30 years, 110 Iranian park rangers have been killed. Environmental bloggers pay tribute.

Despite certain joint environmental initiatives between its government and that of  Qatar, Iran really needs its nature lovers and advocates. Twenty-seven people die a day as a result of the Tehran’s pollution, its national parks are strewn with rubbish, and iconic natural monuments such as Lake Orumiyeh are in deep trouble.

And yet, park rangers over the decades have been the target of uncalled-for violence. Global Voices report that four men were recently shot dead in a village in Sanandaj in Iran’s Kuridstan. In response, an environmentally-themed website invited bloggers to say their piece.

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Flood Victims Get New Cars in Saudi

Arwa Aburawa
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1,000 cars have been donated by the Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation to the recent Jeddah flood victims

Heavy rainfall in Jeddah in Saudi this January led to the deaths of a reported four people and left hundreds more families stranded and distraught as they dealt with the flood. Although the floods in 2010 did not cause the same level of destruction as the 2009 floods which left over 120 dead, many Saudis feel that the city’s flood protection remains inadequate.

So whilst the donation of 1,000 cars will no doubt be valuable to the victims of the floods, what is really needed is clear policy and plan of action to improve Jeddah’s flood defenses.

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BrightSource Solar Raises Another $122 Million

Susan Kraemer
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BrightSource Solar Raises Another $122 Million

Israeli Solar energy company BrightSource is the child, but the real father of solar thermal technology.

SEC filings show BrightSource Energy Inc has raised $122.5 million in its fifth round of financing, according to Israel’s Globes.The company says it raised the capital in shares and warrants, as part of a planned $125 million offering. BrightSource Energy is now the California “parent company” of the actual “parent” – BrightSource Industries Ltd –  if you consider parenting from the generative point of view. (Luz Rises Again as BrightSource for California)

Originally, the Israeli inventors developed the solar thermal technology that has now been proven since the eighties in the California desert and is fast becoming the industry standard. The Israeli “child” company is the real father of solar thermal technology, however.

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It’s Back to Real Estate Basics for the United Arab Emirates

Arwa Aburawa
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It’s Back to Real Estate Basics for the United Arab Emirates

dubai-uae-property-crisis-moderationWith Dubai’s property sector still in crisis, many predict the end for real estate glitz and the start of a more modest UAE

Whilst the Gulf states continue with business as usual by supporting fuel subsides in order to avoid political unrest, there are some areas of luxury in the Gulf which will have to be cut back. In Dubai, the property market struggles means that for now at least, it’s back to basics. Having constantly bemoaned the brash ‘I-can-build-it-higher/bigger/more-expensive/out-of-gold’ madness that the Gulf states seems to suffer from, I am more than happy to see a return to a more modest United Arab Emirate.

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Oil Industry Investigates Ormat Success Turning Waste Water into Energy

Susan Kraemer
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Oil Industry Investigates Ormat Success Turning Waste Water into Energy


Every barrel of oil co-produces 10 barrels of waste fluids hot enough to make energy

Towards the end of the life of an oil field or a natural gas field, the operating cost of managing the waste water is the main reason why fields are shut down, wells are plugged and abandoned. Oil and gas wells produce a lot of water.

For many well operators, once the water cut becomes too expensive to deal with, they’ll consider shutting the well. But if they can save money by using the water to generate electricity, the equation changes. An Ormat device has shown how that can be done and the US DOE has tallied its output.

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Despite Best Intentions, Gulf Countries Can’t Quit CO2

Tafline Laylin
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Despite Best Intentions, Gulf Countries Can’t Quit CO2

carbon emission pollutionThe Gulf countries badly need to cut fuel subsidies in order to drive renewable generation projects, but in the current political climate, that would be suicidal.

The nuclear travesty in Japan has gripped news headlines, while the Middle East political drama has taken back stage. But it is still having huge ramifications in the region. Among the world’s worst polluters, and the biggest suppliers of emissions-causing fuel, the Gulf countries do have great intentions to boost their renewable energy supply. And not for purely altruistic reasons. By eating into their own oil supply, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia among others limit the amount of oil that can be used for export. Increasing their renewable energy portfolio, however, depends richly on doing away with oil subsidies. And that, Reuters reports, is seemingly impossible amidst the current unrest.

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Mekano Designs Renewable Energy Skyscraper For Cairo’s Filthy Garbage City

Tafline Laylin
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Mekano Designs Renewable Energy Skyscraper For Cairo’s Filthy Garbage City

cairo garbage city skyscraper

Mekano Architects have dreamed up the ultimate solution for Cairo’s filthy Garbage City. Long an eye-sore and public health menace, the area on the outskirts of Egypt’s capital was once a recycling center for the Zabaleen. They sorted through waste and recycled it, and used pigs to devour organic waste. After swine flu emerged, however, the government culled the Zabaleen’s pigs and that waste has since stewed in its own fermenting juices. Mekano aims to put the resulting methane, and the towers of junk, to good, building use.

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As Japan Nuclear Plants Meltdown, Israel To Build “Safe” One in the Desert

Maurice Picow
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As Japan Nuclear Plants Meltdown, Israel To Build “Safe” One in the Desert

Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan before and after the tsunami. Is this worthwhile for Israel or other Middle East countries?

Japan’s damaged nuclear facilities are reaching even more critical radiation leakage levels, and the country’s population is becoming more concerned about the effect of radiation their own environment as well as that outside Japan. Despite this reality, energy spokespersons in other parts of the world still talk in favor of nuclear energy as a “clean and safe” fuel, as compared to fossil fuels like oil and coal.

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Al Gore Talks Turkish Climate Policy

Julia Harte
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Turkey has a critical role to play in a clean energy future, says former vice president Al Gore. But when is it going to start taking that role seriously?

The unusual political identity of Turkey — a stable, democratic, Islamic country — serves as inspiration for democratic reformers in the Arab world. Its government is a model of political progressiveness for its neighbors to the east and south. In the same fashion, strong climate and energy policy in Turkey could inspire environmental action as radical as the democratic revolutions currently sweeping the region. That was the message of former U.S. vice president Al Gore at the “Leaders of Change” summit in Istanbul on Monday, according to the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

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South Korean President Receives Zayed Prize For Global Environmental Leadership

Tafline Laylin
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South Korean President Receives Zayed Prize For Global Environmental Leadership

South Korean President Zayed Prize

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, VP for UAE & ruler of Dubai, presented South Korean President Lee Myung-bak with the Zayed Environmental Prize.

Named after the late UAE President Sheikh Zayed, the $1 million Zayed Environmental prize is awarded biannually to political leaders, scientists, and activists who are leading the way in sustainable initiatives. Najib Saab, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment and Development) received one of the prizes awarded this year for raising the Middle East’s environmental awareness. The top prize went to South Korea’s President for his country’s “Green Growth” initiative.

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

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

radiation japan middle east nuclearThe Arab region holds the densest concentration on earth of countries seeking to generate nuclear electricity for the first time. Rola points out the dangers.

Over the last few years, while talk of a nuclear power ‘renaissance’ was spreading globally, Middle Eastern and North African countries have been rushing to jump on the commercial nuclear power bandwagon. As posted in Green Prophet recently, the unfolding Japanese nuclear crisis should serve a warning for a politically volatile region prone to earthquakes and other man-made disasters. Here’s a brief review of how far some of these countries have come in building their first commercial nuclear plants and key issues at stake.

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