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Cairo’s 2050 “Cleaner, Greener, Better” Plan Could Displace Thousands

Tafline Laylin
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Cairo’s 2050 “Cleaner, Greener, Better” Plan Could Displace Thousands

cairo-2050-green-planEverybody wants a greener Cairo, but residents don’t trust the government’s compensation plans.

The Egyptian government can’t consistently strongarm elections and beat certain citizens to death and then expect its constituents to fall down with gratitude when their first serious green plan is rolled out. Especially when thousands of people will be pushed out of their homes in the process.

Cairo needs a green plan, of that there is no question. What was at its height an architectural and cultural marvel has become one of the loudest, smoggiest cities I’ve ever encountered. So officials should be commended for making an effort. But if they want support from Cairenes, they are going to have to “show the money.”

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Book Review: Loving Leo Hickman’s ‘The Good Life’

James Murray-White
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Book Review: Loving Leo Hickman’s ‘The Good Life’

the-good-life

Want a reference book to living ethically? Want to know the truth about the costs of globalisation and profit-driven business practices on our health and society? Want to know what you can do to bring about change? This is the book for you.

Unlike the other books by Leo Hickman that I have reviewed (The Final Call and A Life Stripped Bare), the absence of the writer’s perspective and his interactions with others in A Good Life makes the book a bit harder to read.

It is much more about the theory of ethical living, about the origin of our food and what’s in it, power dynamics of globalisation, the costs to health, society and our environment of living unethically, and the different ways we can live more ethically.

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5 Things A “Green” Writer Wants For Christmas

Tafline Laylin
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5 Things A “Green” Writer Wants For Christmas

colorful-lizardAfter giving up the consumer lifestyle, Tafline reflects on how her Christmas list has evolved. It might not be what you’d expect.

In four years, I turned my habits around completely: instead of buying the newest, snazziest jeans, I’ve been wearing the same clothes for nearly two years. And if I must get more, I buy groovy secondhand clothes or have a seamstress or tailor whip up something local. It used to be that I’d buy another fancy bottle of shampoo or lotion, not even the chemical-free variety, before finishing what was clogging up the cupboard. Not anymore. Now I scrape the toothpaste tube before buying another.

For two years, I drove more than 150 miles almost every day, sending all kinds of carbon into the atmosphere, but these days I walk or take a bus. Meat no longer features in my diet at all. And the truth is, I’m happier. My friends have more respect for me, my self-worth comes from my relationships with people rather than things, and the daily guilt surrounding my wasteful choices has vanished. Based on what I have learned, here is my Christmas wish list for all of humanity.

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SolarEdge Solar Co. Lip Dubs “Shine On” For New Year Cheer

Karin Kloosterman
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP7AkDLONZI[/youtube]

Even though the Jewish New Year was a few months ago, and the Muslim New Year the first week of December, SolarEdge, the Israeli solar tech company that creates solar harvesting solutions has created a new video for the west –– a lip dub from RIO’s song “Shine On.” For the New Year. It’s cute, fun and a nice way to meet the Israeli team. I met the team at the recent Energy Tech Expo in Tel Aviv, and it was neat seeing some familiar faces, and the facilities where the company works and plays.

Read some Green Prophet headlines on SolarEdge:
Israel’s SolarEdge Raises $25 Million to Keep Its Edge
SolarEdge and Flextronics Create Products and Jobs
TaKaDu and SolarEdge Red Herring Winners

::SolarEdge

Biodiversity Under Threat At Yemeni ‘Alien-Island’

Arwa Aburawa
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Biodiversity Under Threat At Yemeni ‘Alien-Island’

In the alien and isolated landscape of the Socotra Island, just off the coast of Yemen, biodiversity is in a struggle for survival

socotra-yemen-biodiversity

Declared an UNESCO world heritage site in July 2008, the Socotra Archipelago which is located in the northwest Indian Ocean is home to some of the rarest species in the world.

According to UNESCO data, 37% of Socotra’s 825 plant species, 90% of its reptile species and 95% of its land snail species do not occur anywhere else in the world.

Recent reports however, have raised concerns that climate change is adversely affecting Socotra’s indigenous flora and fauna which could disappear altogether if conservation isn’t made a top priority in the country.

Locals state that a reduction in mist and cloud cover over the last couple of years means that iconic plants such as the dragon’s blood tree are already on the decline.

The tiny chain of islands, near the Gulf of Aden, has been described as the most alien landscape in the world due to it’s truly unmatched species of flora and fauna. In fact, there literally isn’t anywhere like Socotra and if the endemic species it hosts aren’t protected they will be lost forever.

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GE Partnership With Kinrot Ventures Takes Clean Water Innovation Global

Susan Kraemer
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GE Partnership With Kinrot Ventures Takes Clean Water Innovation Global

kinrot ge waterGE has just announced a partnership agreement with Kinrot Ventures, the internationally recognized Israeli trailblazer in VC funding for advanced water technologies.

Hot on the heels of reaching out to international innovators with the Eco Imagination Challenge, GE is now making a strategic move into the water innovation business, as countries around the world begin to address problems associated with chronic shortages of clean water.

Kinrot Ventures is known for incubating extremely innovative water cleantech start-ups.

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EKON, Environmental Sci-fi Film From United Arab Emirates

Zaufishan
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EKON Film PosterThe concept is Hollywood-esque: An unknown event has devastated Earth’s biosphere, causing a radiation storm that is rapidly driving all biological life on the planet to extinction.

The reality however, is that this could happen. EKON, an environmental science fiction film from the Middle East, feels like an urban legend, its trailer combines elements from the likes of The Last Man and The Day After Tomorrow.

EKON is set deep in the sands of the desert, where the remaining human survivors, clad in high-tech gadgets and with scientific know, risk venturing the storms to understand the environmental catastrophe that threatens human extinction, and find a solution.

“As they descend into the unknown, they must face a mysterious life form that holds the key to the past and the future of the planet, – the EKON.”

Currently in production, the film was developed by United Arab Emirates writer/director Mohammad Rasoul. The online teaser was produced to introduce the EKON universe to the audiences during the early development process.

Watch the trailer on EKON’s official website.

More on environment education:
University in the UAE First to Offer “Bachelor’s” Degree in Motherhood
UAE Scholars And Imams Speak Up For The Environment
The UAE Gets Its First Carbon Neutral Bus. Maybe?

Acetaminophen, Passive Smoking, Low Vitamin D in Pregnancy Lead to Epigenetic Changes

Hannah Katsman
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Acetaminophen, Passive Smoking, Low Vitamin D in Pregnancy Lead to Epigenetic Changes

pregnant woman silhouetted against dramatic blue sky and beachEnvironmental factors can change the genes of a fetus, leading to illness later in childhood.

When a pregnant woman takes Acetomeniphen (Tylenol) or is exposed to tobacco smoke, spray cleaners or pesticides, her fetus has a greater chance of devloping atopic asthma  within a few years.Nonatopic asthma, wheezing, and shortness of breath is often diagnosed starting at age 3 or even up to age 8. A series of recent studies indicate that the disease is strongly related to environmental factors during pregnancy.

Dr. Harold Nelson discussed the epigenetic factors in atopic asthma at the World Allergy Organization’s 2010 International Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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Sweden Moots Joint Water Research Projects with Israel

Maurice Picow
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Sweden Moots Joint Water Research Projects with Israel

Sweden’s interest in new Israel innovated water leakage finder device may result in joint R & D research projects

Sweden, a country with a lot of fresh water resources, is now interested in promoting joint water R & D projects with Israel. This interested was expressed recently by Sweden’s new ambassador to Israel, Elinor Hammarskjold, who expressed these remarks in a speech at a ceremony at the Jerusalem College of Technology, and reported in the Jerusalem Post.

The ambassador, whose late grandfather was the well loved UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, told the ceremony audience that although Sweden has abundant fresh water, her government is nevertheless interested in finding ways to increase the amount and quality of fresh water in countries where water resources are much scarcer than in her own country.

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Bisphenol A Disrupts Quality of Eggs Retrieved in IVF Treatment, New Study Demonstrates

Tinamarie Bernard
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Bisphenol A Disrupts Quality of Eggs Retrieved in IVF Treatment, New Study Demonstrates

Fertility is big business, but new research suggests new challenges to harvesting eggs via IVF: a common compound in baby bottles has been shown to reduce the viability of a woman’s eggs.

Baby bottle makers in the US voluntarily removed it from their products a few years back, and while Israel follows EU standards, compromised baby bottles are still plentiful on shelves in the Middle East. We know certain and specific chemicals makes men make compromised sperm. And now bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA, has been shown to compromise the quality of a woman’s eggs retrieved during in vitro fertilization. Such news for reproductive health and female fertility continues to paint a grim picture, environmentally and sexually speaking.

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28 Days To World Future Energy Summit In Abu Dhabi

Tafline Laylin
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28 Days To World Future Energy Summit In Abu Dhabi

WFES-attendees-2010There are only 28 days before the World Future Energy Summit from January 17-20, 2011

Abu Dhabi is beset with a kind of sustainability schizophrenia. On the one hand there is Masdar City – an effort to achieve carbon neutrality and zero waste – and on the other certain irresponsible and extravagant moments such as the diamond-studded Christmas tree glimmering in the Emirates Palace Hotel.

Yet, since 2008 the Emirate has hosted the World Future Energy Summit, which spends a lot of carbon to bring together leaders, junior and senior, from around the globe to share ideas about renewable energy and other progressive initiatives. Last year’s event drew nearly 25,000 people from all sectors of the society. Next year’s summit – which will run from January 17-20, 2011 – promises to be equally well-attended.

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Israeli Hotel Owners Fear Diversion Of Dead Sea Tourism To Jordan

Tafline Laylin
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1
Israeli Hotel Owners Fear Diversion Of Dead Sea Tourism To Jordan

israel-jordan-dead-seaView from Israel to Jordan; hotel owners fear that years of construction projects will send tourists to the other side.

The discussions over an appropriate solution to rising water levels in the southern Dead Sea flared up again in Israel last Wednesday as representatives of 14 hotel owners and environmentalists urged the government to abandon plans to raze and then reconstruct hotels.

Both the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) and the Union for Environmental Defense support harvesting the excess salt built up by Dead Sea Works’ mining activities that have caused water levels to rise rather than creating an expensive and uninviting construction zone that will send potential tourists to Jordan, where no such drama exists.

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Ormat Subsidiary Joins Geothermal Rush to Supply Chile’s New Renewable Energy Program

Susan Kraemer
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Ormat Subsidiary Joins Geothermal Rush to Supply Chile’s New Renewable Energy Program

Until this year, Chile’s renewable energy standard required only 3.5% of clean electricity by 2020. This year, they raised it to 20%. Now they are swamped with geothermal bids.

Ormat Technologies Inc  ((NYSE: ORA) South American subsidiary Ormat Andina Energia Ltd was among the companies and subsidiaries of foreign-held companies that submitted bids to explore for geothermal potential throughout Chile, according to the Chilean Energy Ministry. As an indication of how much Chile’s new 20% by 2020 renewable energy standard has catapulted investment interest in developing the nation’s geothermal potential, the last time that the Chilean government put geothermal concessions out to bid, there were only 9 companies bidding on the same amount of land thought to have geothermal potential, and they submitted only 59 bids.

This time, 13 firms submitted a total of 70 bids.

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Future-Proofing: Key Protection Invented By Israeli Company

Susan Kraemer
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Future-Proofing: Key Protection Invented By Israeli Company

jellyfish take overIncreasingly, we humans are going to have to share our coasts with a new pest we have created.

Here’s a problem that will get worse in future centuries. The rise in jellyfish. Jellyfish populations are proliferating and evolving. They are moving to new regions. Scientists attribute the rise in jellyfish populations on our coasts to three factors: to the warmer seas of climate change, to increased salinity due to our increased reliance on desalination plants, and to our overfishing, which eliminates their natural predators.

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Arava Institute Joins Forces With American Arabs

Arwa Aburawa
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1
Arava Institute Joins Forces With American Arabs

arava-middle-eastThe Arava Institue works with Palestinians and Israelis to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges

As one the most conflict-ridden regions in the world, the Middle East has it’s fair share of political problems. In fact, whenever the issue of environmental dangers are highlight many people will shrug their shoulders and say ‘we have more important problems to worry about’. What this attitude fails to recognise is one thing: regional co-operation to tackle environmental issues could be the very thing the Middle East needs to help it see past petty differences. The Arava Institute, one of our all time favourite eco-Israeli organistion, knows this only too well.

Now, the Arava Institute has taken it’s co-existence message overseas in a bid to promote its mission of peace and justice amongst Arabs and Jews. Joining forces with the Centre for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP), the Arava Institute hopes to create a link of solidarity between the two communities and allow Arab and Muslim donors to support the Arava Institute’s work.

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Billie Eilish’s Mom Maggie Baird Launches “Climate Kitchen” on Public TV

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Maggie Baird, best known as the mother of Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, is stepping into a much larger spotlight, this time as a climate storyteller.

Monitoring farmers’ tillage patterns from space

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Tillage is one of the clearest signals of how a farm treats its soil. Intensive plowing can degrade structure, release carbon, and increase erosion. Conservation practices—no-till, cover cropping, minimal disturbance—do the opposite. They build soil, retain water, and support biodiversity. But until now, measuring these practices at scale has been slow, expensive, and often self-reported.

Hydrophilis SCUBA gear could make us one with the sea

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Hydrophilis, Oliver Isler’s experimental rebreather suit, reimagines diving by reducing drag, eliminating bubbles, and bringing humans closer to the natural movement of marine life.

Alcohol the night before work in the heat may raise inflammation, study finds

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If you work as a roofer, landscaper, pool builder, or in construction, installing garden slabs or solar panels, building sheds, or working on outdoor home improvement projects, take note of new research that can help you protect your heart.

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