“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
“In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General. “A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient.”
Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.
The New Zealand Merino Company, now rebranded as Zentera, has quietly removed the phrase “world’s leading ethical wool brand” from its website, a notable change that comes after a disturbing investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific into the company’s ZQ-certified wool supply chain, PETA reports to Green Prophet.
Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cr5oGnVeYU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]Believed to have been started by arsonists, a deadly fire is racing out of control in UNESCO-protected Carmel Mountain. People, and animals, are being evacuated. Death toll is at 40.
Some 40 people trapped in a bus are known to have been killed and 45 more reportedly injured as a massive fire on Israel’s Mount Carmel rages on. Believed to have been started by arsonists, the fire broke out in a cedar forest around noon near Isifiya, a Druize village. Although the winter season has officially started, the rains despite the prayers, have not come, leaving the forest vulnerable to attacks.
Towns, villages and Haifa University have been evacuated, as well as a prison holding 500 prisoners. As we speak, planes and firefighters are working to contain the blaze, while specialists have been brought into the scene to help evacuate animals living at the Hai Bar Nature Reserve on Mount Carmel.
The Israeli Ministry of Health have warned residents not evacuated to stay indoors since hazardous substances in the area may be burning. And the national electric company, the IEC has asked for appliances to be switched off to reduce the load on the grid. Power lines have been damaged.
According to the Jerusalem Post the majority of those killed in an overturned bus that caught fire were prison wardens on route to evacuate prisoners from a nearby jail. About 6,000 dumans of land have been destroyed according to reports from about 6 PM.
About a month ago, an email dropped into my inbox by the Al Jazeera Doha correspondent Dan Nolan who wanted to cover the story on the water park in UAE. This was the park name ‘Ice Land’ we reported on which was built around the global warming theme despite the huge amount of water it uses through desalination and its location in a water-scarce region. I was glad to help and Dan asked if I would be able to do a short TV interview talking about the project.
People often have this misconception that as journalists are happy to ask people difficult questions and poke cameras in their faces, that they are also happy to speak in front of a camera too. Well, I am not. Print and web journalism affords you a certain amount of anonymity which I like and so I was a little nervous about saying yes, especially as I would be representing Green Prophet. I eventually agreed comforted by the fact that a) it was not going to be a live TV interview and b) if it all went horrible wrong they would just use none of it.
I arranged for a day and time with the Al Jazeera team and got the train down from Manchester (where I live- it’s in North England and seems to famous for nothing but football) to London. The news team who explained the questions they would be asking and what kind of things I need to avoid doing- talking to fast/slow, fidgeting or panicking.
They sit me down in front of a computer screen with the Green Prophet site on it and then when I least expect it they switch on the studio lights and I was temporarily blinded. Really! It was so bright I couldn’t think straight for a minute.
One of the presenters starts speaking to me and I’m still a little blinded so I start swivelling my chair to move eyes away from the light. The camera man looks up- I need to stop moving on the chair as it’s changing the angle. Okay. They start again and by now my eyes seem to have adjusted and I try to calmly answer their questions.
Representing The Green Prophet Team
It all went very fast, I can’t really remember the questions or what I said and after around 15 minutes we’re done! I was so relieved I wanted to run out. The presenter seemed happy with the interview too and said it had all gone really well. Happy with that I leave the office and forget all about until I got an email yesterday saying that’s the news piece is on TV and also online. I sat down to watch it and there I was talking on telly. It was surreal but also really, really embarrassing.
Even so, it was great to be able to represent a new generation of people from the Middle East who have a deeper understanding of climate change and are not fooled by green washing tactics. Whilst we are probably still in the minority, awareness and concern about environmental issues is rising in the region and I’d like to think that the work of Green Prophet has played a part in that!
Well done to everyone at Green Prophet for making the site such a great resource for green issues in the Middle East and also a big thanks to Karin for her hard work and support!
In three separate (and unusual) incidents, a white-tip shark attacks tourists off the coast of Sinai’s Sharm Al-Sheikh.
I don’t think anyone who has watched the movie can enter a large body of salt water without the Jaws theme song thumping ominously at their amygdala. Human beings have a prehistoric terror of what they perceive as blood-thirsty, razor-toothed killers, even though shark attacks are relatively uncommon.
What causes sharks to attack human beings? In the case of yesterday’s incidents off the coast of Egypt’s heavily-trafficked tourist resort town Sharm al-Sheikh, there is speculation that a spate of Yemenese poaching (the Japanese are willing to pay big beans for shark fin soup) may have caused the unusual behavior. But fear not, gentle snorkeler, the authorities have shut down the area until the perpetrator is captured.
The “jean capital of the world” exacts a dark environmental and public health price – too steep for wholesome gift-giving.
When the last Hanukkah candle is extinguished, we will shift our attention to Christmas. Since the wise men laid down their wares at baby Jesus’ feet in Bethlehem, Christians (and atheists and agnostics and many in between) have demonstrated their love and consideration for friends and family through gifts. Theoretically.
In reality, this tradition has evolved into a cacophony of registers blowing smoke from burning cash. So people in the green world have been calling for more meaningful giving: fair trade items, homemade art, or experiences versus things because only a gift that has been created with a wholesome spirit, from the cradle to the grave, can be truly loving. Which is why we think blue jeans may just be the most unloving gift of all.
Researchers thought it only happened at the poles; new research between Israel and the US shows that bromine above the sea can make mercury way more toxic in fish.
A joint US/Israel study funded by the National Science Foundation has found that the Dead Sea has measurable effects on the chemistry of the air above it, in a paper just published at Nature: Geoscience.
The research, led by scientist Daniel Obrist and colleagues at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute with a group of Israeli researchers at Hebrew University, found that mercury was concentrated into the most toxic form in the air above the Dead Sea.
The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers found, is laden with oxidized mercury, a much more toxic form of Mercury than the elemental form. The finding was surprising, as such high levels of oxidized mercury have only been found at the polar regions.
Aga Khan awards the Wadi Hanifa reclamation project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with top honors.
Typically the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is reserved for just that – socially transformative buildings constructed in areas that have a strong Muslim presence. But this year, Aga Khan also recognized Saudi’s Wadi Hanifa Watershed project for its contribution to society.
And it really is a watershed moment for the country whose water resources are deeply limited. Wetlands throughout the Middle East have suffered from poor management, leading to negative consequences for both the environment and public health. But Saudi Arabia’s sparkling initiative demonstrates that recreation and ecology can flow in harmony.
Mr. Amin claims that government subsidies given to the fossil fuel industry impedes serious growth of the renewable sector.
On Sunday, Israel made a public NIS2.2 billion (US$0.6 billion) commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That announcement came just days after Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild bought shares in Genie Oil & Gas Inc., whose subsidiary Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) was granted license by the Ministry of Infrastructure to proceed with oil shale exploration.
The pair proclaimed that extracting not only Israel’s shale oil, but that of America’s Green River Formation – the world’s largest reserve – would put international energy on a new stage. A western stage, complete with powerful spotlights. This insane chicken dance – two steps forward and a mile back – underscores the challenges facing the renewable energy industry, a challenge that the Interim Director of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) understands all too well.
The 8-day Jewish holiday of Hanukah starts tonight. Is there a connect with climate change?
This week marks the Jewish holiday of Hanukah – celebrated by widely in Israel by Jewish people. And the local Israeli Arabs enjoy it too, feasting on the jelly doughnuts that go along with the 8-day holiday.
“What does Hanukah have to do with global warming?”
Hanukah sends an environmental message: how could a one-day supply of oil last eight days and nights?
“It represents an early example of energy conservation with relevance to our current environmental challenges,” wrote Adam Stern from the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). In the past he’s recommended that people switch over to CFLs this holiday season.
For some yummy recipes to go along with the miracle of Hanukkah, how about latke recipes of Rachel Barenblat, the wife of a World Changing writer. Rachel’s Asian latkes with soy dipping sauce sound tempting and definitely modern, we would probably choose a hot and crispy jelly doughnut (sufganiyot) over a latke any day. That’s if you’re a calorie counter.
ClimateWire has revealed that leading up to the UN meeting at Copenhagen last December, the Obama administration leaned hard on the Saudis to get them to agree to the Copenhagen Accord.
The memos show that Saudi Arabia was privately pushed hard by the US to accept the Copenhagen Accord, and that climate change was a front burner issue for the Obama administration.
“Saudi officials are very concerned that a climate change treaty would significantly reduce their income just as they face significant costs to diversify their economy,” the US ambassador James Smith wrote, briefing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, he alluded to a possible negotiating tactic in the memo.
These are the savvy ladies behind Dubai-based Goumbook, an online directory of all-things eco.
This morning I was doing my usual rounds on the internet, read a few inspirational poems, caught up on the day’s big news: wikileaks, Cancun, and Goumbook – apparently the first online directory of all things eco in the Middle East. I almost choked on my coffee.
Green Prophet has been the go-to source of “green” information throughout the Middle East for several years, while Goumbook only showed up towards the end of 2009. But that’s ok. We forgive them this small transgression because they do have an awesome directory of green businesses, events, and other useful eco-tips. Step on in to learn more about the ladies from Dubai who make it happen.
This guy (Maurice) will have to wait till 2012 to have an electric car
Contrary to reservations being made about the Better Place electric car company being a monopoly in Israel’s upcoming electric car market, it now appears that the head of one of the country’s largest holding companies, the Israel Corporation, is very positive concerning the future of electric cars in Israel and other countries. Favorable remarks in regards to electric cars were made recently by Israel Corps.’ CEO, Nir Gilad, in an interview with Globes Financial News.
Gilad told Globes that he expects these cars to be “commercially on the roads” by the year 2012. He notes that the company largely responsible for this occurring, Better Place LLC, is on the “fast track” in setting up the infrastructure needed for running these cars on Israel’s motorways.
Something as big as a whale shark should be easy to track, but Dubai-based marine biologists learn they are actually quite elusive.
It’s so tempting to attribute anthropogenic qualities to fauna. Take the whale shark Rhincodon typus, sometimes referred to as gentle giants, the largest fish to plow through tropical seas with its wide mouth open. The heaviest on record weighed in at 36 tonnes – as much as a ring of six Barnum and Bailey circus elephants. And yet they are among the least known creatures.
They’re nomadic, but no one knows their favorite haunts, they’re huge, but a sighting can be as furtive as a wanton look, and the ladies are especially sneaky. To learn more about these extraordinary seafaring creatures, Sharkwatch Arabia plans to tag 25 whale sharks over the next five years, starting with two tags donated by Emirati organizations.
New images taken from the space shuttle, using radar, are revealing that 100,000 years ago, Egypt had a lake broader than the gigantic Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes in the US.
New evidence of a once wetter Middle East comes from high above the earth, where we are able to peer back through the centuries with the aid of technology that we have gradually developed over centuries of civilization, in the space shuttle.
When the giant body of water first appeared, a few hundred miles West of the Nile in what is now Egypt’s Tushka region, about 250,000 years ago, Paleolithic hunters and gatherers would have fished here. The lake appears to have grown and shrunk and finally disappeared about 80,000 years ago, say the scientists.
Ohalo College of Katzrin brings sustainable development studies into the ivory tower.
The world of academia and environmental activism do not always go hand in hand, and academics are notorious for their detachment from the real world. But some universities and colleges are an exception to this generalization. In fact, Tel Aviv University held a conference intended to bring together academic researchers and environmental policy makers just last month. And green MBA degrees are popping up all over the place, instructing business students on how to integrate sustainable objectives in the business world.
The Ohalo College of Katzrin in Israel is rising to our global environmental challenge as well, by opening an entire department devoted to sustainable development and renewable energy.
The Director of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research (COSTAR) talks to Green Prophet about the benefits and detriments of oil shale exploration.
When we first submitted our open letter to David de Rothschild, in which we asked him to intervene in an oil-shale development project in the Elah Valley now backed by Lord Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch, Jeremy Boak wrote in to question the science of our oil shale assertions. David responded, pledging to look into the matter.
In the meantime, we have asked Jeremy, the director of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research (COSTAR) funded by ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total, to discuss the technology that Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) would use to extract energy from oil shale, as well as to shed light on the different regulatory environments facing developers in the United States and Israel. Here are his answers:
