Summer time is tomato time, and not just for salads. Slow-roast some to taste the depth and sweetness of all their flavors. In Middle East open-air markets, we now see piles of ripe tomatoes. And since they’re seasonal and cheap, we enjoy them raw and sliced into all kinds of salads, sometimes cooking them when we […]
Persian Gulf environments like Bu Tinah Shoals would be devastated in a regional military conflict. Consider the following scenario: small United Arab Emirate states like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are planning to spend billions of dollars on sophisticated weaponry; when one of their real dangers is the deteriorating state of the Persian Gulf and the […]
Treating wastewater and encouraging water efficiency balances high cost of desalination in water-scarce countries. To some, desalination plants are the Middle East’s holy grail. Israel’s IDE launched its 3rd such plant, and Bahrain has joined the fray with theirs. However, it is no coincidence that in the last year alone Israel has also experienced a […]
Grassroots campaigners claim final victory in fight to preserve open space for the Israeli public. Photo by Michael Green It was over two years ago that Green Prophet first reported on the grassroots campaign to stop developers from paving over one of the last remaining ‘wild’ spaces on central Israel’s coastline: ‘fisherman’s beach’ at Palmachim. […]
Tigo Energy’s latest development agreement, mobile desalination competition, top Israeli fresh food markets and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Image via david55king. During the week of July 6, 2010, TaKaDu continued to attract the attention of venture capitalists interested in smart water monitoring. National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau announced a new […]
Moshe continues his weekly look at the Middle East eco-blogging community, in Arabic. This week he flies to Syria and looks at how an Internet Service Provider is educating the public. Last week, we looked at Mazen Abboud’s environmental blog from Lebanon. This week, we are flying to Lebanon’s next-door neighbor, Syria, and to a […]
EcoBike’s Tomer Zaksenberg tells us to get our pedals turning in Israel and beyond. Cycling is booming in Israel, both as an alternative, eco-friendly form of daily transportation and as a green tourism option. Last week Karin surveyed Israel’s progress (a nation of cycling freaks) in this area, and this week we decided to get […]
Pet owners in the Middle East pay lots for imported pet food. Miriam offers recipes for Fido’s food with locally sourced ingredients to keep him healthy, save money, and reduce carbon emissions. A dog somewhere on the street howled pitifully, all day and all night. Neighbors told us that her owner had gone abroad, leaving money […]
Following a site visit conducted as part of a meeting of geographers at Ben-Gurion University last week, Dr. Gotlieb reflects on how appropriate technology, bottom-up planning and goodwill are prerequisites to resolving conflict. For an international group of geographers, a visit to what is known variously as Judea and Samaria, the West Bank – of […]
New studies looking at evolution sees nothing extra-ordinary about island communities. The Middle East region, particularly around Egypt, Israel and Jordan out East to Iraq is known as the cradle of civilization. It is no wonder then that much evolutionary thinking and discoveries are made from this region. More whale bones (and a fossilized whale […]
Wind farms, like this one in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, may soon be common in Syria. About 90 percent of Syria’s electric power comes from thermal power plants fueled by heavy fuel oil and natural gas; and the country is now looking into using forms of renewable energy to provide its increasing need for energy. […]
Architect Marks Barfield is to design a £13 million “eco” mosque on a 0.4 hectare brownfield site in Cambridge. England’s historic city of Cambridge, with its world-famous university and idyllic countryside, will soon count a mosque amidst its stunning skyline of spires. But this isn’t just any old mosque. In fact it is the first-purpose […]
Wait, what? Whales in the desert? Fossils of earliest suborder of now extinct whale sheds new light on evolution. Even though human population expansion and over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated the rate at which climatic change wreaks havoc, nature has always been in flux. Few things drive this concept home more concretely than a […]
Lebanon is eager to replant their cedars – a national symbol. But a sustainable, community-wide vision is in need. The Hebrew bible is replete with references to the cedars of Lebanon, and uses them as a metaphor for steadfastness, might and great stature. The cedar trees for the construction of King Solomon’s Palace and the […]
Green babies are being born all over the UAE. Coming soon to a hospital near you? [image via: Gulf News] When it comes to setting green patterns, there is no doubt that it is better to create eco-friendly habits early in life. No different than other forms of education, or even good habits such as […]