Despite its claim to promote sustainable urban development practices, the world’s largest, disposable Expo invites irony and criticism. The first ever world fair took place in 1851 at Prince Albert’s behest. That fair was initiated to display participating nations’ industrial prowess. The tradition continues with ever-increasing largesse, culminating in this year’s World Expo that officially […]
Despite its impressive shoreline, Alexandria – the self-proclaimed “Capital of Arab Tourism” – seems to be a city in decline. (Hint: watch out pedestrians). When the Green Prophet’s editor heard I’d be stopping in Alexandria en route to the MENASOL solar energy conference in Cairo next week, she asked (implored) me to write a post from […]
This Gulf of Mexico oil spill may make Exxon Valdez seem like child’s play. Image via MNN The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is already being referred to by many as “President Obama’s Katrina.” The ongoing spill, a direct result of an explosion on an offshore oil drilling platform has resulted in […]
Builder of Jerusalem and Israeli solar energy company Brightsource. Meet Arnold Goldman. Image via NYTimes. Serious philosophers rarely make good businessmen. But solar energy innovator Arnold J. Goldman is no navel-gazer. Goldman heads Jerusalem-based BrightSource Industries and its California-based parent, BrightSource Energy, which is contracted to deliver more than 2,600 megawatts of solar electricity in […]
Some drugs like pot, gat and hash are natural. But antidepressant drug abuse in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is causing social problems. Mecca province, home to the holiest site in Islam, has the highest rate of drug-related crime in Saudi Arabia, a university study has found. The national study, carried out by Dr. Ashraf Shilbi of the […]
Qatar’s petroleum industry is making efforts to “go green.” Is it speeding ahead in the right, or wrong direction? We all know too well the devastation that the oil industry can cause. This weekend’s oil spill, the Deepwater Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico is surpassing the devastation of the Exxon Valdez spill and […]
Vodaphone teaches the Gulf how to go green. See what they did in 2020.
Traditional organic agriculture and gorgeous historic architecture come together at Tel Aviv’s restored Turkish train station. The historic Turkish train station between Neve Tsedek and Jaffa in Tel Aviv, which in its former glory operated trains from Jaffa to Jerusalem, has laid in ruins for decades. Over the past few years, though, the Tel Aviv […]
United Arab Emirate’s renewable energy company Masdar signed MoU with the US Department of Energy, Canada too. Aligning America with United Arab Emirates? the The US Department of Energy (DoE) and Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multifaceted renewable energy initiative which includes an eco-city with the same name, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week to promote […]
Will “no hands driving ” work in the macho Middle East? It seems the race to create the most innovative electric powered vehicles has become even more bizarre: America’s General Motors recently unveiled its new EN-V Robot car in Shanhai China. The vehicle, which uses a GPS type guidance, vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communications system, is being […]
From leaps in the bronze age to massive droughts that wiped out cities, civilizations we learn from history, depend on water. We need to protect our life sustaining resources now. An Akkad sculpture from Iraq. Over the course of history, numerous civilizations have peaked and then gradually fettered out or even disappeared abruptly. In many […]
Taxis can’t wait all night to recharge: The Better Place battery switch is showing another way for electric cars, in Tokyo. A few days ago, Better Place electric car company sent out the press release. The Israeli-US company launched its electric taxis in Tokyo, Japan. The pilot will be small, with only 4 taxis which […]
An Israeli bank tries to sell “green mortgages” with installation exhibit on busy boulevard. As part of their campaign to sell “green mortgages” (in other words, mortgages for homes built with environmentally friendly construction or for financing the installation of solar home energy systems), Bank Hapoalim has sponsored an exhibition of futuristic green homes along […]
By taking into account embodied energy, Catherine and her husband half the energy required to build their home. In her recent Ted talk, Catherine Mohr encourages us to look at the bigger picture when discussing and analyzing green stories. Whether we weigh the benefits of a LEED certified project against the energy required to ship […]
Farmigo aims to improve day-to-day operations for small organic farms. More and more Israelis are joining the worldwide move to buying their fresh produce from small, organic farms (and CSAs – see our list). But because they’re farmers, and not necessarily businessmen, most of these family-run businesses aren’t being run on the most optimal level. […]