If Lebanese sewage dumping can be seen from the air, it is centainly seen, and smelled on ground level.
Rampant corruption and nepotism among Lebanese government officials is causing a delay in improving the country’s environment, according to the Lebanon Daily Star. The remarks were made by the country’s environment minister, Mohammad Rahhal during a conference ‘The State of the Environment in Lebanese Courts, which was held in Beirut on World Environment Day in May.
Finally, the recipe for sourdough bread!
We’ve broken it up in parts, because it’s complicated, but today we’ll put it all together so it’ll makes sense if you’ve been following the parts. Last week we started with making a sourdough starter, and dedicated a whole post on how to care for and feed your sourdough starter (click here). Cutting to the chase, today you get the basic recipe.
Abu Dhabi City Municipality teaches its employees how to reduce consumption on Paper-Less Day. [image via: hunflickr]
Generally known worldwide as bureaucratic, red tape repositories for paper forms, municipalities do not have the most eco-friendly reputation when it comes to paper consumption. (In fact, some environmentalists may claim that all those paper forms are wasteful and unsustainable.) So a couple weeks ago the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City decided to take its green reputation into its own hands by staging a “Paper-Less Day”.
Anti British Rhetoric Placing the two Nations on a Collision Course
As the White House starts crunching the numbers behind the costs of BP’s Gulf of Mexico debacle, the projected costs – and future debt of BP – begins to become clearer, placing Washington and London on a collision course.
In the US, the spill has caused BP to become public enemy number one, and a target of the White House. Meanwhile, in the UK, BP is increasingly perceived as the victim. “It was an accident that took place, and BP is paying a very, very heavy price indeed,” said London mayor, Boris Johnson who also called the position held by the US “anti-British rhetoric” and “name-calling.”
The Honey Council, Hive Thievery and Bee Ecology education in Arabic: In Israel and Lebanon, honey is both a problem and a solution. Image via orinrobertjohn
Archeologists have uncovered beehives in northern Israel that date back 3 000 years. A courtyard in the ancient city of Rehov was home to bees producing honey in at least 30, possibly as many as 100, hives. The discovery firmly establishes the fact that beekeeping was known and practiced here in the Middle East since Biblical times. Honey and beeswax, precious commodities then, are still valuable crops. You would think that everyone’s gotten used to the routine by now.
There is life after plastic. Ban the bags, and save the camels
One hundred years ago, there was no such thing as a plastic bag. They simply didn’t exist. The plastics revolution began slowly in 1868 but really pushed forward in the 1930s when acrylic resins were developed to create housewares, toys, and packaging. The industry exploded. The first plastic garbage bag was invented by Harry Waslyk in 1950. They weren’t supposed to be used at home since their original purpose was strictly commercial, but now they are ubiquitous. Surely Mr. Waslyk could not have predicted how much havoc his plastic child would wreck in a mere 60 years.
In 2008, the Israeli government announced a 20 million shekel (around $6 million US) plan to revamp cycling tourism. Upping the ante, the government wants to put about $30 million into making Israel a cycling destination hotspot.
Cycling tourism is worth billions of dollars in Europe, where lodges and facilities are set up for the eco-friendly sport. And some off-the wall travellers are finding some locations in the Middle East can make ideal cycling holidays too. Despite the fact that you might need to wear a burka in Saudi Arabia, ladies.
Despite the intense summer heat, it virtually doesn’t rain in the Middle East in the summer time, and the lack of bugs – especially mosquitos – allows people to sleep outdoors, even without tents. We’ve blogged about some hotspots for cycling in the Middle East, now let’s look at Israel:
The country’s tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov announced recently a 100 million shekel-plus multi-year plan to promote the cycling industry in Israel. While ten years ago a cyclist on the streets of Tel Aviv would be considered a foreign labourer, every one and his sister are getting out the cycling hot pants these days and heading out in the cities and on the nature trails.
Alternative energy contracts with the US, Israel-Turkey relations, growing Israel-China business ties and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech. Image via Tigo Energy.
During the week of June 1, 2010, TaKaDu and SolarEdge were named Red Herring winners for their innovative technologies. Ormat Technologies, a renewable geothermal energy company, is set to begin drilling in Alaska. The company will build a geothermal power plant at a site that can supply one-third of the electricity requirements of south central Alaska. For these stories and more, see the links below.
Cut the calories and the preservatives with a simple and tasty summer ice cream recipe. No mixing or machines involved!
One of my strongest memories as a child is sitting around in the sweltering heat, trying to persuade my mother that ice-cream has nutritional qualities that would make it worth having every day. Being an extremely health conscious person, ever aware of the sugar levels in processed foods, my mother decided that the best way to appease me and my siblings was to make the ice cream herself.
Of course, as a child half the fun comes from doing it yourself, so the other part of the memory is of holding the egg beater and then communally deciding what flavour to make the ice-cream this time. Whether it was fruit, chocolate or plain, the inevitable conclusion was a smooth summer treat, which my mother didn’t feel as guilty about.
Although summer this year has just begun, the Middle Eastern sun can take its toll, so a nice bowl of ice cream is just as welcome now as it was when I was a kid.
All these years later, my mother’s recipe is now mine to play around with, to change the flavour depending on my mood; sometimes adding crushed berries, or dates, or even throwing in some halva (like that used in these tehina cookies) to give it that nice Middle Eastern twist.
While I didn’t really appreciate the value of the home-made product, now I realise just how much better it is to do-it-yourself, where you control the amount of sugar and you are assured that there are no unnecessary preservatives or additives.
So this recipe can now by yours to adapt to your personal taste. In the daily hustle and bustle of our busy lives, this recipe is well worth adding to your collection of super-fast recipe, taking less than half and hour to make. So have three bowls ready and enjoy the results!
Ingredients:
4 eggs
250 ml cream
5 tbs. sugar
Your choice of flavour (berries, halva, chocolate, vanilla…)
Method:
1. Separate the eggs and cream together the egg yolks with 3 tbs. of sugar until they are light and creamy
2. Beat the cream till stiff with 1 tbs. of sugar and then add this to the egg yolks.
3. Add in your choice of flavouring. If it is chocolate, melt it and add it in, or if you have chosen halva or fruit you can choose to chop or blend it before adding it to the cream and egg yolk mixture. Hand-picked strawberries are also great.
4. Finally, beat up the egg whites and add the last 1 tbs. of sugar once the whites are already stiff. Then gently fold the two mixtures together
This will make approximately 1 liter of ice-cream, which will freeze overnight. Scoop it out the next hot day and enjoy a deliciously smooth summer treat. Enjoy!
Want some more mouth-watering summer treats?
Make Your Own Strawberry Jam
A Light Apricot Chutney
Mulberry Chutney Recipe
Israel’s offshore oil resource are larger than previously thought, pitting the state against oil tycoons defying demands for a larger public share of oil revenues. In the context of fossil fuel-induced climate change, does the development of petroleum resources have any justification at all?
Last week, a consortium including the American energy corporation Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Group announced that petroleum reserves in the Tamar field off the Israeli coast are 15 percent larger than previously thought. Together with the Alon A and Alon B fields, potential finds at the Ruth fields and large finds believed to be found at the Leviathan natural-gas site, Israel’s petroleum resources appear to be full of potential and ripe, it seems for the taking.
Yitzhak Tshuva, head of the Delek Group is reported to have declared at a press conference reported in Haaretz announcing the development: “This is a day of celebration for the entire state of Israel, sufficient local energy for 100 years,”
Gideon Tadmor, chief executive of Avner and chairman of Delek Drilling was no less celebratory: “This an important building block in the development of Israel’s energy independence. We and our partners will operate together with the state to realize this potential in order to strengthen Israel’s economy and geo-political standing,” he said.
In the eyes of these oil men and their American partners, their find should be regarded as interests of state and of vital strategic importance to Israel. There assessment involves two issues that are, truly, crucial to Israel’s future. However, the stand taken by Israel’s big oil interests are contrary to Israel’s strategic concerns.
Better control of sewage inflow could make the Alexander River even more attractive.
The Jordan River (which is dying) is not the only waterway in Israel, the PA, and Jordan, that has been in the center of environmental controversy. Virtually all of the region’s streams and rivers have their share of ecological problems, more notably the ones in the western part of Israel, a country whose rivers empty into the Mediterranean Sea. Following my previous article concerning the dire situation of the Lower Jordan I decided to check out another well known coastal stream, Nahal Alexander (the Alexander River), located a few kilometers south of Hadera River.
This stream has become a very popular picnic spot, despite it continuing to be very polluted; most of which comes from West Bank Arab cities and villages. A large West Bank olive oil processing plant is also partially responsible for the streams pollution, notes Moshe Perlmuter, a field ranger for the environmental NGO, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI).
There are no clear solutions to the fight between conservation and capitalism [image via flickr]
Tempers flared out at sea as environmentalists and fishermen sparred over the endangered Bluefish Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea just around World Ocean Day. In the last few days, Greenpeace activists and Maltese fishermen engaged in one violent and one peaceful altercation, resulting in a few freed tuna, an injured activist, several irate fishermen (who lost equipment and fish), and two sunken inflatable boats belonging to Greenpeace.
The fishermen were operating under a legal European Union fishing quota when Greenpeace activists attempting to stay the tide of tuna extinction moved to cut their lines and net cages. The tuna would have been sent to “fat farms” so they could put on weight prior to being sold on the Japanese market. Though harsh, the methods used to protect tuna reflect their dire plight.
The United Arab Emirates’s Shams 1 project will incorporate hundreds of parabolic trough collectors. (Image via Solar Thermal Magazine)
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar clean energy company has awarded a $600 million contract to a European consortium – the Spanish solar company Abengoa and the French oil and gas group Total – to build what it is billing as the world’s biggest single-site solar power plant.
The solar plant, named Shams 1, will be located at Madinat Zayed, about 120 kilometers southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Under the contract, the 100 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) facility is to be ready by the second half of 2012. Masdar will maintain a 60% stake in the project, while each of the European partners will hold a 20% share.
Debra Pascali-Bonaro, a midwife, birthing educator and doula has over 25 years experience helping to deliver babies. Her video, ‘Orgasmic Childbirth’ was five years in the making, and followed several couples on their journey towards experiencing ecstatic childbirths, not necessarily free from pain, but augmented by pleasure and sensuality.
About the film – which can be purchased online by interested viewers in the Middle East – Pascali-Bonaro explained that it explores “the sexual nature of birth and its powerful role in the lives of women who are permitted to experience it fully. People who see this film reexamine everything they thought they knew about the act of giving birth and its life-affirming potential for both parents and baby.”
As a follow up to her groundbreaking video on the topic, Pascali-Bonaro has published a new book, Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth Experience (June 2010).
The book, co-authored by Elizabeth Davis, provides information on the basics of childbirth and takes it one step further. It aims to prepare woman to be advocates in their own ecstatic labor and delivery experience, which medical science now admits in a normal, if not frequent, variable experience.
Baking sourdough bread can be a pleasure, but a bit like owning a pet. Miriam continues the series on baking great sourdough bread and how to maintain your starter.
Earlier in the week, we covered how to make the starter for your sourdough recipe. But your starter needs to be fed. Yeasts need to be supplied with fresh nutrition. The way to feed a sourdough starter is by removing part of it and replacing what you removed with fresh water and flour.
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