It can get windy over there in Egypt. Now, Egypt plans on making renewable energy 20% of its national energy goals.
The Egyptian government has announced plans to generate 1,000 megawatts of wind power this year. Speaking at the energy forum for the Middle East and North Africa 2010, Egypt’s Electricity Minister Hassan Younis said that the country is ready to increase its capabilities in alternative energy projects by 2027. He said the planned projects are estimated to cost the government around $110 billion.
According to the minister, the government and electricity sector is adopting a “scientific approach to face the challenge of a growing power demand.” He added that his ministry is looking at diversifying the energy sector to promote renewable energy projects such as wind power and solar power.
More cities banning the sale of pets in stores, in effort to curb puppy mills and encourage adoption from shelters.
As city shelters are buckling under the pressure of countless unwanted pets, and with many US and Canadian pet stores selling pets originating in inhumane puppy mills, more and more cities are enacting laws to ban the sale of cats, dogs and other companion animals.
In 2006, Albuquerque, N.M banned the retail sale of dogs and cats. More recently, South Lake Tahoe and West Hollywood, have also banned pet sales. Other cities in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico and Richmond in Canada are considering similar bans. We hope this becomes a trend in the Middle East, where animal awareness is much lower (see our past post on the abuse of circus animals in Lebanon).
Food forests, a permaculture orchard, agroforestry, edible forests. Whatever you call them, these ancient systems for growing food are surging in popularity, can buffer us from extreme climate events and help “preppers” stay resilient against the end of days.
This book is unusual. Firstly, by virtue of covering the topic of forest gardening at all, but also unusual in another respect.
Many gardening books either concentrate on being packed with practical How-To information, or on offering glossy fantasies for gardeners. In Creating a Forest Garden Martin Crawford has expertly covered both bases. There are lots of mouth-watering pictures and great ideas to fire the inspiration as well as detailed, knowledgeable advice on how to achieve the reality.
He begins by describing what he means by the concept of a ‘forest garden’, namely “a garden modelled on the structure of young natural woodland, utilising plants of direct and indirect benefit to people – often edible plants. It may contain large trees, small trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals and root crops, all planted in such a way as to maximise positive interactions and minimise negative interactions, with fertility maintained largely or wholly by the plants themselves.”
Hence, some of the principles underlying this book are allied to those of permaculture, although Crawford also includes annuals and biennials and short-lived climbers within his plantings.
He explains how a forest garden can be low maintenance, highly efficient for food production and even contribute to ‘food security’. If successfully planned, with the soil covered most of the time, there should be little weeding required. A forest garden can be diverse, sustainable, resilient to climate extremes and also beautiful, but it’s certainly not quick-fix makeover gardening.
This book is definitely about gardening and not simply food production agriculture, but it does concentrate on plants which are both useful and edible. Nor are the possibilities limited to those with large areas of land. A forest garden can be a small back garden and the book highlights which subset of plants would be most suitable for this.
Crawford established his own forest garden fifteen years ago in the South West of the United Kingdom. Due to the mild climate of that region of the country, and somewhat international approach of the author, he is by no means only writing about traditional English woodland plants. He discusses the aesthetics, philosophy and practicalities of native and non-native planting and comes down in favour of a distinctly pragmatic approach.
Many of the plants described within this book, such as mulberry, almond, myrtle, grape vine and strawberry tree would not be out of place in the Middle East.
The luscious plant directories contained within the book give information about hardiness of plants and their sun and shade preferences and tolerances, which is a useful distinction to make. He also writes about water requirements and irrigation, although perhaps not in the detail required by a reader in the Middle East wishing to establish a forest garden from scratch. (we’ve written recently about using forests as carbon sinks – that post is here.)
Somewhat counter-intuitively, Crawford explains that if you want a forest garden it is easier to start with a field rather than a forest. Converting existing woodland will require extensive thinning and replanting. He describes the processes and cycles required to plant your own trees and begin to establish the layers of planting beneath this, with an upper canopy of trees, a middle layer of shrubs and lower, perennial ground cover, to create something between a natural woodland and an orchard garden in character.
He also addresses how prevailing levels of light affect planting. For example, the depth of shade beneath tree cover in a Middle Eastern forest garden will be less than for the same density of planting in a UK garden.
This wealth of knowledge on how to create a forest garden from scratch leaves little space for describing gardening interventions in existing woodland.
This was one of the few aspects of the book which disappointed me, since forest gardening principles might offer exciting possibilities for gardeners wishing to productively cultivate tree-covered land without first clearing it. However, this is a small criticism, because there are many useful tips which could be adapted by someone gardening in established woodland. For instance, Crawford gives advice on the optimum design of clearings, and on which plants will require additional nutrients or inter-planting with nitrogen-fixing plants.
His calculations on the quantities of different substances which can be used to fertilize different plantings even include the use of human urine.
This book covers everything from mulching methods and grafting to wind protection and raising your own trees from seed.
Creating a Forest Garden is both an invaluable reference book and a fascinating coffee table volume. If you are seriously considering the creation or maintenance of a forest garden then you would do well to have this book on your shelves. Even if you are only looking for novel ground cover suggestions in shaded areas or approaches to inter-planting beneath trees, then this book offers bountiful food for thought.
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Reviewer Pauline Masurel is a gardener and writer who lives in the United Kingdom, near Bristol. She is a regular reviewer of fiction for The Short Review website and has reviewed books for Amateur Gardening magazine. Her own short stories have been published in anthologies, broadcast on BBC radio and featured online.
She was a runner up in the 2010 Chapter One International Short Story competition and is a member of the storytelling group Heads & Tales. More about her own writing can be found on her website www.unfurling.net. Top image via Adventure.
Today, laptop users are normally tethered to an electrical outlet as batteries only last a few hours. Dr. Amos Sharoni hopes to change the efficiency of processors so they last longer.
He works at Bar Ilan Univeristy, a school that’s established a name for itself in battery technology (meet Doron Auerbach), and the University’s young researcher Dr. Amos Sharoni is hoping to add to that body of work by extending the battery-life of everyday mobile devices. His research could lead to the development of energy-efficient computers and appliances where the same batteries could last 10 times longer, and the processors could run 10 times faster.
Think about it: The 21st century boasts state-of-the-art inventions like laptops and iPods that we can carry with us and use for business or pleasure wherever we roam, and yet when truly mobile and battery-operated, most can only last up to four hours before running out of juice. It’s so frustrating.
Driving to Venice from Trieste? Your car will power the electronic signs along the highway.(Image courtesy Lee Coursey via flickr)
Israel-based Innowattech, which develops technology to convert mechanical energy from vehicular or rail traffic into electricity, has landed its first commercial contract: Italian infrastructure and civil engineering contractor Impregilo SpA has selected Innowattech as its exclusive energy provider for lighting road signs on the Venice-Trieste highway in Italy.
Innowattech demonstrated its technology last year on a 10-kilometer stretch of road near Haifa, where its R&D center is located on the campus of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
The Better Brick?Although kinks need to be worked out, applying microbiological principles to design could revolutionize building materials. This researcher says she’s found a way to “grow” bricks from sand and urine.
Finally! Suzanne LaBarre of Metropolitanmag.com brings us a design worth writing home about. In the same tradition as Hassan Fathy and architects of this living building in Jerusalem, 32-year-old Ginger Dosier has grown her own bricks.
After 111 failed experiments, the Assistant Architecture Professor from the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates discovered that a winning combination of sand, common bacteria, calcium chloride and urea (which has putrefied for an optimum amount of time) creates a baby brick that is as strong as clay and marble.
What will Israel do if the Nile Delta becomes submerged from climate change? Brainstorming at the Climate Change Mitigation Policy Workshop today at Ben-Gurion University.(Image courtesy of Ophir Shoham)
In his opening remarks at the Climate Change Mitigation Policy Workshop at Ben-Gurion University today, Prof. Alon Tal, one of Israel’s most revered environmentalists, referred to the 20 or so people seated around the conference table as a “dream team” for environmental policy in Israel. Indeed, the workshop featured an all-star lineup of Israeli experts from academia, government, NGOs and the private sector.
The initial reference point for the workshop was the McKinsey report commissioned by the Ministry of Environmental Protection last year, entitled “Greenhouse Gas Abatement Potential in Israel.” Tal said the idea of convening this workshop came to him after realizing that the Israeli environmental community had yet to formulate a concerted response to this report.
Does The First Arabian Construction Week Signal a Greener Middle Eastern Building Policy? [image via flickr]
We have brought disturbing news from Dubai this week: a smuggled baby crocodile died and hyenas and baboons were confiscated from a private home. So it gives us pleasure to be able to provide our readers with a tidbit of hope. The Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC) will host a “focus day” tomorrow, May 26th, at the Green Building Middle East Summit. Just one of several activities taking place during the Arabian Construction Week at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), EGBC’s focus day aims to dispel the notion that building green breaks the bank.
Miriam reports on what looks like a frozen fish scandal in Israel, and the government reacts.
What are STTPs. Are they good or bad for you and your fish? China’s using them to plump up frozen fish, and the local distributors and stores are benefitting from selling you extra frozen water, not fish. This was captured on my post on chemically-treated frozen fish imported from China, which stirred up some heat in Israel’s English-speaking community. People are expressing their disgust over being cheated of fish and treated to phosphates. Following comments on a popular food list, a spokesperson from the Israeli Ministry of Health’s office responded to the suspicions that these phosphates might be causing us harm. Read the letter below. What do you think?
TaKaDu’s software solution can help a city identify and home in on leaks so they can be plugged.
You’d think that a country like the US, that can send ultra sophisticated rockets into space, would have no problem with a low-tech issue like plugging leaks in city waterways. And yet, despite water delivery oversight by municipal departments and mega-companies, the solutions are low-tech as well. As a result, in some cities leaks and dripping pipes can account for 50 percent of all water loss. According to the World Bank, drips and leaks around the world amount to about $15 billion annually.
With enormous amounts of energy needed to purify water, allowing all those drops to drip away is akin to flushing cold hard cash down the toilet. Now a market-ready, easy to add-on software solution developed by an Israeli IT entrepreneur can help a city’s waterworks identify and home in on leaks so they can be plugged.
Nestle coffee products banned in Saudi Arabia for “glass shard scare”
Nestle has the dubious honor of being one of the most boycotted companies on the planet. Glass in some jars of instant coffee led to a recent Saudi Arabian ban on many of the company’s products.
Nestle’s aggressive and deceptive marketing of artificial baby milk in developing countries was a major impetus to the implementation of the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing Breast-Milk Subsitutes in 1981. But as recently as a few months ago, Nestle raised ire on parenting blogs when it invited “mommy-bloggers” to a conference at their corporate headquarters to help promote its products. My own family has avoided buying Nestle and Osem products for many years.
Now Saudi Arabia has joined the fray. According to Arabian Business, consumers found shards of glass in jars of instant coffee.
The warning, released on Saturday, urged people not to use 100 gram jars of Alta Rica, Alta Rica Decaff, Cap Colombie, Suraya and Espresso as they could have been damaged during shipment.
Nestle, the makers of Nescafe, recalled the affected coffee brands as a precautionary measure on Thursday, Arab News reports.
“The quality and safety of our products is a non-negotiable priority for our company. We sincerely apologise to our consumers and customers for any inconvenience due to the recall,” the company said in a statement made in Malaysia.
A new alternative plant growth method for biofuel, Israeli streams, drinking water and more. Image by Or Hiltch.
During the week of May 16, 2010, Pythagoras Solar continued to attract media attention for its new transparent photovoltaic glass unit that can be used as windows or skylights while doubling as solar panels. Israel dedicated the third of five large sea-water purification plants that will eventually provide two-thirds of Israel’s drinking water and Israeli scientists have found a way to alter plant growth that can benefit biofuel production in the future. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.
Qatar Wants World Cup Action, but the Environmental Price May be Too High.
This relatively obscure Middle Eastern country, slightly smaller than Connecticut, is putting itself on the map. Oil and gas revenue, according to the CIA factbook, comprises 50% of the nation’s GDP, but Qatar is diversifying its portfolio. As part of its National Vision for 2030 to enhance human, social, economic, and environmental development, the country has instituted a series of high-profile building projects including Urjuan and Energy City. The most recent and potentially most ambitious project to date is the bid to host the World Cup in 2022.
This solar rooftop in Saudi Arabia, shown here during construction, is now complete and connected to the grid.(Image via Flickr)
The world’s largest oil producer is now generating electricity from the sun. Saudi Arabia’s National Solar Systems (NSS) and Conergy, a German-based solar consortium, last week announced the completion of a solar park on the rooftop of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
“For the first time, clean power is flowing into the national grid. This is a historical event for us in Saudi Arabia,” explained Abdulhadi Al-Mureeh, the managing director of NSS.
Poor Harry: At least he won’t wind up being a hand bag
We’ve written about animal abuse cases in the Middle East before, including an entire shipment of animals for a performing circus in Beirut Lebanon. But perhaps one of the strangest cases of rare animals being smuggled into places is a recent one dealing with a baby Nile crocodile named Harry, that had been smuggled into Dubai, sold to a Gulf News undercover reporter; and then spent its last days in a Dubai zoo, that tried to save its life.
It can get windy over there in Egypt. Now, Egypt plans on making renewable energy 20% of its national energy goals.
Today, laptop users are normally tethered to an electrical outlet as batteries only last a few hours. Dr. Amos Sharoni hopes to change the efficiency of processors so they last longer. 
The Better Brick? Although kinks need to be worked out, applying microbiological principles to design could revolutionize building materials. This researcher says she’s found a way to “grow” bricks from sand and urine. 
Miriam reports on what looks like a frozen fish scandal in Israel, and the government reacts. 
