The southern West Bank is known for its grapes, which Palestinians grow with little to no water on small plots. Often the vineyards are simple grape trees, without wires to support or encourage the plants to spread out. This month, I wrote a piece for the Jerusalem Report on Odeh Sabarna (left), who runs the […]
Organic food. It may cost more at the shopping till, but it delivers priceless benefits for biodiversity, animal welfare and rural economies, as well as reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Many people also believe, and there is some evidence to back this up, that food fertilised with compost instead of chemicals will be nutritionally superior. […]
As part of its long bid for European Union membership, Turkey has announced that 74 pesticides are off limits because they are poisonous. The Hurriyet Daily News reports that the EU has a list of 135 illegal chemicals, and Turkey is working on the others. This is part of several environmental moves afoot in Turkey, […]
In a previous article dealing with eco tourism, Green Prophet o whet your desire to do some “eco-touring” of the Middle East, where there is a lot to see – both from a positive as well as a negative standpoint. Today we feature 7 ‘must-see’ locations from an eco-tourism point of view. So let’s put […]
(Image from the final episode of Stars of Science: Contestants run to Bassam Jalgha after being announced winner. Courtesy of Porter Novelli) Stars of Science, a Pan-Arab television show focusing on innovate project ideas, was launched by the Qatar Foundation and Education City. The program is a competition across Arab borders intended to locate and […]
Being oil-poor may be more of a blessing than a curse for both Israel and Jordan. A joint Israeli-Jordanian project-based on the production of biofuel from agricultural waste-will take center stage at Israel’s Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition, WATEC this November. Biofuels received a great deal of negative publicity last year after they were […]
Although Smart Grids (electric networks based on renewable energy) are going up in the US and Europe, the World Bank is only now investing in green energy technology with a program in Turkey. At the end of May, the Bank announced it is investing $600 million in developing renewable sources such as biomass, hydro, wind […]
In Constructing a Sense of Place: Architecture and the Zionist Discourse (Ashgate, 2004), architect and planner Haim Yacobi has compiled a fascinating collection of essays on how the Israeli landscape was born. The book begins with the 1934 Levant Fair, for which the flying camel logo (right) was developed to represent the growing Jewish community […]
You heard it here when Jenin got a mall-ish furniture superstore. Now East Jerusalem is also joining the trend. According to Danny Rubinstein at YnetNews, the Nusseibeh family has started work on the A-Dar Mall on Salah-a-Din Street, right outside the Old City in the Sheikh Jarrakh neighborhood (Photo of Salah-a-Din Street from Wiki Images) […]
We told you things are heating up with the solar energy market in Israel. Will the country be a light unto the nations in the Middle East, and practice what it preaches in solar tech innovation, by turning the endless power from the sun into solar energy? The Israeli oil company Paz, which owns a […]
When it rains it pours, when it shines it blazes: the US solar energy company SunEdison has moved into Israel where it is setting up a subsidiary SunEdison Israel Ltd. With the guaranteed and attractive feed-in tariffs offered in Israel, the company will build solar energy projects and make investments in the industry, according to the […]
The Israeli Electric Corporation, otherwise known as Hevrat HaHashmal, has agreed to participate in what are known as feed-in tariffs for electricity supplied by independent private suppliers. It’s part of Israel’s bid to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020. Feed-in tariffs apply to electricity that is supplied by renewable or “clean” sources such […]
Feynan Eco Lodge, one of several eco tourist destinations in Jordan, has been rated by National Geographic as one of the top 50 eco lodges in the world and one of the top 10 eco lodges located in deserts, jungles, mountains, and savannas. Part of the reason that National Geographic considers Feynan to be so […]
Israel Cleantech Ventures and Capricorn Venture Partners announced today that they have invested $6 million in FRX Polymers, the manufacturer of a new, environmentally friendly family of inherently flame retardant plastics. FRX’s products are finding markets as polymeric flame retardant additives and as “stand-alone” inherently flame retardant engineering plastics. FRX Polymers is currently in the […]
It’s the second Siemans-Israel solar news in as many months: the German energy giant Siemens, according to the Israeli business newspaper Globes, is not only interested in acquiring a stake in Solel Solar Systems, as we’d reported earlier, the company is believed to be negotiating a a second solar contract in Israel with Arava Power. The […]