Syrian celebrities took to the streets of Damascus to promote green living. Releasing balloons, were they drawing attention to the environment or to themselves? A group of Syrian celebrities gathered in Damascus to try to promote environmentally friendly lifestyles recently, personally urging individuals to change their habits. Unfortunately, however, it looks like this was a case […]
Hotter summers, intense irrigation and threats of losing their Nile, Egyptians are under quota for water compared to other Arab nations. They take to the streets. Looking at Google Earth (above) truly shows how Egypt is a fertile crescent of the region. But in the face of losing water from the Nile, tens of thousands […]
“For me green living is part and parcel of being a good Muslim- it’s a spiritual requirement.” Kristiane Backer has undergone various transformations in her life but none as big as the move from a rock and roll lifestyle as MTV reporter, interviewing the Rolling Stones and Lenny Kravitz, to an Eco-Muslimah promoting the green […]
The renovated Khan of the White Donkey in Safed, Israel was the last stop on the Silk Road between Acre and Damascus. Now it’s a center for ecological activity, courses, and concerts. We pushed open the brightly-painted wooden door and walked into a cool stone hall. The roof was a series of arches, in the […]
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. […]
Greenpeace activists from Israel today have boarded the 290-meter long coal ship Orient Venus on the high seas, and have since been arrested, Greenpeace alerts. Joanna Jones, Mor Levy and Jense Loewe arrived in inflatable boats and climbed up the side of the huge vessel. They proceeded to build a camp on the ship’s mast […]
Put down your matkot and take a tour of Greenpeace’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, this week. Beachgoers on Tel Aviv and Haifa’s shores will be seeing something a little different over the next days, in the form of Greenpeace International’s famous flagship – the Rainbow Warrior. The most famous of all of Greenpeace’s eco-activist ships, […]
Jonathan Gilben, co-founder of GoEco, talks about his passion for eco-tourism. (Jonathan pictured at the center of this photograph and in the video clip below.) A few weeks ago we wrote about GoEco, an organization founded by Jonathan Gilben and Jonathan Tal in 2005 that has pioneered bringing the concept of volunteer eco-tourism to Israel. […]
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 […]
Get your green drinks on in Abu Dhabi tonight with the Eco-Chicks and other eco folks. If you happen to be passing through the One to One Hotel in Abu Dhabi tomorrow night around 6:30pm, you may stumble across an Abu Dhabi Eco-Chick organized Green Drinks event. Green Drinks is a loosely organized (yet widely […]
The largest Muslim-led festival in the US, Takin’ It to the Streets, will feature arts, music, activities, and how to be green. The Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) is currently putting together a free festival in Chicago that will take place on June 19th. Expected to be the largest Muslim-led festival in the US, Takin’ […]
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 […]
Eco-Activist Beit Midrash offers an alternative (and ecological) alternative to the traditional yeshiva experience. [image via: shorashimroots] The Eco-Activist Beit Midrash (EABM) based in Jerusalem has been devoted to a Jewish approach to environmentalism for a long time. In their own words, they are trying to “bring Torah down to earth.” And now they are […]
The USA allows them, and the EU has banned them, but the controversy over genetically modified foods is far from over, globally or in the Middle East. While Israel prohibits the import of genetically modified seeds, according to a 2009 article in Haaretz, even green-savvy consumers may be eating their fair share of Frankenfoods. (Genetically […]
Netanyahu ‘wins’ a Black Globe Award as a statement that he should improve his environmental reform plan, and other organizations win positive Green Globes. Earth Hour wasn’t the only way that Israel celebrated Earth Day this past Thursday – it was also the day that Life and Environment warded its annual Green and Black Globe […]
Israel holds Earth Hour a little later than the rest of the world, but just in time for Earth Day. Stubborn as always, Israel insists on doing things a little differently. The official international date for Earth Day, the worldwide energy saving campaign, was on March 27th and many other Middle Eastern countries – such […]
Greenpeace activists won’t give Nestle-Osem a break. They say that the Indonesian rainforests and orangutans are more important than Kit Kat bars. Greenpeace activists and protesters stormed the central production factory of Nestle-Osem in Shoham, Israel today as part of a global campaign urging Nestle to stop sourcing its palm oil from Sinarmas. Sinarmas, unfortunately, […]
Tel Aviv University students join Paul McCartney’s and Yoko Ono’s international effort to raise awareness about the impact of meat on our health and environment. [Photo credit: Erez Katsav] A couple of weeks ago, Tel Aviv University students joined others at Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, and many other universities worldwide in a campaign – Meat Free […]
Burj towers over Dubai. The environmentally-wasteful building will turn its lights off on Earth Hour. (Image via csmonitor.com) The Green Prophet has questioned the environmental sustainability of the tallest building in the world, but the Burj Khalifa in Dubai will at least do its part to observe Earth Hour on March 27 by switching off […]
For the next week, your friends’ profile pictures might look a little different on Facebook. A little greener. Don’t worry, they’re not sick – they’re just concerned. They’ve joined Greenpeace’s campaign to get Facebook to use 100% renewable energy and you should too. Starting tomorrow, Facebook protesters will be changing their profiles to icons such […]
(Photo Credit: Jim Davidson) Jewish leaders were among 50 religious leaders who prayed and visited Capitol Hill together during the week of February 22 to tell US legislators that action on climate change is urgently needed. Religious faith and concern for the environment should really go hand in hand. If you believe in God and […]
Though their lofty ideals of higher education are admirable, universities are often nevertheless subject to frequent budget cuts and funding shortages. This can force university administrations to take drastic measures and reduce important educational resources… or, in the case of Haifa University, it can lead the administration to save money by going green. During the […]
Concerts are a good way to bring environmentalism to the streets and the general public. Over the past few years, we’ve seen this tactic used to promote the green cause a few times in the Middle East, like the used-falafel-oil-powered Earth Day concerts in Tel Aviv and the “Don’t Panic, It’s Organic” concert. The practice […]
Last night, Israel’s NGO delegation to the Copenhagen climate talks kicked off a week of activism with a very special Channukah candle-lighting. Delegates gathered in City Hall Square of the city to publicly light the Channukah menorah, but with a climate-flavored twist. Instead of singing the traditional words to age-old Channukah songs, the activists changed […]
No red carpets for us environment-lovers, stupid! The typical Hollywood movie premiere is a scenario that we’re all pretty familiar with: celebrities pull up to the red carpet in large, gas-guzzling cars (what would happen if Brad Pitt and George Clooney carpooled in a Smart Car for a change?), pose for the photographers, and then […]