Heaping urban trash may be an even more daunting global phenomenon than climate change, the World Bank warned in a recent report. What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management reveals that by 2025, city dwellers could produce as much as 2.2 billion tonnes of solid waste a year, up 70% than the 1.3 billion […]
Venus crossed the sun this morning in the Middle East, giving heaven-gazers a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the hot planet. Venus’ next transit accross the sun will be in the year 2117. Earth’s twin made an appearance as a black dot traversing the sun this morning in the Middle East and Egyptians […]
Conservationists in Egypt are worried about the environmental impact of large-scale solar projects in the desert It seems renewables are taking a little bit of a bashing at the moment. First research emerges that wind turbines may be contributing to a temperature rise in the area, and now environmental campaigners in Egypt are calling for […]
Surprisingly they are inspired by Hassan Fathy: we interview Egypt’s Brotherhood’s Think Tank on Environmental Policy – A Green Prophet Exclusive The Muslim Brotherhood estimates that 70 percent of Egypt’s agriculture might be affected by pollution. And in a while they will probably be in charge. It’s time to ask them how they’ll remediate this. […]
Half as tall as the Burj Dubai, this soaring tower (if realized) could absorb some of Cairo’s crowds. How to deal with Cairo’s crowds is a complex dilemma that IAMZ Design Studio has approached with this soaring Father and Son Skyscraper. Inspired by the relationship between a father and son, the young Egyptian architect has […]
No better place to do a reality check on our environmental vision than Cairo’s Manshiet Nasr neighborhood. Its local inhabitants, the Zabaleen (Arabic for garbage pickers and recyclers) started closing our material cycles thirty years ago, something we even now barely find necessary. They know that what is without value for most, isn’t useless per sé. […]
Karin draws a line between women’s rights and green issues in light of upcoming SlutWalks in Israel. Last April Green Prophet asked: Should the Middle East Have More Sluts? Of course we wanted to attract our reader’s attention, and we did with thousands of readers, hundreds of “Likes” and dozens of comments. Although I am […]
This new eco-resort in the Fayoum Oasis offers tourists and locals respite from Egypt’s ongoing chaos. Without the steady influx of tourists and constant political trouble, Egyptians are wondering when their lives will ever return to normal. But the folks at El Mandara eco-resort in Fayoum promise that visitors to their new facility will experience […]
Egyptians will spend up to $6 a pound for cow brains, which are then deep friend and served in a pita. News that Cairo International Airport authorities seized 420 pounds of frozen cow brains last week has flooded the wires. Smugglers buy the brains for less than $1 a pound in Sudan and sell […]
A film depicting Cairo’s recyclers in garbage city is in the running to receive one of the film world’s most distinguished honors. An independent documentary that depicts the harrowing and honorable life of a family of Coptic Christian trash workers living in Cairo’s garbage city was recently named “Project of the Week” by IndieWire – […]
Egypt’s green environmental party was founded 25 years ago for green and social change – long before the Arab Spring. The Green Party is working to show Egyptians and the Arab world the connection between their issues and the environment. The year 2011 will probably be remembered as the year of the Arab Spring. And […]
Dirty, polluted, and badly managed: Understanding Cairo, The Logic of a City Out of Control goes beyond the usual rhetoric “The Egyptian middle classes and intelligentsia, as well as a sizable slice of the foreign community, love to deplore what Cairo has become. Crowds and congestion, pollution, garbage, chaos, gridlocked traffic, horrendous architecture, and no […]
Sicilian photographer Giusi Cosentino has shared striking images straight from the heart of Tahrir Square. Sicilian photographer Giusi Cosentino and her partner Alex Tricani were commissioned to document life in Cairo in order to boost tourism. Fate pushed us together a couple of weeks ago when our bus to the Siwa oasis near Libya broke down, […]
Many people fear that the Egyptian military is using a lethal new brand of teargas to dispel protestors in downtown Cairo. During the last two weeks in Egypt there existed a menacing energy that I hadn’t experienced before and which felt certain – like a pressure cooker – to explode at any moment. Sadly, as I […]
If you live in a crazy polluted Middle East city, carbon monoxide pollution is the opiate of the masses, according to new study. I dream about living in a car-less city like Vauban. But my love affair with the Middle East keeps me dreaming. Rampant with air pollution, every fall cities like Cairo get covered […]