Sun bathing in Sinai is like asking for trouble if not adequately screened from the sun’s UV rays. Beach season is now beginning in Middle East countries sharing beach fronts on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Along with problems like beach littering; and increasing and even record high summer temperatures in the Middle East […]
Few ideas are more absurd to me than this: because people refuse to cut back on beef consumption, catastrophic levels of methane are being released into the atmosphere each year. Even Forbes wrote in a recent report that cutting back on meat is one of the fastest ways we can slash our carbon emissions and […]
What the Middle East will look like with a 9 meter raise. Play God with the online map to see what we’ll lose. When you click around NASA’s online flood maps you can instantly view impacts on the world’s coastal communities. A single meter increase soaks Alexandria and Basra, and rattles the nerves of eastern Saudi […]
Sustainable development in Demmer, Tunisia could be lost forever shows this new documentary film. You cannot be against development, progress, innovation and even education. We count on these things to solve our biggest problems, whether it’s the ecological crisis, malnourishment or peak oil. If you don’t believe in them, you’re a defeatist. But do they […]
Geoffrey Dabelko at the 12th National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment in Washington D.C. A couple of months ago a friend of mine studying at the Monterey Institute of International Studies engaged with a Green Prophet post about the link between water and security. As it turns out, she is studying with adjunct […]
Framing climate-influenced migration as a threat is dangerous and counterproductive is author Gregory White Around the time of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009, there was a sense that climate change was finally transitioning from something which only concerned hippy do-gooders to an issue that affected the entire international community. Everywhere you looked people were talking […]
The last international climate change negotiation (COP17) took place in Durban in 2011 and the outcomes were pretty disappointing given the urgency of the matter in hand. Unsatisfactory outcomes aside, climate change negotiations have been providing momentous opportunities for NGOs, individuals and the private sector to engage and exchange ideas on solutions to climate change mitigation. […]
Climate change is here and it looks like there is no way back. Scientists and policymakers are increasing concerned about extreme weather and climate events. These include extended waves of abnormally hot or cold weather, unseasonal temperatures, changes in precipitation and wind patterns, along with more dramatic occurrences like unprecedented blizzards, cyclones sudden downpours, sudden […]
Scientists warn that we are about to hit a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to curb runaway global warming. Scientists gathered at the Planet Under Pressure Conference in London warn that failure to drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions this decade could push the planet past certain thresholds that would keep climate change […]
This man singlehandedly produces up to 5,500 bottles of delicious red wine each year, despite living in a frequently drought-stricken region Dave Levitan from Onearth, one of our favorite environmental blogs, traveled to Israel to meet with a hardy winemaker in the Negev desert and came away gushing. No, not from all the red wine […]
Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant has been under suspicion for decades, rightly or wrongly. So as not to arouse alarm, the United Arab Emirates’ civil nuclear plan has been taking the opposite approach of complete transparency. The UAE has forgone any plans to enrich or reprocess uranium itself, so as to allay any cause for suspicion or concerns about […]
The people promoting bond sales to fund climate change turn to Islamic investors. Gulf nations may prove to be a prime market for Climate Bonds as they diversify beyond fossil fuels into long-term green energy projects. To spur investment, financial vehicles that support a low-carbon economy are being developed to align with Islamic Sharia law. It’s a simple concept: expand Middle East […]
Dubai is not the first Middle Eastern country you think of when you think climate-friendly. That’s about to change. Dubai will develop a strategy to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as recommendations for ultimately monetising them through a groundbreaking carbon trading scheme, it was announced today. “Our commitment towards a green […]
The most recent satellite image of Iran’s Lake Urmia demonstrates how drastically the lake has shrunk since 1998! Last year an Iranian activists were beaten for protesting government projects that are detrimental to Lake Urmia – the largest landlocked salt lake in the country. Before and after images captured by the Thematic Mapper on NASA’s […]
Sweden’s Hexicon to supply Malta with 10% of its electricity with a platform-mounting floating wind farm Despite the fact that the EU is willing to fund renewable energy in its climate laggard states, using cap & trade revenues from the sale of emission allowances, Malta still gets only 1% of its electricity from renewable energy. […]