Police violently repressed activists protesting the nearly irreversible damage done to the Middle East’s largest salt lake over the weekend. This image was taken of a protest earlier this year. Like a chain of dominos, citizen protests are erupting everywhere: following the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions catalyzed in part by skyrocketing food prices, political protests […]
The Shouf Cedar Reserve is working tirelessly to protect Lebanon’s cedar forests from climate change. Fifteen years ago, civil war posed the greatest threat to Lebanon’s majestic cedar forests, but today climate change is their most prominent foe. The largest of Lebanon’s natural reserves and home to one quarter of the nation’s almost mythological cedar […]
We speak to the Zeina Aboul Hosn, an environmental filmmaker based in the Middle East about sharks, working on the Age of Stupid and the challenges she faces in her work Shortlisted for the Amnesty International 2008 Media Award for journalists covering human rights, Zeina Aboul Hosn is clearly passionate about the world around her […]
About 2/3 the size of most horses, the Caspian was used to draw ancient chariots into battle. Louise Firouz loved her Caspians, a small horse that was thought to have gone extinct 1,300 years ago. After marrying into an aristocratic family, the American Cornell graduate took up her love of horses anew by establishing a […]
New parks will give relief to Tel Aviv’s crowded beaches, and save the environment! Israel’s announcement that it will create a new network of land and sea parks in order to protect its coastal escarpment is a boon for beach-lovers too. A harbinger of what might happen should the Gaza artificial island project take root, […]
Palestinian youth learn about water issues at Al-Auja Eco-Centre Green Prophet has featured news about the Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME) Eco-Centre at Al-Auja, a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley, on a number of occasions. Green Prophet writer Rachel Bergstein has reported on the challenges the inhabitants of Al-Auja face because the […]
You wouldn’t want to be responsible for keeping the lights on in buildings like these! In an attempt to reign in Dubai’s profligate fossil energy use, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has sharply raised rates for business customers who have failed to reduce their electricity consumption since 2008, Utilities-ME is reporting. Starting in January […]
These women began their epic 10,000 mile biking for transboundary conservation journey in Istanbul. Following their own footsteps down an entirely different path, best friends Kate Harris and Melissa Yule left Istanbul to continue a year-long tour of transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) along the Silk Road. With concern that these outlaying ecosystems are especially vulnerable […]
Jordanian environmentalists have launched a new campaign against planned construction in a nature reserve. Jordanian environmentalists have launched a new campaign against plans to build a military academy at Bergish, in the Ajloun Forest nature reserve in north-western Jordan. The plans will, says campaigners from Halt Ajloun Deforestation, destroy an estimated 2,200 trees – some […]
Care for wild edibles as if you’d grown them yourself, and they’ll come back year after year. The Jewish springtime Tu B’Shvat festival is just around the corner on Wednesday night, the 19th of this month. The flowering of the almond trees on that day also signals new green growth on Israel’s dry soil. It’s […]
Solar power is looking cheaper than the traditional fossil energy that is now used in Enhanced Oil Recovery. By the end of next month, California-based Glasspoint expects to have finalized a sale in the Gulf of the use of solar CSP to make steam for injecting into oil fields, to help in extracting oil, using […]
The carbon-neutral Masdar City seems to have been a concept for forever, it seems. In my mind, it has long been filed under “noble theory.” So I was surprised to get an email from Foster+Partners today. The Architects responsible for the Masdar Institute matter-of-factly announced the opening of the first building in the visionary city-to-be […]
Persian Leopards are hurtling towards extinction. While creating promotional mugs and Ts can raise awareness about biodiversity in general, The Iranian Cheetah Society takes on the leopard for measurable results. High vehicle fatality rates and rubbish in the national parks is not all that threatens Iran. That country stands to lose the remaining populations of […]
Get naked at the Dead Sea – for the environment! Spencer Tunick, famous for his mass nude photographs of people set against unique backgrounds and landscapes, has chosen the Dead Sea to shoot his eco-sexy art. That means hundreds to thousands of Israelis will need to volunteer to strip to their birthday suits, all for […]
Littering and lack of moderation violates important Islamic tenants, according to prominent scholars With businesses in the UAE slowly beginning to take the environment message seriously, it seems that scholars and imams are now doing the same. During a Ramadan seminar titled ‘Islam and Environment’ organised by the Emirates Environmental Group, the renowned Islamic scholar […]