“Active Matters” symposium will discuss how desert living can become more eco-friendly. Environmentalists agree that dense urban living is more eco-friendly (just ask Tel Aviv city architect Yoav David), but desert life is a little if-ier. Living in a sprawling desert, far from water and other resources, could be taxing on the environment since it […]
Abu Dhabi will no longer be sharing their precious groundwater. Dubai’s water scarce neighbor Abu Dhabi recently announced that it has banned all groundwater exports, Gulf News reports. Established yesterday at a Ministerial Service Council meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ban will keep […]
If you are of the 41 percent that lives in drylands, your future depends on supporting plant biodiversity. An international team of researchers including Dr. Bertrand Boeken of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suggest in a new study that plant biodiversity preservation is crucial to buffer negative […]
We have listed 6 big and small solar-powered projects in the MENA region that have inspired us in the hopes that it will do the same for you. Big or small, solar-powered projects in the Middle East and North Africa are transforming our region. Not only do they hold promise of slowly improving air quality […]
Villagers gather around a kiosk in Afto, Ethiopia to charge their cell phones using solar power and to fill up their jerry cans with UV clean water Out in the middle of nowhere Ethiopia, fresh water and electricity are hard to come by. It is partly for this reason that the country’s Prime Minister Meles […]
Ajmal spends his weekends scouting for animals and life in the desert. Here is his trip to Fossil Rock. I’ve always known that much of the Arabian peninsular mountains, especially those in the United Arab Emirates and Oman were at one point in time, millions of years ago, under the ocean. The Tethys sea to […]
After years of planning, a Bedouin eco-farm in the Negev will finally get under way next week. For years the Sustainability Laboratories (a New York-based organization) and the mayor of Hura in the Negev, Dr. Muhammad El-Nabari, have been planning an eco-farm for the Bedouin community. The farm, Project Wadi Attir, would aim to create […]
Despite the mainstream news depicting nothing but political drama and violence, there are all kinds of great green projects ongoing in the Middle East. Take a look at 7 that might surprise you. Most people who think about clean tech developments in the Arab World immediately think of Masdar City, since it is probably one […]
Arava Power in Israel is fighting so Bedouin get a fair share of feed-in tariffs in Israel. Backed by Siemens Arava stands to benefit too. “Sixty percent of the country happens to be desert, and 30 percent of the [desert] inhabitants happen to be Bedouin,” says Yosef Abramowitz, president of Arava Power Company in Israel. […]
Nabil Hirbawy from Siwa, Egypt lost an eye to his craft, but that hasn’t dampened his passion for carving salt rock into beautiful works of art! Nabil Hirbawy was polishing off a small salt sculpture when a small piece of it struck him in the eye, leaving him partially blind – not only physically, but […]
These women in the Siwa oasis near Libya are trained in the traditional craft of weaving Kleem (rugs). Tafline takes a rare inside look at their work. When our host Yehia secured permission from the Egyptian army manager for us to take photos at the carpet factory in Siwa, my traveling companions and I lost […]
Renewable Energy professionals from Europe and Egypt (and Green Prophet!) took a field trip to Egypt’s first solar-thermal plant 90km south of Cairo! Brimming with the kind of energy that infuses a school field trip, roughly 80 professionals from the renewable energy industry packed into two large buses outside the Semiramis International Hotel in Cairo […]
This incredible solar-powered artificial leaf that creates ice and water in Egypt’s Sahara desert is well on its way to becoming a reality! We have learned time and again what a mistake it is to see the desert as a giant wasteland, a fact that artist Ap Verheggen intends to drive home with the incredible SunGlacier […]
Tired of pollution and noise? Seek refuge and organic food at the Desert Lodge in Egypt’s western desert. The stunning Desert Lodge en route to Luxor has everything the weary green-minded traveler looks for: friendly faces who will welcome you with a glass of delicious hibiscus juice, sustainably-built accommodations modeled after an ancient village, fresh […]
Pottery has been passed on for several generations in el-Qasr, an ancient village 12 hours south of Cairo. In the medieval village el-Qasr, set at the foot of a limestone mountain in Egypt’s western desert, pottery is taken very seriously. In their book Egypt, Civilization of the Sands, Pauline and Philippe de Flers quote the […]
The Abu Dhabi Farmers Services Center is promoting technology that can potentially set Abu Dhabi farmers free from water constraints. Abu Dhabi farmers may be able to grow food with water pulled out of dense air. With just four days back up supply of water, and desalination projects usurping considerable energy, Abu Dhabi is facing […]
UAE high school students have a chance to flex their eco-blogging muscles for Green Prophet’s writing competition. Green Prophet is launching a blogging competition for green-minded UAE students. In order to encourage students to think about environmental issues in the Emirates and the role that they play in improving them, we are inviting students from across […]
The success of greening Al Ain’s Liwa International school could have great environmental ramifications for other schools in the region. This could be a function of media coverage, of fossil fuel wealth, or of a high percentage of expatriates living there, but the UAE appears to be leading the Arab world’s environmental revolution. Dubai largesse […]
Will the EU exploit the MENA region’s solar resource for mutual or singular gain? The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) was formed in 2003 to find energy and clean water solutions for the Middle East, North Africa (known collectively as MENA), and the European Union (EU). A series of reports demonstrates that it is feasible […]
What’s weirder that eating slimy fish eggs? Farming them in Abu Dhabi’s desert. Because we have had a multiple-decade infatuation with eating slimy fish eggs, not to mention our obsession with oil and resultant pollution of their habitat, more than three quarters of sturgeon species are critically endangered. As a result, the global supply of […]
This pipe was slated for use on Libya’s ambitious Man Made River project. The Omar Mukhtar Reservoir in Libya’s southern desert is the second largest in the world, and an integral component of the $20 billion Great Man-Made River project (GMMR). Begun in 1984, the mammoth pipeline designed to transport water from the south to […]
Thanks to a recent decision by Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister, Tourists heading for Ramon Crater won’t have to compete with unsightly transmission lines. As we push to exploit the Negev desert’s ubiquitous solar energy, we inevitably have to deal with evacuating said energy. Typically that involves unsightly transmission infrastructure: towers, lines, transformers, and more. Israel […]
Who knew? Now you can get sushi and organic food delivered to your home, from Masdar City. But there is a caveat. When we think of Masdar City, we think of solar power and funky space-buildings. We think of desert and withering heat. And perhaps we dream that one day this city will be completed […]
As solar energy becomes a more widespread reality and lessons are uncovered, conferences allow stakeholders to get the learned scoop. Given that Morocco has the highest concentration of solar power in the MENA region, it is appropriate that the country should host this year’s third annual MENASOL conference on May 4-5. These two days comprise […]
MENA has enough sun to make everyone smile, so why aren’t we using it? Until 2008, not one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries produced a single kilowatt of renewable energy, so reliant are they on oil and natural gas. And yet three of the six are on Al Masah Capital’s list of the […]