Egypt, a country where pharaohs once commanded the Nile and cats enjoyed diplomatic immunity, is now wrestling with modern environmental challenges that no ancient scribe could have predicted. The nation faces a complex tangle of issues: rapid urbanization, shrinking green spaces, plastic waste that seems to multiply like desert mirages, and the slow but steady warming of the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Add to that the annual drama of the Nile — too much water, too little water, or water carrying things that nobody wants to swim with — and you have a country navigating a delicate ecological tightrope.
But Egypt isn’t just struggling; it’s also innovating. And some of its most creative solutions come not from ministries but from civil society. Nature Conservation Egypt is one of the country’s leading environmental NGOs, championing bird protection, wetland conservation, and the survival of migratory species that treat Egypt like an airport lounge on their way between continents. Their fieldwork in places like Lake Qarun and the Red Sea wetlands has quietly shaped policy for years.
Then there’s HEPCA — the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association — a powerhouse NGO guarding the Red Sea’s coral reefs from overfishing, careless tourism, and the occasional boat captain who mistakes a reef for a parking spot. HEPCA’s mooring buoy system has become a regional model, proving that even popular tourist hubs can protect biodiversity when the rules are clear and the buoys are bright blue.
New sustainability movements are popping up too: youth-led recycling initiatives in Cairo, clean-energy startups in Alexandria, gardens and hydroponics farms on rooftops and Nile cleanup campaigns that feel half environmental crusade, half street festival. Egypt’s ambitious Benban Solar Park, one of the largest in the world, shows what national-scale renewable energy can look like when the sun cooperates — and in Egypt, it usually does. Almost every day is a beach day.
BenBan Solar Park from above. The Benban Solar Park has a total installed capacity of 1.65 gigawatts (GW). It’s one of the largest solar installations in the world and a major pillar of Egypt’s renewable-energy strategy.
Eco-challenges remain big, but the momentum is growing. In true Egyptian style, progress arrives with a mix of determination, improvisation, and just enough humor to survive the heat.
Plastic bottles (in Hebrew and Arabic) wash up on the shore of the Red Sea in Sinai, Egypt. In this region water and pollution knows no boundaries. How can Israel be part of the change? Is Israel a water hog, unjustly siphoning aquifers from its neighbours? Does it take more than its share? Or does […]
Every week, observant Jewish people read a section of the Torah. This week, our in resident Eco Rabbi looks at Parshat Miketz. Okay, this week’s parashah is a no-brainer. Seriously, how can an Eco-Rabbi NOT talk about Parshat Miketz? The parashah which contains the solution for dealing with famine… Parshat Miketz opens with Pharaoh, King […]
I decided to take some minutes away from the hectic running back and forth to attend sessions in the UN Conference of Climate Change (COP15), taking place in the Danish capital Copenhagen, to grab some lunch. I stood in a long line and 20 minutes later had a tray of horribly tasting food (but filling) […]
Today opens the two-week round of climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark. From this corner of the world the conference is a meeting of giants – literally, the giant polluters like the U.S. and China, which make it seem like there is little the small countries of the Middle East can do to stop global […]
Smog in Cairo is a year-round issue, but it is particularly bad during the autumn and winter months when weather patterns trap pollutants, creating a period known as the "black cloud". The air quality is often poor, with a high concentration of fine particulate matter (\(PM_{2.5}\)), and varies daily and seasonally due to industrial and domestic emissions, waste burning, and dust.
[youtube width=”560″ height=”410″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkmDZpNKnms&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]Cairo is a city with 18 million people. Most do not have a way to remove their trash. Garbage Dreams, a new film (see above), explores Zabbaleen and how they recycle garbage in Cairo. A buy-out of two waste-management firms could make the waste management business run more effectively, but impact the trade […]
The eastern squat toilet is the world’s perfect eco-toilet. Come and look inside. Some people think they’re primitive, but I love them. The hole-in-the-floor Middle East squat toilets can be found in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt –– and likely in other Middle East countries I’ve yet to visit. They’re used in China too. Not […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY[/youtube] We’ve already written about how Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) has joined forces with 350.org, an international campaign that hopes to inspire the world to create a sense of urgency among world leaders for changing policies that would effect climate change. They have been organizing a climate change protest to take place […]
Plant pathologist Norman Borlaug, 95, died this Saturday, raising questions about the legacy of industrial food in the Third World. In 1970, Borlaug received a Nobel Peace Prize for averting famine through bringing fertilizers, pesticides and new plant strains to countries like India, Mexico and Pakistan. But environmentalists argue that his plant engineering only delayed […]
The Egyptian government has apparently performed an astonishing U-turn on banning controversial Genetically Modified crops from the country. According to reports in the press earlier this month (hat tip: Treehugger and Reuters), authorities declared that Egypt had officially become the Middle East’s first GM-free nation. On 12 August, Egyptian Agriculture Minister, Amin Abaza, told the […]
If until now you worried about carbon offsets for your international flights, you may want to add baby crocodiles to the list of concerns. On Friday, a foot-long croc was found scurrying down the aisles of an EgyptAir flight from Abu Dhabi to Cairo. The Emirati paper The National reports that EgyptAir has claimed the […]
A working relationship between the Middle East and Israel is possible and one innovative Israeli suit manufacturer Bagir has taken the initiative to extend its hands across the Egyptian border resulting in a union that is respectful, friendly and profitable. The outreach has been successfully achieved by Bagir Ltd, an Israeli company, by way of […]
Jabal Moussa, Jordan So we all know that the Middle East is biospherically fascinating, but at the ongoing meeting of the UN International Coordinating Council of the Man and Biosphere last Tuesday, UNESCO took notice as well, adding more Middle Eastern sites to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In fact, for the first time, […]
The massive swine flu cull in Egypt has impacted the city’s garbage collectors, the Zabaleen. Normally they fed organic waste to the pigs. Now what? Not long ago Green Prophet reported the Egyptian government’s plan to cull the country’s 300,000 pigs as panic of the swine influenza spread across the world. Now the effects of […]
Seventy-nine countries will send delegates to Sharem el Sheikh, Sinai next month to inaugurate the first session of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The international project will spearhead a global effort to develop renewable energy projects all over the world. The new agency was formulated in January, 2009, at a conference in Bonn, Germany, […]