The Ahmad Family in Egypt shows us what they eat. As popular uprisings continue to spread in Middle East, rising food costs for stable crops like rice and wheat cannot be ignored as underlying factors in the political unrest. In a region where Islam and anti-Westernism are usually blamed for driving populist politics, the impact […]
Green software from Israel, Solergy’s Israeli CEO, Egyptian gas in Israel, and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. The water crisis in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan will reach a point where they are likely to solve it together in the future, predicted an Indian think tank in a report released […]
With an extra 15% added to electricity and water bills, Dubai’s residents are bound to cut back their consumption. And that is a good thing! Unlike many other Gulf countries, Dubai is not blessed (or cursed, according to some) with fountains of fossil fuels. As such, the Emirate must import the power that provides customers […]
OECD lays down the law: Israeli gas stations still causing pollution, despite efforts to improve. Above: seaside gas station in Tel Aviv. Petroleum and the refined products made from it –– gasoline and diesel fuel –– are not the only main polluters to our environment. Gas stations, including those sparkling new ones being erected in […]
Mr. Amin claims that government subsidies given to the fossil fuel industry impedes serious growth of the renewable sector. On Sunday, Israel made a public NIS2.2 billion (US$0.6 billion) commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That announcement came just days after Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild bought shares in Genie Oil & Gas Inc., […]
Saudi Aramco claims to have an 80-yr steady supply of oil or more, while a German thinktank predicts that “peak oil” is imminent. Despite Bill McKibben’s pleas to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere to 350 parts per million, or face serious consequences, and despite the myriad innovations worldwide aimed at shrinking our […]
Israel needs to move away from nationalist oil rhetoric and pursue renewable energy projects instead I was astounded to happen on the full-page advertisement on the back of the business section in the October 10, 2010 issue of Maariv. “Israeli Gas or Arab Gas: What Do You Prefer?” read the central heading. The Arabic […]
Israel’s offshore oil resource are larger than previously thought, pitting the state against oil tycoons defying demands for a larger public share of oil revenues. In the context of fossil fuel-induced climate change, does the development of petroleum resources have any justification at all? Last week, a consortium including the American energy corporation Noble Energy […]
Can environmental awareness campaigns sponsored by major corporate polluters still get the right message across? [image via: alyssakai] Eighty-eight students from 20 different governmental and private schools in Abu Dhabi were honored as winners of the country’s ninth Annual Environmental Competition last week. The competition, which was organized by the Abu Dhabi Education Council and […]
Iran Khodro, a Peugeot partner for producing its line of 405 and 206D sedans, announced the production of what it claims is the world’s most powerful natural gas engine at 150 hp. The engine runs on compressed natural gas (CNG), and is supposed to comply with the EURO 4 emission standards. It will first be installed in the Samand […]
Use of plants of various kinds to produce biofuels is a topic of ever-increasing importance in the world as a means to combat an energy crisis and to deal with increasing concern over atmospheric pollution from the use of fossil fuels. Scientists the world over are involved in advanced research aimed at discovering and developing […]
Green Design – From Theory to Practice (see preview post here), a major international architectural seminar took place this week here in Jerusalem, bringing together leading experts from the worlds of architecture, design, and integrated studies. Despite the recent war in the south, all but one of the international practitioners came, and by doing so, […]
This past Friday we saw the conclusion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. This two-week long conference brought together representatives from 189 countries for talks to lay the groundwork for Copenhagen in 2009, where the convention signatories have agreed to finalize a global treaty for the post-2012 period (2012 is when […]
The Kingdom of Jordan may be about to finalize a mega-deal with Shell Oil for the extraction of oil shale on 22,000 square meters of land–almost one quarter of the country. Some 40 billion tons of shale oil are believed to exist in the central and southern regions. Natural Resources Authority (NRA) Director Maher Hijazin […]
Since Hamas took control of Gaza in the summer of 2007, Israeli citizens have been battered with rocket attacks in Sderote, and more recently Ashkelon. Some media outlets call Israel’s interference with fuel transfer across to Gaza “a seige” but for Israelis it is just a matter of survival. Looking beyond politics and focusing on […]