Cloud seeding in Beijing, where silver iodide is fired with canons into the clouds to induce rain. (Photo from Howstuffworks.com) As the fourth driest country in the world, Jordan is desperate for a water solution. This week, the Jordan Times anounced that Amman asked Thailand for help in cloud seeding to open the skies. It’s […]
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 […]
Rima Malallah, a young woman living and creating in Amman, Jordan, is bringing her colorful handmade art to the Ammanian masses. Different from other galleries in Amman, Malallah offers a wide variety of products (including original paintings, prints, postcards, journals, cards, jewelry, handpainted ties, hand-knit scarves, bottle vases, key chains and coasters) and encourages interaction […]
Modern agriculture practices in Israel have caused population shifts in animal species. Is a border line simply a virtual line appearing on the map? If so, why is it that Israeli rodents are more cautious than Jordanian rodents? Why is it that there are more ant lions in Israel than in Jordan? And how come […]
The Middle East as a region does not need any help fueling conflicts. Unfortunately, it does that pretty well on its own. Which is why the future threat of water scarcity in the region is not only an environmental concern, but a scary political scenario as well. Water scarcity in a geographic area notorious for […]
Advertising itself as Israel’s first food-focused conference, “Mazon Le-Machshava” or food for thought, opens in the Tel Aviv port next Thursday, November 19. In addition to a Top Chef-style cookdown to produce the tastiest meal with the lowest carbon footprint, the conference also promises conversations about farming, energy and water. It taps into a growing trend […]
The news that Jordan “strikes it rich” by recent discoveries of high-grade uranium ore only five feet below the surface may come as a mixed blessing for this energy-strapped country of 6 million inhabitants. In a recent article by the Jerusalem Post, the amount of uranium deposits said to be available for mining, and of […]
Ausra’s first solar energy installation in America. The company is now heading to Jordan in the Middle East. Jordan likes the look of nuclear energy: a report this week says the Middle East country has unearthed a large uranium reserve. Some say that nuclear energy is a renewable energy source, but in this Green Prophet’s […]
Putting picnic trash in the can or taking it home with you for disposal is a type of education a lot of people in Middle Eastern countries are lacking. I’ve seen families at city parks and in the forests leave behind mountains of trash after their BBQs, shaking out the picnic cloth to leave behind […]
[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 […]
In what was formerly thought to be a three way cooperation between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, the Kingdom of Jordan has decided to unilaterally undertake the first stage of construction of a canal between the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, and the Dead Sea, with which Jordan has the entire eastern […]
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 […]
According to the blog 360East, Amman is about to adopt a Bus Rapit Transit system and make plans for installing light rail, two important steps to break Amman’s 30-year love affair with the private car. Having lived in Amman in summer 2006, I can attest that buses are a mess. They are very cheap but […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.350.org%2Fmission&feature=player_embedded#t=97[/youtube] Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is an Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian environmental organization that has been doing a lot of good since 1994. The organization focuses on promoting cooperative efforts in order to solve communal environmental problems in the Middle East and improve relations between the people in the region. Now they […]
The Gulf of Aqaba (also known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat) is an important Middle Eastern body of water. The 99 mile long extension of the Red Sea is surrounded by four countries – Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia – and houses coral reefs and hundreds of fish and invertebrate species. Since […]