In an oil wealthy state like Saudi Arabia luxury has no limits. And the latest is LEED certified.

A new Red Sea resort in Saudi Arabia called Shebara Island is already taking pre-bookings for its glamorous pod hotels, a cool SAR 9,000 a night, which equals about $2,400 USD. No big deal if you’ve berthed your mega-yacht at its shores.

Powered by the sun, the resort features 73 pods that rival the best of luxury from the Maldives seeing a downturn in tourism for its racist policies on religious freedom.

Saudi Arabia is hoping to become booming hotspot for business and tourism and has started creating 15-minute cities like Neom.

Shebaya, the latest from dozens of new projects announced, is LEED-Platinum property which is built to “minimise its environmental and literal environmental footprint by cantilevering the accommodation spaces above the coral reefs with only a few square meters of ground impact at the base of the supporting column.

“The result is an aerial accommodation ‘pod’ that almost seems to defy gravity and suspends the guest directly above and within the beauty of an untouched marine eco-system; an observation platform for guests to witness the fish, birds and turtles that thrive in the area,” says a handout.

The entire project is powered by a centralized solar farm and fresh water is supplied from a solar powered desalination plant. Recycling of waste material takes place on the island minimizing the need to bring or remove materials from the site.

The design language of the resort compliments the uniqueness of the site. The approach to the façade design has been to minimize visual impact, employing a highly reflective stainless-steel skin polished to a mirror finish. These reflective orbs float, almost imperceptible, reflecting the colors and surface patterns of the ocean, the intense colors of the sky as they change throughout the day.

This approach serves to lessen the visual impact of the architecture on the surrounding environment while also greatly improv the building’s energy performance with a near 100% reflection of the solar gain at the mirror surface. These heavily insulated spaces can be effectively cooled with minimal energy losses.

The interior space of the project provides spacious room for the guests, with detailing, and finishes inspired by the interiors of luxury yachts. The room offers panoramic views to the sea with sliding doors that open to a deck, a seating area and an infinity pool with uninterrupted views of the sea and horizon beyond.

The project is designed by the UAE based K

Other Red Sea attractions in the region include our favorite place: low-key eco tourism in Sinai. There is also a great list of eco-tourism sites in the Holy Land. A typical trip in the future might look like this:

1. A cruise down the Nile. The pyramids. A visit to Siwa Oasis in Egypt.
2. Head over to St. Catherines Monastery, hike God’s Mountain, and spend a few nights diving in Sinai.
3. Taxi over to Eilat and head to Tel Aviv, Tiberias, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea.
4. Head across the Allenby Bridge to Jordan and check out Madaba, then down to Petra.
5. From Petra head to Saudi Arabia to one of its dozens of new Red Sea attractions.

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The Maldives, in the news recently for its refusal to accept Israeli Jews as tourists to its series of sinking islands southwest of India, has suspended its environment minister on accusations of black magic.

According to local news sources, the Maldives Minister Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem was suspended and arrested along with her two siblings on charges of performing witchcraft and black magic on the Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu.

Shamnaz, who was a state minister at the Ministry of Environment, was arrested on June 23.

Maldives, a Muslim majority nation, does not allow non-Muslims to become citizens. It is a great destination for halal-observant Muslims, but may be intolerant to “others” ways of life. Wearing bikinis on a public beach is forbidden and tourists are only allowed to wear swimwear in tourist-only beaches, making one wonder what is an Apartheid state these days, when the term is thrown around so loosely against democratic nations that it’s now cringe.

We could not confirm what kinds of witch-craftery Minister Fathimath has performed. But the nation is 100% intolerant to the rich history of the island which included Buddhism and Hindu traditions of the past. Believing in any other tradition may have you imprisoned for years. 

Islam, also has a place for its own version of sorcery in the name of jinns, or genies, as it is known in children’s books of today. We have a rich archive on jinns on Green Prophet. The original home of the jinns is believed to be in Afghanistan. Learn here why jinns are not even close to being the Disney characters portrayed. Here is an article on the connection between magic and witchcraft in Islam.

Some of the practices we are seeing today in some Muslim nations reminds us of the Inquisitions, forced conversions and “burn the witch” problems of Europe hundreds of years ago.

In environment news from the past, the sinking nation of islands doesn’t have a great track record for its environmental stewardship. This floating hotel for instance sends the wrong message about climate change.

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The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (likened to USAID and the UK and German’s foreign aid) announced last week that it will provide renewable energy loans to 8 projects around the world. The projects will go to building resilience, mainly in island communities which will be able to repay the loans after the renewable energy projects go online. The Abu Dhabi Fund is partnered with IRENA, a global entity that assesses renewable energy opportunities and expectations from countries to stop climate change.  

Among the recipients are the island nations of Antigua, Cuba and Barbuda, but also the Maldives and Nepal. The full list is below. Like any nation seeking allies it is commendable that the fund went outside of the Middle East region, even though so much is needed here. 

Funding sustainable development

Investing in renewable energy in developing countries especially is important – it helps them secure low-cost capital to increase energy access, improve livelihoods and advance sustainable development on the ground. Once the facilities are starting jobs in all sectors will be affected but no doubt a range of renewable energy jobs will be offered at these 8 new projects. 

“Today’s announcement re-affirms the UAE’s and ADFD’s leading efforts to combat the effects of climate change by stimulating robust development across the global renewable energy sector,” said Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD.

“The Fund’s commitment to this priority has enhanced long-term growth prospects and yielded socio-economic benefits for millions of lives in line with the national objectives of the beneficiary countries,” he added. 

Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA, said: “Overcoming investment needs for energy transformation infrastructure is one of the most notable barriers to the achievement of national goals.

“Therefore, the provision of capital to support the adoption of renewable energy is key to low-carbon sustainable economic development and plays a central role in bringing about positive social outcomes.”

The 8 renewable projects in solar, wind and biogas

In Antigua and Barbuda, an 8 MW hybrid power plant (solar and wind) will receive an ADFD investment of US$15 million. The project is expected to benefit 5,500 households and allows for large reductions in the import of fossil fuels.

In Burkina Faso, an ADFD loan of US$5.5 million will contribute to the construction of a 3 MW solar PV power plant in the country. The project is expected to extend electricity to approximately 40,000 people in rural areas.

In Chad, the ADFD loan of US$15 million will contribute to the construction of a six MW solar power plant. The project is expected to benefit more than 215,000 people in six cities.

In Cuba, a project will receive an ADFD loan of US$20 million to install 8.5 MW of solar PV capacity, supported with 2 MW of energy storage, in Isla de la Juventud. The project will benefit 32,300 people, aims to support the energy sector, decrease fossil fuel consumption, reduce the level of carbon emissions and secure energy consumption from renewable and sustainable sources.

In the Maldives, a waste-to-energy plant project in the city of Addu will receive an ADFD loan of US$14 million. The 1.5 MW renewable energy project will utilise waste in generating electricity and reduce dependence on imported fuel benefitting 35,000 people.

In Nepal, a project will receive an ADFD loan of US$10 million to support a total of 20 biogas digesters which will serve as demonstration units to 270 municipalities. The digesters will convert organic waste into useful energy and offset the use of fossil fuels by replacing it with renewable natural gas.

In Saint Lucia, the 10 MW Troumassee solar power station, battery storage and setting up solar energy systems in the country, will receive an ADFD loan of US$15 million. The venture will support the whole population, economic development, advance the implementation of Saint Lucia’s national energy policy and reduce diesel fuel consumption.

In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, an ADFD loan of US$10 million will support the installation of a 7 MW solar PV project and benefit 2,444 households. The renewable energy venture aims to reduce carbon emissions, fossil fuel consumption and operating costs.

Since the first cycle selection of projects in 2014, ADFD has successfully funded 32 renewable energy projects across the world, covering up to 50 per cent of the total project costs.

They will bring 200 MW of renewable energy capacity online and empower over seven million people with access to electricity, significantly improving their livelihoods. Spanning Asia, Africa, Latin America and Small Island Developing States, the projects encompass a broad spectrum of renewable energy sources – wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass – and technologies.

Since its inception in 1971, ADFD has financed hundreds of development projects in the renewable energy sector around the world worth US$1.187 billion (AED4.4 billion). Driving the objectives of the United Nations’ SDGs, these projects have contributed to the production of more than 2,500 MW of renewable energy in 60 countries.

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What can Islam do for the environment? That’s a question I have been asking myself for some years now and, in all honestly, I am nowhere near answering it fully. I have definitely enjoyed looking into the green ethics of Islam in a bid to help Muslims worldwide take up the environmentally-friendly path, but I still have lots of questions.

Like how can we get Muslims to embrace the greener side of Islam?
How do we translate belief into action? How do green Muslims, who are coming at the climate change issue from a different perspective, link up with more mainstream and non-faith green organisations?

Embracing geo-engineering as ‘Plan B’ is not only dangerous as the outcomes of planetary-scale experiments are highly uncertain; it is undemocratic, irresponsible and ignores the fact that we have a perfectly good ‘Plan A’ – to cut our emissions.

We just need better ways of convincing people to do that. One area that is commonly overlooked when exploring ways to encourage greater climate awareness and action is faith and religion. Islam, in particularly, which is perceived as the faith of oil-rich sheikhs is sidelined with sparse academic research highlighting the insights Islam has to offer an environmentally vulnerable planet.

The primary source of all Islamic thought and practice, the Holy Qur’an, is full of exhalation of nature, its beauty and the need to protect it. Nature is portrayed as God’s glory, a gift of sustenance and humanity is divinely ordained responsibilities to care for the natural world and keep the harmony and balance placed within it.[1]

In the Qur’an there are “ample instructions as well as warnings to the faithful not to abuse their power in dealing with the environment. Distortion of the natural order and ill-treatment of God’s creatures, whatever they are, are considered as sins that lead to punishment.”[2] Wastefulness is discouraged and excessive consumption or greed is actively prohibited. Indeed, the Prophet Muhammed warned his followers to not waste precious resources such as water and encouraged them to protect land and improve its fertility.

With this in mind, it is not hard to make the link between Islamic ethics and the need to curb our excessive use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels which are poisoning the air and land. As such, Islam has “the capability of helping to solve one of the greatest problems of our time, namely that of ‘the environment’.

Islam need not be a hindrance, but could be a great help, in educating the faithful about good environmental conduct.”[3] Cairo, the Islamic capital with one thousand minarets, is one of the most polluted cities in the world and Bangladesh and the Maldives – which are both Muslim nations – will be the worst affected countries when climate change hits due to flooding and droughts. [4] Indeed, environmental problems plague many Muslims countries whether it be deforestation in Indonesia, desertification and over-development in the Middle East or drought in North Africa.

These nations and many others have everything to gain by tackling climate change and environmental pollution by embracing the green ethics of Islam. Today, the Muslim faith commands influence (to varying degrees) of 18% of the world’s population and covers a very large area where some of the greatest environmental problems exist. [5] As such, highlighting the green tenants of the Islamic faith is hugely beneficial to tackling climate change and may become increasing useful with the predicted doubling of the Muslim population by 2030 to 26.4%.[6]

If Muslims across the world garner greater awareness of their Islamic duties to the environment, it also perceivable that they would be able to pressure their governments into making the right ‘green’ decisions when it comes to water, food, recycling and energy use. It would also mean that rich Gulf Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain wouldn’t be as obstructive at important climate summits if their populations could rally for the environment based on Islamic tenants. [7]

[1]   Murad M. Islamic Environmental Stewardship: Nature and Science in the Light of Islamic Philosophy in Union Seminary Quarterly Review, (2011) Vol. 63: pg147-8
[2]   Kula, E. (March 2001) Islam and environmental conservation. Environmental Conservation: Vol. 28 (Issue 1), p4.
[3] Kula, E. (March 2001) Islam and environmental conservation. Environmental Conservation: Vol. 28 (Issue 1), p7.
[4] N. Ammar, Islam and Deep Ecology, in D. Landis and R. Gottlieb, Eds., Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Grounds (State University of New York Press, 2001), p193.
[5] Ibid, p2.
[6] Jones, H. (January 27 2011) 2.2 Billion: World’s Muslim Population Doubles. TIME. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/27/2-2-billion-worlds-muslim-population-doubles/
[7] Sanchez, R. (November 11 2011) US ‘blocking’ climate change fund ahead of Durban conference. The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8914511/US-blocking-climate-change-fund-ahead-of-Durban-conference.html

Image of sitting bedouin and donkey from Shutterstock.com

For more on Islam and climate change:

Green Iftar Guide – Breaking the Ramadan Fast Sustainably

How Islam Could Help Fight Water Scarcity

Islam’s Environmentally Friendly Architecture – Where Did It Go?

The post What Can Islam Do For The Environment? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Waterstudio.NL is world-renowned for its forward-thinking approach to architecture. While so many architects and developers (especially in our region) are still stuck on growing mammoth skyscrapers on land, this Dutch firm has carved a niche in floating architecture in preparation of climate change and rising seas. Their projects are numerous and range from small house boats to whole islands.

But we question whether it is fair to bill one of their recent projects, the Greenstar Hotel underway in the Maldives, as a beacon of light, the shining star of sustainable development? More vulnerable to rising seas than virtually any other nation, the Maldivian government has signed an agreement with Dutch Docklands to develop 80 square million feet of floating buildings, golf courses, hotels, and other floating buildings. But is this the right approach?

Star-shaped floating hotel

Shaped as a star and covered in stepped layers of green in order to “fit with the natural surroundings,” the Greenstar Hotel will have 800 rooms and a conference center that can accommodate as many as 2,000 people. It’s being pitched as the number one destination for discussions about climate change, as the Maldives is considered a leader on the subject.

But how many floating structures can we really sustain?

We think of the oceans as a vast unexplored territory; after all, 70% of the earth’s surface is comprised of water. So it seems obvious to spill out into this space when land becomes uninhabitable or buried under rising oceans.

And the Maldives may have no other choice. Just six feet above sea level, this group of islands in the Indian Ocean – located roughly 300 miles east of India – will be reclaimed by the great ocean with just a one meter rise in water levels.

Fix land-based behavior first

It’s hard to find conclusive data or to predict exactly how fast levels will rise. Although scientists work around the clock to monitor climate change and consistently send our urgent warnings to government to scale back on carbon emissions, the truth is, we just don’t know, although conservative estimates show that we can expect a one meter rise by 2050.

Back in 2004, National Geographic reported that “The complete melting of Greenland would raise sea levels by 7 meters (23 feet). But even a partial melting would cause a one-meter (three-foot) rise. Such a rise would have a devastating impact on low-lying island countries, such as the Indian Ocean’s Maldives, which would be entirely submerged.”

So a certain amount of planning ahead is understandable as we are hard-wired to survive. But before we start to think about colonizing the oceans, further displacing whales, dolphins and the other creatures whose lives we have made miserable with our unending waste streams, sonars, fishing trawlers and other manmade hazards, shouldn’t we be doing more to fix our land-based behavior first?

More on Floating Structures and Global Warming:

It’s Game Over for Global Warming Unless we Act this Decade

Grim Greenhouse Gas Milestone Dims Hope for Less Climate Change

World’s Most Beautiful Mosque in Malaysia is Vulnerable to Rising Seas

The post Maldives Floating Greenstar Hotel Sends the Wrong Message About Climate Change appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Maldives is a small archipelago nation that is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to the risk of rising sea levels. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that a rise in sea levels of up to 2 feet would swamp the majority of the Maldives’ low-lying islands.

Yet the Maldives relies heavily on tourism for its survival which can be problematic when the industry booms and puts manta rays at risk. It also means that it is the target of tourism development ideas such as a floating ‘green’ golf course island which comes with some rather dubious eco credentials.

The President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed is a world famous advocate for active measures against climate change and even held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the risk of rising sea levels to his nation. Nasheed also unveiled plans back in 2009 to help the Maldives become carbon-neutral within a decade. However, the nation seems to be taking a step in the wrong direction by considering outlandish plans to build a floating golf island which developers Dutch Docklands insist is a ‘scarless development.’

According to the reports from CNN, Paul van de Camp, chief executive officer of floating architecture specialists Dutch Docklands and developer of the project told Nasheed that he could transform the Maldives from a nation of climate refugees into ‘climate innovators’. He added: “We have a way of building and sustaining this project that is environmentally friendly, too. This is going to be an exclusively green development in a marine-protected area.”

They also added, and this is the clincher, that to avoid environmental risks they wouldn’t be building the Island near the Maldives but most likely in the Middle East or India. Right.

The project will cost an estimated $500 million and include 27 holes with three interlinked islands as well as villas and a conservation centre. The floating golf island will also be powered by solar energy in line with the Maldives’s pledge to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2020.

Nature Conservancy’s senior marine biologists Mark Spalding has raised concerns over pollution risks related with construction, pesticides being used on the island and then ending up in the sea as well as the use of desalination to provide the island with water. In another case, environmentalists criticized Israel’s plans to build an artificial island as ‘complete madness’ with ecological implications such as beach erosion. I think that once again, we need to be wary of a development project of this scale that promises to be ‘scarless’ and have no environmental impact- especially when its all for golf.

As one commentator at UPI.com points out, “If you are going to shade acres of ecologically rich seafloor, not to mention displace acres of oxygen producing phytoplantkon (sic), shouldn’t it be for something a little more important than golf?”

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

::UPI

Images via Dutch Docklands

For more on green tourism see:
When Tourism and Nature Collide- Protected Land Under Threat In Egypt
Middle East Destination Tops Ethical Tourism Sales
A Whirlwind Guide to Palestinian Guesthouses

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