An American environmental activist who shone a piercing light on environmental negligence in Egypt, Mindy Baha el Din died suddenly last week after suffering a brain stroke, leaving behind a husband, two daughters and a large community of grieving eco-warriors. Born and raised in the United States, Mindy first moved to Egypt in 1988 and married […]
Locusts that bred in southern Egypt first swarmed Cairo, causing panic in Israel and Jordan, and now Lebanese farmers are battling the pests as well. Farmers in the north and south of Lebanon reported locust clouds over the weekend and expressed concern over the impact the insects would have on their crops. But the Agriculture Ministry […]
An artist’s impression of the Arctic camel. Illustration by Julius Csotonyi via The Guardian Millions of years ago, the ancestor of modern-day camels once roamed the Arctic, according to scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature. While working in Ellesmere, a cold and unforgiving place that lies within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Dr Natali Rybczynski […]
Making Ecocide a crime and legally punitive could be one way of getting corporations to respect the environment Unlike humans, nature does not have a voice. It cannot voice its concerns for being mistreated, overused and abused and it cannot stop the harm it often undergoes; however, this may change soon. In April 2010, Polly […]
A surge of round-the-world cyclists have emerged in the last few years as touring gear has improved and borders have become more fluid (for certain passport holders.) Two South African men cycled to Mecca, and a pair of American women traveled the Silk Road to support trans-boundary conservation efforts. But these adventures are not without […]
Richard Allenby-Pratt’s popular Abandoned photo series still haunts us. Currently based in Dubai, the professional photographer received numerous accolades for extraordinary compositions that depict wild animals meandering through a deserted Dubai. How surreal, and yet not so far removed from the truth, it is to see rhinos and giraffes searching for food amid a backdrop […]
Taskurgan is an unforgiving place. Located at 10,140 feet in the Pamir mountain range on the borders of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, close to Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, this small autonomous Kashgar Prefecture county in Xinjiang, China is cold, the winters are long, and food is hard to come by. But out of such a place emerged a fascinating […]
Omar Samra was the first Egyptian to summit Mt. Everest in 2007 and now he is hoping to be the first Egyptian man in space! The founder of Wild Guanabana and one of the most recognizable faces in Egypt as a result of extensive media coverage surrounding his mountaineering exploits, Samra is participating in the […]
This is the first time celestial navigation has been seen in insects but the scientists believe it is common.
Just two hour’s drive east of Dubai, the Al Hayl Fort or Palace paints a succinct picture of Emirati life before artificial islands and enormous skyscrapers became “normal.” Located in a wadi among the Hajar mountains, the remarkable earthen compound was built in 1932 by then ruler of Fujairah Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamdan. It’s a […]
It might seem like I haven’t picked up an atlas in a while since Green Prophet is devoted to Middle Eastern issues, but this story about a Brazilian beekeeper and his appropriately-suited helper was just too sweet not to share. After all, donkeys are essential to thousands of residents from Morocco to Yemen, and beekeepers from […]
Everyone older than ten has likely experienced the exquisite agony and transformation of a broken heart. Which means that just about everyone has probably developed their own recipe for healing as well. Some people go on “retail therapy” sprees to sweeten the pain, others crawl up in a tiny ball on their bed and stay […]
While humans inch closer to their eventual demise by burning up the resources upon which they so richly depend, the earth’s “lower” species are making moves to ensure their longevity. US and Israeli researchers published a joint study in the journal Current Biology that unveils how a desert shrub called Ochradenus baccatus outwits the spiny mice […]
Spencer Tunick will return to Israel this September to celebrate the anniversary of last year’s wildly controversial Dead Sea naked photo shoot. Designed to draw attention to the plight of the hyper-saline (and dangerously endangered) lake shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, the art campaign was enormously successful even though it drew widespread […]
This building is located in Niavaran, Tehran – a district in the northern foothills. The climate in this area is completely different than the south and center of Tehran because of the nearby Alborz Mountains. Unfortunately, many old gardens in the area have been destroyed by urbanization projects over the last century. But Mohammed Reza Nikbahkt took a […]