How has Oil Performed During the COVID-19 Crisis?
Energy is the big strand in a web of U.S.-Saudi economic ties that has grown in the six years since an American-led army rolled back Iraqi aggression in the Persian Gulf.
oil
How microbes find an oil spill
When containing a massive disaster like an oil spill, small microbes play a big role. Arezoo Ardekani, a Purdue University associate professor of mechanical engineering, has published research that describes the complex hydrodynamics of microorganisms at liquid-liquid and gas-liquid interfaces, showing that microbes may flock to areas where surfactant has been applied. This is important […]
Saudi Arabia’s water depends on Japan desalination tech
Toray Industries of Japan tells Green prophet that its new technology called ROMEMBRA – a reverse osmosis (RO) tech will be working for Saudi Arabia to create even more desalinated water. Saudi Arabia is looking for desalination technology to help provide drinking water for its growing population. Remember we wrote about this plan to update […]
How the UAE can push eco-friendly energy solutions forward
The pressure for environmentally friendly energy solutions on the globe is now more than ever. With an increased demand for energy supply comes an equally high demand for sustainability and environmental responsibility. In 2013 the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report that said global energy use will grow by 56% between 2010 […]
The surprising economic history of salt
Oil prices have fallen considerably over the past two years. But this isn’t the first time the price of a core society resource has dropped so drastically. The economic history of salt is an interesting lesson for our time. Middle Eastern countries spend millions of dollars and consume more than one hundred million kilowatt-hours of […]
Oil fracking protestors in Algeria rise up against their regime, Total and Shell
Big demonstrations have spread from the Sahara to Algiers, after Algerian authorities announced the drilling of the first shale gas well in the country. With world’s oil prices plummeting people are starting to wonder: why frack? Can the environmental cost outweigh the benefits of energy security now that prices are falling and renewables within reach. […]
Israeli oil spill catastrophe seeps into desert sands and rivers (PHOTOS)
Israel’s worst environmental accident, possibly worse than the devastating Carmel fires of 2010, happened yesterday morning. An estimated 600,000 gallons of crude oil (3 million liters) is causing severe damage to the southern port city area of Eilat, endangering also those close to the Eilat border, media outlets confirm. The damage was caused by a […]
Gulf gluttony and global hunger: How long can the party go on?
WASHINGTON — Inhabitants of the oil-exporting sheikhdoms and emirates of the Persian Gulf wolf down an average 3,700 calories a day —leading to the highest rates of obesity on Earth — even as at least 805 million people, one-ninth of the world’s population, go hungry. Such huge disparities will ultimately lead to widespread unrest, warns […]
IRENA says: it’s not too late to turn to renewables
IRENA, the global renewable energy consortia with its headquarters in Abu Dhabi believes that though the clock of climate change is ticking, we still have time to avert global catastrophes. Speeding up the adoption of renewable energy technologies is the most feasible route to reduce carbon emissions and avoid catastrophic climate change, says a new […]
Environmental Justice Atlas maps out ecological conflicts
For the first time in history we have a real time, comprehensive global map of ecological conflicts thanks to the Atlas of Environmental Justice.
Climate change “worst” is yet to come, UN report warns today
The United Nations has issued a five years in the making report on climate change, and our future. It does not look bright. Green Prophet obtained today’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and the future looks bleak if we do not take action today.
Experts at US-Arab Policy Conference debate Mideast’s future as global energy supplier
How relevant will OPEC be 10 years from now? Does the rapid expansion of new technologies like fracking threaten the future of eco-friendly energy alternatives such as wind and solar energy?
Israeli Electric Car Drivers Pay the Piper Today?
Today is D-Day for electric car drivers in condos and apartments in Israel and who use the Better Place charging systems. The Israel Electric Company announced last week that yesterday was the cutoff date.
Big Oil’s Saudi Aramco Builds LEED Certified Homes in Riyadh
The irony here is clear: the first international LEED certified housing complex is built by an oil research facility in Saudi Arabia.
Isis Nile Cruise Ship Spills Diesel Into Egypt’s River, Contaminating Lake
Egypt is not a country that is fond of reporting oil spills – whether they occur on the Red Sea, in the Suez Canal or the Nile. But it has managed to start clean up a worrying diesel spill into the Nile River, a spill which has leaked onto the shores of Lake Nasser, China.org is reporting. […]
Futek’s Solar Cell Plants Shrink Egypt’s Fossil Fuel Addiction
Futek is about to break ground on a new solar cell manufacturing plant in Egypt, which is expected to cost roughly USD 3 million to construct. This is the company’s third such plant in the solar-rich north African country, which combined with the others costs a total of USD 7.35 million to run. President of […]
Ethical Oil, Gas and Mining? EITI is the LEED of Fossil Fuels
Roughly half of the world’s population lives in resource-rich countries, and yet the same number survives on less than $2.50 per day. How can this be? Partly, the answer lies with irresponsible resource extraction. Giant corporations move in to communities, suck up their oil, gas, or minerals, make shifty deals with corrupt governments, and leave […]
Golan Heights Slated for Oil and Gas Drilling…and Environmental Damage?
With everything else, this Hamat gader croc may have to put up with oil well drilling as well The Golan Heights, that disputed piece of real estate that Israel captured from Syria in 1967 is returning to world attention due to the possibility that there are oil and natural gas reserves in its southern sector. […]
Israel to Drill for Oil in Underwater Nature Reserve Illuminates Schizophrenic Government Policies
An absurd situation where one ministry approves the marine reserve and and another gives a license for oil drilling. Nothing new for Israel. If Greenpeace has won the battle against Zara and its use of toxic chemicals, this new potential environmental threat should have the Greenpeace Mediterranean headquarters on full alert: the Israeli government eager […]
Oil-Rich UAE Leads Emissions Accountability
Abu Dhabi has the world’s 5th highest proven oil reserve and the 6th highest reserve of natural gas. This is a hydrocarbon-based economy that – at first glance – should have no incentive to reduce their carbon footprint. And yet the United Arab Emirates as a whole seems to be taking climate change a lot […]
Iran Gags on Pollution and Sanctions
Iran is gagging – on sanctions and deadly pollution. Finally, after months of denial, the country’s oil minister Rostam Qasemi acknowledged that petroleum sales are down by 40 percent after western sanctions that prohibit certain international transactions have stunted trade. In February, all energy, shipping and shipbuilding enterprises will be blacklisted as well, the New […]
Catching CO2 the Saudi Way?
Saudi Arabia has a lofty goal of storing CO2 by increasing oil recovery and reducing waste. Carbon capture utilization has become one of the most innovative means of recycling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the globe, but has largely remained an untouched endeavor in the Middle East. Until now. Saudi Arabia’s Aramco research and […]
GlassPoint Uses Solar Mirrors to Loosen Dirty Oil in Oman
California-based GlassPoint Solar has installed an unconventional concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Oman. Comprised of rows of six meter tall steel mirrors encased in glass boxes that look and in some ways act like greenhouses, this 7MW pilot project uses clean technology to extract dirty fossil fuels. Commissioned by Petroleum Development Oman, GlassPoint has […]
Walking the Middle Ground as Oil Feeds Our Energy Needs
I had a great meeting yesterday with culture advisors to an American Embassy yesterday in a Middle East location. I won’t say where as the meeting was off the record, but the two were very much following environmental issues in the Middle East. One asked me as the editor of Green Prophet how us “environmentalists” […]
USA Fracking Will Top Saudi Oil Production in Five Years
The United States is poised to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020 thanks to increased output of new exploration technologies such as fracking. But what does this mean for politics? The World Energy Outlook 2012 released by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that America will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as […]