An update on the latest climate negotiations in Bonn as well as Middle Eastern countries which made the headlines during the talks Believe it or not, the latest climate negotiations at Bonn – which discussed the future of the Kyoto Protocol which ends in 2012 as well financing adaptation – have come and gone without […]
BrightSource solar thermal illustration: Better than using the sun to soften oil BrightSource Energy, the California based solar thermal energy company whose technology as innovated in Israel, and whose solar “star” was even touted by US President Barack Obama, is now in financial hot water again as its joint oil recovery project with giant energy […]
NATO’s “steel fish” may not be works of art like this, but they have a very important goal: to catch oil spills. Pollution issues in the Mediterranean Sea have reached a point where the future of this historic body of water will be in serious doubt without environmental protection. A new project called “steel fish” […]
The Elah Valley, which IEI hopes to use as testing grounds for oil shale extraction. The annual Israeli “Green Globe” award ceremony, hosted by the environmental umbrella organization Life and Environment, took place last Thursday where recipients included Minister of the Environment Gilad Arden. That award ceremony is not all pats-on-the-back and positive recognition, however. […]
Garbage dumps roll into the sea? Rola suggests ways for energy intensive Lebanon to help ease its waste and energy problems. As Lebanon enters another waste crisis in the cities of Sidon and Tyre, with reportedly thousands of tons of waste piled up on the streets, the country finds itself once again looking for an […]
Israeli Solar energy company BrightSource is the child, but the real father of solar thermal technology. SEC filings show BrightSource Energy Inc has raised $122.5 million in its fifth round of financing, according to Israel’s Globes.The company says it raised the capital in shares and warrants, as part of a planned $125 million offering. BrightSource […]
Would Gaddafi risk an environmental disaster by sabotaging oil pipelines to the Mediterranean to regain his control over Libya? According to an article in Time Magazine, sources close to Gaddafi have warned that the situation in Libya will escalate into further chaos as the eccentric leader has ordered security services to sabotage oil facilities. This […]
Petrol and electricity are considered birth-rights, even God-sent in the Arab world. How can this reality compete with the use of renewables? Grid parity, the point when the cost of power generated from renewable energy resources become equal or cheaper than conventional power costs, is around the corner for many countries. In the Arab world […]
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 […]
How governments respond to water woes will determine the future stability of the Middle East. It’s impossible to point to any one issue and claim it as the final explanation for the protests unnerving leaders in the Middle East. Weeks ago one Tunisian man set himself on fire when he was told he couldn’t sell […]
Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian working in their Abu Dhabi Studied Impact Design studio. Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian have made the United Arab Emirates their home, for which we are very grateful. Their teachings, their design studio Studied Impact, and their public initiatives such as the internationally-acclaimed Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) have coincided […]
Abu Dhabi plans to best the US with a bigger, greener line of zero-emission buses. Abu Dhabi never ceases to amaze us with their growing emissions reduction initiatives. A couple of their most recent developments include the sewage-fed forest and solar-powered recycling bins. While the emirate occasionally produces environmental hazards such as the bejeweled Christmas […]
MENA has enough sun to make everyone smile, so why aren’t we using it? Until 2008, not one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries produced a single kilowatt of renewable energy, so reliant are they on oil and natural gas. And yet three of the six are on Al Masah Capital’s list of the […]
A Ritzy venue for Bahrain’s sustainability conference planned for January 27th and 28th. Because Bahrain is so small, the island state is almost easy to ignore. Except that it is a financial hub for the Persian Gulf States, and therefore exerts a certain amount of influence. Hence, a sustainability conference sponsored almost exclusively by companies […]
Until recently, much of the attention regarding amplified energy use has been directed towards China and India, but new data from GE indicates the Middle East is experiencing greater energy demands than any other nation. Why is this?
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 […]
Responding to David de Rothschild’s concerns, IEI attempts to convince Lord Jacob Rothschild that oil shale is good for Israel. Read all about in a letter Green Prophet obtained. Following our much publicized open letter to David de Rothschild, who is in the running to become National Geographic Adventurer of 2010, Green Prophet was interviewed […]
Three Oil Refineries Ltd. employees killed as a result of “negligence?” An explosion at Israel’s largest oil refinery resulted in a gas leak that killed three people last week. Located in the bay area of Haifa, Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL) has an annual capacity of 9.8million tons of crude oil and a daily maximum capacity […]
Rupert Murdoch announced that Israel’s oil shale could potentially shift the international oil dynamic. A 2005 USGS survey presents a less optimistic view. With the recent announcement that Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild have bought shares in Genie Oil & Gas Inc., which owns 89% of the company, Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), granted license […]
David fights Goliath again in Israel’s Elah Valley: Union for Environmental Defense takes on Genie Oil & Gas Inc., now backed by some of the world’s most powerful banking, media, and oil barons intent on destructive oil shale exploration. In 2008, Israel’s Ministry of Infrastructure granted Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) the right to produce gas […]
As a quick follow-up to the new oil shale pilot about to be conducted in Israel, here is a video of Al Gore saying how oil shale exploration is “insanity.” From the 2008 video, speaking about oil shale in America, Gore says: “It would vastly multiply the amount of CO2 from every gallon of gasoline. This […]
Is nothing holy anymore? The Iranian Government rubber stamps oil exploration in the country’s most important national park. The Iranian government has decided to start an oil exploration project in a national park in Kavir National Park in the Semnan province, south east of Tehran. The opponents of the project, from the Iranian Environmental Organization, […]
Known for bulldozing archeology ruins into the sea, is it hello BP and bye bye Appolonia? Libya’s ancient archeological sites under threat from offshore oil spills. British Petroleum (BP), whose Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well was spewing thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than five months, was at the […]
A handy chart to plot which Middle East countries are going nuclear. Ever since oil was discovered in the Middle East around 1950 it has gas been the driving force behind the region’s transformation. But as of late a new focus has emerged based on both an ever increasing demands for electricity but also a […]
If Ramadan and Yom Kippur have given you a taste for fasting, why not try the latest eco friendly fast: the oil fast. Fasting is a natural, religious and spiritual affair which is practised by many people all over the world. Muslims give up food and drink between sunrise and sunset for an entire month […]