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 […]