The US Navy has trained dolphins to detect underwater mines since 1960. Last week the Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi denied that Iran had threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – a crucial 54km wide strait through which Gulf countries export petroleum – but the United States press has been abuzz with reports that oil exports […]
Aircraft behemoth Boeing estimates at least 90,000 commercial planes fly daily: a massive fuel burn that translates into elephantine emissions of toxic air. There is opportunity for change in the Middle East. If you are not already afraid of the giant plume of methane gas now emitting greenhouses gases into the atmosphere, there’s another worry: […]
A report last week showed that development projects like The World manmade islands above are destroying the Gulf’s fragile marine ecosystem. One major culprit, Nakheel, aims to restore their own damage with 500 artificial reefs. Last week the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Toronto released the first official report linking […]
There’s a lot of buzz about overfishing, but navigating what is sustainable to eat is not so easy in the Middle East, where we don’t have such well-established research institutes as the Monterey Bay Institute in California. Luckily, we do have the WWF-EWS in the United Arab Emirates, which has been doing an excellent job […]
War and conflict overshadows the environment in the Middle East, and oceans overlooked, now on brink of catastrophe. At a time when Arab media attention was focused on extended wars, failed states, and austerity measures, a recent report on the world’s oceans failed to gain considerable attention in the region. The news that the marine […]
Greenpeace activists take on bottom trawlers. But in Oman, they no longer have to. Bottom trawlers were forced to set sail after Oman effected its ban on this destructive “fishing” practice. A small Gulf country that borders the United Arab Emirates, Oman is renowned for its incredible coral reefs and marine diversity. But 16 large […]
Natural phenomena, fishermen murders, HAARP experiments or an alien death ray? Some 152 dophins boiled alive with conspiracy theorists pointing to HAARP.
Qatar will secure 70% food security in the country by exploiting the latest technology to make its barren land arable. Roughly as large as Connecticut, Qatar relies almost exclusively on imports for food with only 10% of the country’s edibles produced within its own borders. Unlike other Gulf countries that are usurping African land to […]
Renowned photographer Camille Zakharia talked to us from Bahrain about his upcoming exhibit at Art Sawa in Dubai. Camille Zakharia has photographed “the mundane” for as long as he can remember, but he is anything but. After fleeing Lebanon’s civil war in 1985, he has lived in the United States, Greece, Turkey, and Canada. But […]
Who knew? Now you can get sushi and organic food delivered to your home, from Masdar City. But there is a caveat. When we think of Masdar City, we think of solar power and funky space-buildings. We think of desert and withering heat. And perhaps we dream that one day this city will be completed […]
Iranian Hawksbill turtles are the most adventurous international travelers. See where other turtles like to roam. Like people, Hawksbill turtles aren’t all domestic homebodies. Some – like me – prefer a more nomadic lifestyle. At least, this is what researchers have discovered Hawksbill turtles in the Persian Gulf. In recent years, the Hawksbill’s population has […]
Beating out Marrakech, Doha and Amman, luxurious “rich man’s playgrounds” like Al Reem Island cast a shadow on Abu Dhabi’s Best City designation Like its neighboring UAE city, Dubai, Abu Dhabi has recently been before the public eye as a place where a number of interesting and unique environmental projects have either been proposed or have […]
Something as big as a whale shark should be easy to track, but Dubai-based marine biologists learn they are actually quite elusive. It’s so tempting to attribute anthropogenic qualities to fauna. Take the whale shark Rhincodon typus, sometimes referred to as gentle giants, the largest fish to plow through tropical seas with its wide mouth […]
Is marketing Egypt as the next hot spot for high-tech architecture the right way to deflect Dubai’s failure? From an ecological perspective, Dubai is heading towards failure. From an economic perspective, some argue that it already has. How will this improbable city pick up the pieces? Todd Reisz, an architect based in New York City, […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc-KLWyxSCc[/youtube] For the first time, the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain is participating at the La Biennale International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. But theirs is an unusual approach. In accord with this year’s theme – to experience rather than merely observe architecture – Bahrain’s National Pavilion comprises a multidimensional, sensory depiction of an earlier, more integrated, […]