This guest post by Daniella Dimitrova Russo the co-founder and executive director of Plastic Pollution Coalition gives us reasons to still worry about buying BPA-free products. What is the connection between obesity, reproductive and other endocrine-related conditions, heart disease, and cancer? Recent studies point conclusively towards one ubiquitous chemical that is used in everything from […]
A boy chases a ball into one of Tunisia’s 400 unofficial dumps. After the hustle and bustle of Tunisia’s capital medina dies down, the kids come out to play – in the trash! A large open area just a few blocks from the main tourist attraction, a space between two buildings has been converted into […]
Plastic is pervasive and so are the carcinogenic chemicals that leach from them. The rapid growth and urbanization of the United Arab Emirates is associated with increased uses of plastic in every aspect of modern life. In 2008, the World Health Organization voiced concerns that rapid urbanization may be negatively impacting people’s lives. Rapid growth […]
Eighteen months ago, Itzhak Ben-David, the Israeli Environment Ministry’s deputy director for enforcement, visited several Israeli army bases in the West Bank. What he saw was shocking. Fuel and oil were leaking unabated into the ground on several sites. In response, Ben-David asked the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to conduct water quality sampling and monitoring. […]
Israeli students won a prestigious award for designing a portable, solar-powered water treatment system that anyone can use. Confronted with dire shortages that are shared by Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and just about every other nation in the MENA region, Israeli scientists are considered to be among the top producers of water treatment and saving […]
Daniella Dimitrova Russo from the Plastic Pollution Coalition warns that bioplastics will not solve plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is one of the major issues facing our planet today. Plastic bags festoon trees in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, and along the streets of New York, USA. Plastic washes up on the beaches […]
Hazy conditions stemming from dust particles that traveled from North Africa to Israel shut down two Israeli airports last week. Last week two airports in Israel had to shut down because the sky was so hazy and visibility was so limited, Haaretz reports. Both the Sde Dor Airport in Tel Aviv and Eilat’s airport shut […]
Your sandblasted Armani jeans could be killing people. “Distressed” jeans are commonly made by blasting the denim with silica (pictured above) after it has been pressurized into miniscule dust particles. But this fashion trend has been lethal for workers in denim sandblasting factories around the world. In Turkey, İdris Oral has become the 50th factory worker […]
Two-thirds of Tel Aviv’s water wells are too polluted to use. A recent study discovered that many Tel Aviv wells are polluted beyond suitability as drinking water sources. Data collected by the Health Ministry and Water Authority showed that 96 of a total 166 wells in the Tel Aviv area were closed due to contamination. […]
My feet are big, at US women’s size 10, but my footprint is enormous. See how yours compares to other nations in the world Drop a teabag in a mug, add boiled water, and in the time it takes to brew, you can calculate your carbon weight. Trust me – you’ll need a comforting drink when […]
It’s official: Zaha Hadid is going to design the new Central Bank of Iraq’s Headquarters; Tafline argues that it should be green. Zaha Hadid is widely celebrated for her incredible, untethered design, but less so for her environmental sensibilities. So when we learned that the deal to design a major project for her home country, […]
Next Wednesday activists will hold a public forum to democratically demand access to the Horsh Beirut urban park. In 1696, the Horsh Beirut Pine forest used to be as large as 1,250,000 square meters but the Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, and World War II allies each took their turn plundering its timber in order to build ships and weapons. Further damage […]
An anonymous Green Prophet reader took this photo today at a shopping mall in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center. Go Green ceramic frying pans and pots are slashed to 50 percent off. This follows the picture that Maurice took last week of the fire sale of ceramic cookware in another shopping market. Clearly Israeli shopping centers […]
Nearly 3 billion people lack safe and efficient cooking gear. It’s time to make the problem in the kitchen sexier. Half the world’s households prepare their meals over open fires or with jerry-rigged cookers fueled by scrap wood, coal, combustible waste and dung. Fatal burns are common and foraged fuel dangerously degrades indoor air quality. […]
Biodiversity preservation, waste management, and securing water sources are just a few of the principles being applied to convert Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh diving destination into an “green city.” Egypt’s Ministers of Environment and Tourism signed a tripartite agreement with the South Sinai governor to convert the popular Egyptian diving town Sharm el-Sheikh into a bonafide […]