Some drugs like pot, gat and hash are natural. But antidepressant drug abuse in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is causing social problems. Mecca province, home to the holiest site in Islam, has the highest rate of drug-related crime in Saudi Arabia, a university study has found. The national study, carried out by Dr. Ashraf Shilbi of the […]
The king willed it – so it was built…Michael Arndt questions the ‘greenliness’ of KAUST, granted the US Green Building Council’s highest LEED certification possible. The American Institute of Architecture recently hailed The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as one of its top ten most environmentally responsible building designs. This follows other […]
The scenic countryside in Hail, Saudi Arabia to become part of the largest eco-park in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is probably not on your list of dream vacation spots – especially if you’re a woman traveller, or want to work on your tan, or get back to nature. However, seeking to boost its tourist […]
Green Prophet’s post on solar powered desalination plants earlier this year reported Saudi Arabia’s interest in harnessing solar energy to drive its growing array of desalination plants. This week the oil-rich kingdom announced a partnership with IBM to pursue this goal. King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia’s leading R&D institute, will team […]
Every day is a beach day in Morocco. In a smart move, the country unveils its plans to solar-ize the nation. Image via joaomaximo Countries in the Arab world are starting to wake up to the potential of solar energy, especially those with no known oil reserves. Morocco is the latest to announce its intentions […]
Revese osmosis membrane equipment will help quench thirst of oil rich, but water-poor Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been in the news a lot in regards to building desalination facilities, on which the Kingdom depends for most of its fresh water supplies. This includes what has been hailed as the worlds’ largest desalination facility in […]
The Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza shut off their lights for one hour on Saturday evening in Egypt to mark Earth Hour, a global protest for climate change initiatives. The whole world sat in darkness for one hour as an attempt to bring awareness to the growing concerns facing the planet in terms […]
Shrimps aren’t haram for Muslims, and are tasty for a lot of people in the Middle East. But are they safe to eat if they’re bought from China or Thailand? A new Saudi project comes to light. The imported fish and seafood industry: shrimp, prawns, and various species of both fresh and salt water fish […]
Ali Kajuee from Iran wins for his eco-friendly design, called “Ecoquina” [Image credit: AHMED KUTTY/Gulf News] In order to better understand the needs of their consumers, and in particular their younger consumers in the Middle East, LG Electronics launched a three-month competition for what it referred to as “Conceptualife” kitchen design. The company appealed to […]
e-GEO satellite monitoring of Dubai’s Palm Island. Can technology protect the endangered Persian Gulf? Saudi Arabia’s fragile desert and coastal environments will now get “help from above,” thanks to an initiative by a group of Saudi Arabian and European partners (GAF AG and e-GEOS) who have completed a project to implement and provide satellite-based environmental information […]
Projects like Dubai’s “The World” will cause untold damage of shoreline erosion and habitat loss. So do modern ports, threatening endangered species. But there are solutions, says US expert. Coastal waters are evolutionary hotspots, says Jerry Berne, a shoreline expert from the NGO Sustainable Shorelines in the US. Based in Charlotte, NC, USA, Berne is […]
Green Jeddah project wants to teach Saudi youth importance of recycling, cleaning up toxic waste and pollution. Saudi Arabia’s interest in environmental issues and projects is now being tailored to attract the country’s large youth population, now said to compose as much as 60% of the entire population of 28 million. In an article published in […]
The Arab world is getting dryer; Bin Laden blames the US and western globalization for climate change. We’ve covered this topic before: the effects of climate change on a region of the world that in even normal weather periods is not exactly flowing with fresh water. In one article we noted acute water crises problems […]
Predicting peak oil? Saudi water desalination plants like this one to be powered by the sun. You would imagine that a desert country like Saudi Arabia would have to rely a lot on desalination for a good part of the fresh water it uses. For example, a previous Green Prophet article told about the Kingdom […]
Will Saudi Arabia’s IRENA Membership Help Influence Environmental Change? Saudi Arabia, a country which still contains much of the world’s remaining petroleum reserves, is now trying to put its environmental “money where its mouth is” by joining the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). In an article posted on January 17 in the UAE’s “The National” English news […]