A vulture fitted with Tel Aviv University tags was “arrested” in Saudi Arabia. The charge? Espionage. Fitting migratory birds with tags and GPS transmitters allows ornithologists and other researchers to track their migration. Important questions are answered: where do the birds fly? Where do they rest? How far do they travel. Dubai researchers recently tagged […]
Water theme parks, like this one in the UAE, won’t reduce high water tariffs from desalination Saudi Arabia’s plans to increase water tariffs for non-residents, due to the high cost of producing desalinated fresh water, has an all too familiar ring in today’s increasing reliance on desalination in water scarce regions like the Middle East. […]
Giving Eid cards is trendy in Muslim culture. Eco-designer Zaufishan demonstrates how she "upcycles" old spangles and scraps, into jazzy new handmade Eid cards for the Hajj season.
Even with the completion of the “Mekkah Metro” scenes like this are bound to continue during the Hajj for years to come. As the 2010 Hajj pilgrimage begins this week, many wonder if this year’s journey of faith will be more environmentally friendly than in previous years. In previous Green Prophet articles, we have noted the […]
Members of Naqa’a: Norah Magraby, Mona Othman, Muna Alamer, Elham Uthman, Reem Oudah, Amal Aljuhani, Wafaa Aljuhani and Shaima’a Alhajj. For over five years, a small group of young Muslim women have been hard at work in Saudi Arabia helping to fight climate change. Naqa’a, the environmental enterprise, was setup with the aim of introducing […]
A high speed train to Mecca in Saudi Arabia will cut down on carbon emissions during hajj this year, but its reach is limited. Every year, around three million Muslims from across the world prepare for the spiritual journey of a lifetime. Many will have been saving up for the trip for years and will […]
Pfizer’s Saudi Arabia campaign to teach doctors safe baby milk practices is like cigarette companies promoting cancer prevention. In the book Understanding Breastfeeding in the Middle East, author Modia Batterjee laments the decline of breastfeeding in Saudi Arabia. At first glance, the 26 Club Forum for Child Health and Nutrition founded to “raise awareness on […]
Skyscrapers (even rotating!) and dreams of vertical farms, but not a greenhouse to be seen. The Gulf is growing more and more dependent on imported food. Many Gulf countries are investing heavily in foreign farmlands that are more fertile, chiefly in Africa, but also India and Pakistan, in a bid to secure a steady food […]
SolFocus CPV receivers will catch some rays in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has taken another step toward integrating solar power into its energy mix: Vision Electro Mechanical Co. (Vision) has signed an MoU with California-based SolFocus to build eight solar power stations in the kingdom, starting with a 130-kilowatt solar plant in the Bahra industrial complex […]
As oil supplies decline, Saudi Arabia’s own electricity is becoming expensive. By one estimate, it’s as much as 25 cents a kilowatt-hour, at wholesale. Saudi Arabia gets all of its electricity from the oil field. Flared gas provides 45%, heavy fuel oil provides 13%, diesel; 22% and crude provides the remaining 20%. So as oil […]
Saudi Arabia now using more reverse osmosis desalination in the Kingdom over any other water processing method. Like neighboring Kuwait, where virtually all supplies of fresh water comes from desalination, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has now reached a level of need for fresh water in which it requires at least $50 billion of investments […]
Islamic states have the highest infant mortality rate in the world thanks in large part to a decline in breastfeeding. What is a “milk mother” according to Islamic law? Do nursing mothers and pregnant women need to fast during the holy month of Ramadan? And how is it that only 37% of women in Saudi […]
A prototype algae biomass farm. Will it work in the super dry Middle East? Biomass, a renewable energy source based on biological material from living or recently living organisms, is hailed as a possible fuel source to provide power for everything from cars and aircraft to electricity for homes, businesses and factories. Previous articles on […]
A weekly Green Prophet series that looks at the Arabic “green” blogosphere and online communities. After looking at a personal Iraqi environmental blog, and at “The Forum of the Ornithological Society of Kuwait, we are arriving at the Gulf countries. This time, we are flying to Saudi Arabia and to a blog called “Green Papers”. […]
Legs? Who needs them when you can drive. Maybe this is why diabetes rates in the Gulf region are among the highest in the world. We already know about the terrible rates of road accidents in Saudi Arabia, the dangerous practice of car drifting, and the admiration for gold-plated cars. Now, a new study finds […]
Reducing overall energy consumption allows more leeway during crippling heat waves across the Middle East. We are all feeling the heat (not just Iran). And though we are cautious about assumptions that global warming is contributing to these higher temperatures, we can’t deny that we are spending a little more time under our fans and air-conditioning […]
Despite facing issues such as water scarcity and pollution at poisonous levels, the Middle East is still sending mixed message about climate change. Image of Mideast and earth Courtesy of NASA. There is a constant debate in green circles over whether the Middle East is really taking climate change seriously. Some days the Arab world […]
A tourist soaks up the Egyptian sun. The Middle East is getting hotter, like the rest of the world, but when is too hot, too much? It’s hot and getting hotter. But nowhere is the more evident than in Southern Asia and the Middle East. And while daytime temperatures are always hot this time of […]
Treating wastewater and encouraging water efficiency balances high cost of desalination in water-scarce countries. To some, desalination plants are the Middle East’s holy grail. Israel’s IDE launched its 3rd such plant, and Bahrain has joined the fray with theirs. However, it is no coincidence that in the last year alone Israel has also experienced a […]
Will Alaska’s crystal clear lakes quench the thirst of the Middle East? It looks like the old water trading game is once again getting attention. While it formerly involved such schemes as towing icebergs from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia, as well as bringing water in converted tanker vessels from Turkey (which now has a severe […]
The Mecca of green? “Green” activism has defined Jewish and Christian culture for decades already. Now, Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia keen to “green” the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Yussif Osman sits quietly by his desk, a framed piece of cloth behind him next to a picture of his father who died just a few years […]
Nestle coffee products banned in Saudi Arabia for “glass shard scare” Nestle has the dubious honor of being one of the most boycotted companies on the planet. Glass in some jars of instant coffee led to a recent Saudi Arabian ban on many of the company’s products. Nestle’s aggressive and deceptive marketing of artificial baby […]
This solar rooftop in Saudi Arabia, shown here during construction, is now complete and connected to the grid. (Image via Flickr) The world’s largest oil producer is now generating electricity from the sun. Saudi Arabia’s National Solar Systems (NSS) and Conergy, a German-based solar consortium, last week announced the completion of a solar park on […]
How can the polluting oil tar sand oil extraction – here Opti Canada’s operations – be better than offshore drilling? The Gulf of Mexico oil “leak” is a gusher pouring as much as 3.4 million gallons of oil into the waters every day, scientists estimate in a NY Times story. It’s below the surface what […]
Built on the profits of oil, should Masdar hold the mantle of energy leadership for the world? Yosef asks. According to the Masdar City website, the undertaking is intended to be Abu Dhabi’s “multi-faceted response to the challenges facing a sustainable future.” The city, intended to house 50,000 residents in a kind of technosphere designed […]