To coincide with World Water Day, we take a look at a wastewater project planned for Palestine’s green city The Arab region is believed to be one of the driest in the world– 70% of the land is dry and rainfall is sparse and the effects of climate change will only exacerbate the situation. As today […]
Arwa speaks to environmental lawyer Polly Higgins about ‘Ecocide’, corporate eco-destruction, water scarcity and why we shouldn’t give up on climate summits just yet Polly Higgins is a lawyer on a mission to bring serious environmental destruction to an end. Whilst this may seem ambitious, she insists that using the legal system to outlaw environmental […]
If you know water issues in the Middle East, then Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of EcoPeace, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) will need no introduction. Bromberg, with his Palestinian and Jordanian colleagues won a Time Magazine environment hero award in 2008 for their work at FoEME, a regional organization that brings together Jordanian, […]
(Rapidly depleting water resources has forced residents of Sana’a to buy water from private sources. Water levels are dropping by 6 metres a year in the Yemeni capital. © David Swanson/IRIN) If you think things seem pretty dicey in the Middle East right now with Israel and Hamas fighting, according to IRIN, expect tensions to […]
Green Prophet loves to find potential everywhere – so how about desert seawater greenhouse construction in Qatar? They are also doing this in Abu Dhabi. What exactly is a desert seawater greenhouse, you might ask? According to the Seawater Greenhouse website: “Seawater Greenhouse is a unique concept which combines natural processes, simple construction techniques and […]
Biotech companies in Israel are announcing layoffs. Global financial woes will no doubt filter through to the clean tech industry as well. Atlantium, when I covered the company for ISRAEL21c last year they seemed so hopeful about the future… has also announced layoffs recently. Fifteen people were let go. CEO Ilan Wilf said in Globes, […]
Today’s guest post is by Nissim Dahan, who is working to sell his “Vision of Hope.” Dagan envisions a network of individuals and organizations to help create economic prosperity in the Middle East. Through funding and implementing new environmental solutions, like clean technologies, Dahan believes the world can fight extremism. He uses the analogy of the […]
Well, that depends on how you look at it… Scientists are predicting that climate change will cause upheavals in the patterns of rainfall, drought, floods, and desertification. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that temperatures in the Middle East have increased between 2-3 degrees Celsius in the last century, […]
The chief scientist of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Yishayahu Bar-Or, released a statement yesterday Aug. 4, (and here [in Hebrew]) warning of the well known consequences of global warming that are expected in Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean. These include a rise in average temperature of 1.8 degrees Celsius already by 2020, a rise […]
A new solution addresses the problem of water loss and promises farmers “more crop per drop” A part of the global food crisis is the inefficiency of current irrigation methods. More irrigated water evaporates than reaches the roots of crops, amounting to an enormous waste of water and energy. Tel Aviv University researchers, however, are […]
Chascham, the water saving device that can reduce flow by as much as 42%. In April, Green Prophet had a chance to go from door to door with Vered Hatab, a water savings advisor hired by the Milgam Municipal Services company to sell Israelis on using less water. Hatab, 23, was lugging a case full […]
Israel’s water crisis has been in the news a lot lately. We have all heard how low the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) is, and seen suggestions on how to save water this summer. Although it receives much less media coverage, water scarcity has also become a major issue in the Palestinian Territories. This past […]
The recent attention given by the news media and this blog concerning our water problems in general, and to the depleting the Kinneret in particular, reminds me of a poster I saw once in a surfing products shop that read: “The Next War in the Middle East Will be Over Water.” Although the poster really […]
Sea pollution closes the beaches in Bat Yam. (Credit: Zalul Environmental Association) For a long time now, Israel’s water resources haven’t been getting the respect they deserve. Out of the 16 rivers that flow into the Mediterranean Sea, all 16 are polluted – many to the point that you wouldn’t even let your dog go […]
Last week at Tel Aviv University’s Renewable Energy and Beyond (yeah the conference that Al Gore opened), and the venue where the University announced its desire to become a Supercenter for renewable energy, we met Isaac Berzin of GreenFuel Technologies. A Time Magazine most influential, Berzin now a fellow at the IDC, is back in […]