This was the plan: leave at 8pm Friday night from Turgoman station in Cairo. Arrive in Siwa at 5.30am and meet my friend Gwen from France at the Siwa Inn Hotel. Bestow copious hugs and kisses before finding Vivek, a Couchsurfing buddy who traveled from Alexandria. And then, after introducing my friends, relax in this […]
Desalination is an expensive and energy-intensive way of removing salt from water to make it potable – Israel hopes it will provide 75% of its drinkable water by 2013 Despite several problems with the use of desalination (such as high costs and energy usage) and calls from experts to consider other options first, the Middle […]
The importance of recycling used water is understood more today by the Iranian environmental authorities, but converting theories to practice needs more investment. Mohammad J. Mohammadi Zadeh, the head of Iranian Environmental Protection Agency has declared how the water supplies of the country, which is among the arid and semi-arid lands, are wasted: “From 410 […]
Azzam Alwash (left), director of the environmental organisation Nature Iraq, talks with a Marsh Arab who lives in the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Iraq In the first part of this two-piece feature, Azzam Alwash the director of Nature Iraq, spoke to us about his warm memories as a child visiting the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Iraq with […]
What do you know about Iraq’s environmental issues? Well, if you’re anything like me surprisingly little considering its pivotal place in the Middle East I think this post was born at the moment I realised I knew so little about Iraq and it environmental concerns. I get to write a lot on all sorts of […]
How governments respond to water woes will determine the future stability of the Middle East. It’s impossible to point to any one issue and claim it as the final explanation for the protests unnerving leaders in the Middle East. Weeks ago one Tunisian man set himself on fire when he was told he couldn’t sell […]
Because of an enduring myth, Bedouins in Jordan kill hyenas and owls; The Badia Center for Ecological Education is trying to educate locals and relieve pressure on wildlife. The desert area north of Amman, Jordan (the site of the King Hussein Park) which engulfs roughly 75% of the entire country, is under strain. In addition […]
Can you guess where this winterland is located? In Dubai! In the middle of the desert. In a recent post, Pablo from Treehugger (a site we deeply admire) concluded that Ski Dubai’s indoor ski slope is not that bad. He based this conclusion on a beautifully calculated analysis of the facility’s energy consumption compared to […]
Climate change ruins all the fun. Higher temperatures have cut the skiing season in half. Lebanon’s citizens were not dealt an easy life. Their cultural institutions are crumbling, their portion of the Mediterranean is an apocalyptic zone, and every so often their country comes under a barrage of artillery fire because of deadly political disputes. […]
By calling the Middle East water problem an apocalypse, AFED Secretary General attempts to draw attention to the real and immediate danger shortages represent. While bureaucrats push paper in their plush offices, the citizens they represent face what one senior researcher calls a water apocalypse. Yemen’s aquifers could dry up as early as 2012, thereby […]
Water shortages caused by malfunctioning, wind power in Israel, Better Place in San Francisco and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. During the past week, Israeli researchers released findings that supports the link between Light At Night (LAN) pollution and cancer. European leaders convened in Israel to discuss R&D and a new […]
In a region where water grows increasingly scarce, we look to nature for various tips on how to make the most of what we have. Melissa Sterry, a futurologist and scientist whose “Bionic City” incorporates lessons from biomimicry, resilience theory, and living architecture to create a city model that can withstand any extreme natural phenomena, […]
The Federation of American Scientists urge Yemen to take up “science diplomacy” – otherwise existing security problems could get worse. Yemen looks like the bust of a flat-faced woman floating on the Gulf of Aden. Recently this harsh stretch of land, which shares its northwestern and most volatile border with Saudi Arabia and is flanked […]
The Emirates are feeling the pressure of energy and water deficits. Unfortunately, their nuclear solutions are still shortsighted. Dubai grew and grew: without any kind of environmental foresight, the Emirate built the tallest this and the biggest that, showing off its engineering might. And despite some efforts to learn from its neighbor’s mistakes, Abu Dhabi […]
Abu Dhabi’s government plans to pump desalinated water underground to prepare for event that its desalination plants are threatened. Relying almost entirely on desalination plants for drinking water, and with approximately 90% of its groundwater unfit for drinking, Abu Dhabi’s water security is deeply uncertain. A major oil spill or a serious case of sea […]