The FSO Safer from above. It looks peaceful but it’s a floating time bomb and when it explodes or leaks could be worse than the Exxon Valdez. It is locked inside a conflict zone. Yemen needs international help. Image via Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS)@detoxconflict After witnessing neglect and the dire humanitarian crisis after the […]
The number of food insecure people in Yemen has risen by 3 million in seven months, with an estimated 17.1 million people now struggling to feed themselves, according to a joint assessment by three UN agencies. Of the 17.1 million food insecure people, about 7.3 million are considered to be in need of emergency food […]
Terrorists probably come to mind long before honey when people think of Yemen, but the raw Yemeni honey Balqees had for sale at the recent Masdar Festival was far and away the yummiest honey I ever put in my mouth.
Circling around the news is something that may violate human rights in the Middle East, pointing out just how bad it might be for gays living in these countries: some Arab states are looking to develop a “gay” test to bar gay travellers from entry.
Middle East city heads want to make their cities more sustainable. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is 60 percent urbanized compared to the global average of 52 percent and is home to one of the world’s most rapidly expanding populations. By 2030, a 45 percent increase of MENA’s urban population will add […]
Water scarcity has already become a fact of daily life for Egyptians The world’s driest region, the Middle East* and North Africa (MENA), is getting drier at an alarming rate. And yet, despite massive population growth (the Middle East’s population grew 61 percent from 1990 to 2010 to 205 million people) predictions of so-called “water […]
Are you at risk? Get swine flu updates for the PA, Israel, Yemen, Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan. Health officials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are calling on residents to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) after 25 deaths in recent weeks.Over 700 infections of H1N1 have been reported in the West Bank […]
The poorest country in the Arab world is addicted to chewing catha edulis or khat leaves, which gives men, women and children, an amphetamine-like high. Abdulmalik, a 13-year-old boy from Yemen’s capital city Sana’a, started chewing khat leaves at the age of seven. “My father would pass me small handfuls at weddings,” he told The […]
Crunchy, tasty popcorn, made on your stove top, with nothing but goodness in it. My friend was amused that I have no microwave oven. How can I deal with food all day long and not own one? And how were we going to pop the popcorn she’d brought over? The health risks associated with microwave […]
Award-winning architect Salma Samar Damluji speaks to GreenProphet about her mud architecture work in Yemen and why Dubai’s property development mentality is ruining the Middle East The Middle East may be a fascinating place politically but architecturally, it’s on its last legs. Years of corruption and poor governance mean it’s slowly becoming one of the […]
Iraqi architect Salma Samar Damluji has won the ‘Global Award for Sustainable Architecture’ for her mud-brick renovation work in Yemen Mud. Muck. Dirt. Clay. Earth. Call it what you like – it’s the stuff of life and also of sustainable architecture. From the stunning mud mosque of Djenne in Mali to the clay tower homes […]
Following violent protests in February, Cairo police stacked 10-feet-tall masonry walls around the Ministry of the Interior to cut access to that hated symbol of Egypt’s ousted regime. New barriers appeared after subsequent riots, turning nearby communities into a labyrinth of roadblocks and checkpoints. Recently, artists “removed” them, overpainting concrete with images of the streetscapes they blocked. In a few days, […]
Voluntary funding to support nature and ancient cities is thinned even more as Canada cuts its funding to UNESCO. If existing members don’t cough up about $70 million USD, trees like this one in Yemen could be under threat. Palestine is neither a country nor a state, but Palestinian people living in the West Bank […]
Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman has become the first Arab woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Today, Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Arab Spring along with two other Liberian women who mobilized a women’s ‘sex strike’ which ended a 14-year civil war in their […]
ResponsibleTravel.com customers on holiday in Egypt. Feluccas and Pharoahs, a popular trip. British ethical tourism pioneers ResponsibleTravel.com has celebrated its tenth birthday by announcing its biggest ten sellers over the last decade – and Middle Eastern destinations top the list. Responsible Travel offers hundreds of holidays across the world and its birthday announcement also included […]
Until recently, much of the attention regarding amplified energy use has been directed towards China and India, but new data from GE indicates the Middle East is experiencing greater energy demands than any other nation. Why is this?
Predictions of water loss in Yemen by 2020 threaten lives and agriculture – Children must still fetch water for towns that are increasingly parched and dry. According to experts cited by CNN, Yemen could be the first nation to completely run out of water in as little as 10 years, a prospect that creates a […]
Diversifying away from oil Yemen plans to build six beach resorts over the next five years to draw tourists. How much will be sustainable? The Yemen Tourism and Promotion Board announced the plan on Thursday to boost the country’s tourism industry. Each of the planned six facilities along the Yemeni coast is valued at $150 […]
Yemen’s water crisis is worsening as the country struggles with armed conflicts on three fronts. Above: a village well almost runs out of water. As delegates head to the United Kingdom for a key conference on Yemen, experts warn that Sanaa could become the first capital in the world to run out of water within […]
They chew this stuff on a daily basis, like Bolivians and other South American mountain people chew cacao leaves. It gives people in Yemen and other Arabian Peninsula countries a mild, narcotic-like effect; and unfortunately, it is ruining the economy of Yemen due to do many people getting “hooked” on it. What is this […]
Jabal Moussa, Jordan So we all know that the Middle East is biospherically fascinating, but at the ongoing meeting of the UN International Coordinating Council of the Man and Biosphere last Tuesday, UNESCO took notice as well, adding more Middle Eastern sites to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In fact, for the first time, […]
Who knew that for the last 16 years Istanbul has been host to the International Environment Project Olympiad? According to Todays Zaman an international jury has selected 101 projects from 41 countries to compete in the final competition of the 16th International Environmental Project Olympics in Istanbul between June 1 and 4. Tying in with […]
The video is a bit slow to start and speaks to a somewhat unsophisticated audience, but it introduces an important concept of charity in Islam (sadaqah jariyah), and why Muslims should support “Waqf” –– for the environment’s sake. Or at the very least political stability. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Waqf […]
Flash floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States, and a big killer in the Middle East too (see Relief Web’s report on Yemen). And OneWorld blog here on the Yemen flash flood which recently displaced more than 20,000 people. Because of the unpredictability of flash floods, they’re a leading weather-related cause […]
How pirating in the Middle East affects the state of the environment. Pirates are not just in the movies these days –– a group of Somali pirates recently hijacked a large Saudi oil taker, fueled up and passing off the coast of Kenya on its way to the US. The $120-million ship contained up to 2 […]