Los Angeles Times
August 4, 2007
SCIENCE FILE
The chemicals used in cleanup efforts harm reefs more than the oil itself does, researchers say.
By Alison Williams
Times Staff Writer
Chemicals frequently used to clean up oil spills in marine environments turn out to be more toxic to coral reefs than the oil itself, researchers said this week.
Continue reading "Oil spill remedies toxic to coral, study finds" »
Haaretz
By Michael J. Caduto
News from the Middle East usually describes conflicts and their root causes in
politics, religious fundamentalism and the struggle between Israelis and
Palestinians for a homeland. Threats to peace and security are indeed a
backdrop for daily existence, but that is only part of the story.
Arab Environment Monitor
July 20, 2007
Batir Wardham
While thinking of which Arab sites can be nominated for the new 7 natural wonders campaign which has started right after the end of the New Seven Wonders competition which saw Petra as a winner, I was trtying to see how many Arab sites are actually inscribed in the official UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. I know they are not too much and I know that one site in Oman was deleted recently for failing to adhere to guidelines, but I have never thought the number will be only TWO sites.
Haaretz
July 25, 2007
By Eli Ashkenazi
A tiny wasp that has ravaged eucalyptus groves in the Mediterranean Basin, Africa and the Far East, and which arrived in Israel a few years ago, has proven anew that no organism is eternally dominant. Israeli researchers have found a predator one millimeter in length called Closterocerus, which thwarts the wasp's advance.
Continue reading "Israelis discover bug that saves eucalyptus groves" »
Arab Environmental Monitor
July 14, 2007
Batir Wardham
In Arab countries with scarce water resources and shortage of money and technologies for desalination, the option of greywater reuse and treatment is gaining a lot of potential. Despite problems that appeared in small-scale applications of greywater resuse in households the technologies are getting better and cheaper. The main element will be for the local community itself to adopt the technologies even when the donors leave.
Continue reading "Greywater Treatment and Reuse in MENA: A Method that works" »
The Jerusalem Post
Jul. 19, 2007
RORY KRESS,
The mayors of Palestinian Baka a-Sharkiya (East Baka) and Israeli Baka al-Gharbiya (West Baka)-Jat signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to protect Wadi Abu Nar, a stream that runs through both municipalities.
Continue reading "Exclusive: Palestinian, Israeli mayors battle pollution" »
Friends of the Earth Middle East
July 10, 2007
Six Mediterranean countries make the splash to clean up their Rivers
On Sunday, July 15th, six (6) Mediterranean countries will simultaneously JUMP into their local Rivers, joining the European bi-annual BIG JUMP event that calls on governments to take action in cleaning up their local waterways.
Ma'an News
July 12, 2007
BETHLEHEM - On July 15th, residents of six Mediterranean countries will simultaneously jump into their local rivers, joining its counterpart, the European bi-annual 'Big Jump' event, that calls on governments to clean up their local waterways.
Al-Hayat
July 14, 2007
Ibrahim Muhammad
Visiting Amman, Doha, Dubai, Algeria, Damascus and other capitals of the Arab world, the Arab visitor's eye first catches the cities' breathtaking horizontal expansion. The most notable aspect of this development is probably the underdevelopment of the basic infrastructure that should accompany it. Furthermore, in countries such as Egypt, the Syrian coast and northern Africa, this expansion goes on at the expense of fertile agricultural lands that are rare in most Arab countries.
Continue reading "Urban development in the Arab world: disrespectful of elements of life" »
Arab Environmental Monitor
July 15, 2007
Batir Wardham
Sustainable buildings are wittnessing high growth and momentum in many countries around the world. The concept is pioneering and such buildings will include hundreds of eco-friendly innovations. The cost of installation and maintenance will always be high until it becomes economically feasible but the technology is there and that matters.
The Ecogeek blog, the world's leading blog for ecological innovations has published a list of the world's top 10 green skyscrapers based on a study by Jon Schroeder.
Continue reading "Study: The greenest skyscraper in the world is in Bahrain" »
Arab Environment Monitor
Friday, June 29, 2007
By Batir Wardham
A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, but also the growing global concern of environmental threats.
Continue reading "Environmental Concerns rising in global Pew Survey except in Arab Region!" »
Middle East Times
June 28, 2007
AFP
SAN FRANCISCO-- Humans have domesticated the planet to such a degree that few untouched spots remain, researchers report in a review article published in the journal Science.
Earth is so tamed that conservationism should shift focus from protecting nature from humans to better understanding and managing a domesticated world, the authors said.
Continue reading "Wilderness almost non-existent on planet Earth: study" »
Middle East Times
June 29, 2007
UPI
LONDON--A new report says as many as 50 million people could be displaced over the next decade by encroaching deserts, especially in parts of Africa and Asia.
Continue reading "U.N. report warns of encroaching deserts" »
Arab Environmental Monitor
Source: Jordan Business
June 2007
By: Nina Robertson
When Khaled Bushnaq decided 16 years ago to set up a firm that would provide technical consultancy in the field of energy conservation, most people were more than a bit skeptical. Energy conservation was almost entirely unheard of in the Middle East, and businesses were certainly not factoring energy-saving measures into their budgets.
Ignoring the cynics, Mr. Bushnaq, along with a business associate, established Energy Management Services (EMS) in Jordan in 1991, with a paid-up capital of JD30,000. Two years later, the company received the Special Recognition Award at the 16th World Energy Congress in the U.S. Today, EMS capital is JD2 million and is the leading energy service company (ESCO) in the Middle East, providing its services to over 500 companies in Jordan and the region.
Continue reading "Turning Business Green: The experience of EMS Company in the Arab World" »
Jordan Times
Listing Jordan River among the top most endangered cultural heritage sites
in the world comes as no surprise.
The Friends of the Earth Middle East Society and the World Monument Fund,
the renowned international watchdog of cultural heritages worldwide, have
sounded the alarm about the inevitable demise of the river and showed what
protecting it from becoming altogether extinct entails.
The Jerusalem
May. 30, 2007
YORAM DORI
It is said of Israel that she is a mini-cosmos. A country of immigrants hailing from more than 120 countries: fair-skinned and dark-skinned, Chinese and Indian, haredim and atheists. An 80 percent Jewish majority that lives alongside an Arab minority, mostly Muslims, an island in an Islamic sea in the throes of a power struggle between Shi'ite and Sunni hegemony, and counting a population of 7 million spread over an area (sovereign Israel) that measures a mere 20,770 kilometers.
Avoiding a Water Crisis
asharq alawsat
May 19, 2007
Hussein Shobokshi
With the growing number of reports and books confirming the words of political experts and strategic analysts that the next war in the Middle East will be fought over water and water resources, it is extraordinary that another type of war is actually being fought now.
Jordan Times
May 23, 2007
Hani Hazaimeh
AMMAN -- A four-year project implemented by Jordan in cooperation with CARE International, has been educating citizens since 2003 on the best practices in water management to provide sustainable livelihoods for Jordan Valley communities.
The Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios Project (EMPOWERS), which concludes next month, also worked to bridge the communication gap between government officials and local citizens on key issues of concern, such as poverty and unemployment.
Continue reading " 'EMPOWERS' qualifies citizens for better water management" »
Jordan Times
May 26, 2007
AMMAN (JT) — The UNESCO Amman office, in collaboration with the Swedish-based NGO Life-Link Friendship-Schools (www.life-link.org), brought together school teachers from different countries in the region in a two-day workshop this week.
Continue reading "Conference involves schools in environmental programmes" »
Haaretz
March 1, 2007
By Jonathan Lis
Last Monday morning, a team at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo dropped in on a compound housing Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx - known in Hebrew as Reem halavan, the white oryx). They quickly chose two 2-year-old female oryx, and tranquilized them with a dart gun. The staff tagged them with transmitters and fitted plastic pipes over the animals' long horns to protect the workers. After receiving inoculations, the oryx were put into special crates, and started heading toward freedom.
The Jerusalem Post
Mar. 8, 2007
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
The greater the air pollution over hilly land in semi-arid regions, the less rain the area will get, according to an Israel-Chinese research team led by Prof. Daniel Rosenfeld of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's department of atmospheric sciences, whose study has just been published in Science.
Continue reading "More air pollution means less rain in hilly areas" »
Asharq Alawsat
18 February 2007
Hussein Shobokshi
More than a year has passed since my last meeting with the former Vice President of America, Al Gore, in Jeddah, which he visited as part of the economic forum. My meeting with him was long and he explained to me his new priorities away from the political world and far from his famous defeat in the race for presidency against George Bush in 2000.
Arab Environment Monitor
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Blogging has became a highly effective and free expression medium that is spreading all over the Arab world. Amongst thousands of blogs in the Arab World very little focus can be found on environmental issues. One of the best and most informative Jordanian bloggers is "Khalaf" and he has proven to be environmentally aware in many posts. This is a collection of some of Khalaf's best environment related blogs that are based on good research and sound analysis
The Daily Star
February 20, 2007
Conflict wiped out ambitious plans of growing industry
By Assem Abi Ali
Special to The Daily Star
RAMLIEH, Aley: Eco-tourism suffered greatly during the summer 2006 war with Israel, and one of the main victims was the Aley village of Ramlieh, where local investors and other stakeholders had been planning an extensive program before hostilities broke out on July 12.
Continue reading "Eco-tourism sector struggles to recover from wounds of war" »
The Daily Star
February 20, 2007
Conflict wiped out ambitious plans of growing industry
By Assem Abi Ali
Special to The Daily Star
RAMLIEH, Aley: Eco-tourism suffered greatly during the summer 2006 war with Israel, and one of the main victims was the Aley village of Ramlieh, where local investors and other stakeholders had been planning an extensive program before hostilities broke out on July 12.
Continue reading "Eco-tourism sector struggles to recover from wounds of war" »
Arab Environment Monitor
February 20, 2007
By Daniel Zimmer- World Water Council Executive Director
The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources signed an agreement with the World Water Council in Ankara recently to host the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, that takes place in March 2009.
Greenpeace
February 18, 2007
International — Greenpeace today called for urgent discussions about a Nuclear Free Middle East to create a region free of all nuclear technology, civil and military, as essential to increasing peace and stability in the region. The international peace and environment group said nuclear technology is not the solution to either national security or energy needs.
Continue reading "Greenpeace calls for a Nuclear Free Middle East" »
Arab Environment Monitor
February 20, 2007
Derek Sands
UPI
CAIRO -- Egypt may soon harness the same physics that a child uses to burn an ant with a magnifying glass, to generate electricity from the sun, a move that reflects the growth of Concentrating Solar Power technology worldwide.
Haaretz / Jordan Times
February 15, 2007
By Margaret Beckett
[listserve note: published in both Jordan Times and Haaretz, unusual for the region]
All too often the news is dominated by conflict and disagreement. Then a threat of such magnitude comes along that it forcefully reminds us of our common humanity - in other words just how much all of us, whatever our background, creed or colour hold in common. For our generation that threat is climate change.
Samih Massoud Al-Hayat - 21/01/07//
The Human Development Report 2006, called: 'Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and
the Global Water Crisis', issued last November, confirmed that access to safe,
low-cost water sources is a basic human right that governments should secure at
least 20 liters of clean water for all citizens a day and provide the same
quantity free of charge to the poor who cannot pay for such a quantity of
water.
The report called for a global plan of action under the G8, with a view to put
the problems of water and sanitation as a main item in the international
development agenda. It also called upon all the developing countries to prepare
national plans to push progress in the provision of water and sanitation
services, highlighting that these plans should define the ambitious goals with
allocations no less than 1% of the GDP of these countries, so that the current
public expenditure on water resources this year can be less than 0.5% of the
GDP.
The report also spoke of the importance of increasing the international annual
assistance allocated for water and sanitation by between $3.4 billion to $4
billion. It considered such assistance as an investment that has been delayed,
but has a positive effect on health, productivity and quality of life.
The report was presented when it was launched in Cape Town, South Africa, by the
Director General of the UN Development Program in a joint statement with the
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa. He selected three
surprising passages from the report. The first does not recognize the existence
of a logical (financial, logistical or geographical) reason that prevents
providing the poor with clean water sufficient to meet the basic human needs.
The report emphasized that approximately one billion people do not have clean
water, and that 2.6 billion do not have hygienic drainage. The second passage
casts doubt on the validity of forecasts about the unavoidable 'future water
wars', and considered them exaggerated concerns. The third considered the
report a pilot study that refutes many 'myths' about trans-boundary water
conflicts and wars in the water stress areas.
Even though I appreciate the efforts made in this report, I did not find any
evidence that the global water crisis and conflicts over water are just a
'fairy tale'. Suffice it to recall in this regard the 4th World Water Forum,
held last March in the Mexican capital, with the participation of
representatives from 130 countries to discuss the water supply in poor nations
and the global water crisis in general. This Forum acknowledged the validity of
the expectations of 'future wars' over water resources. It also confirmed that
about 40% of the world's over six billion people only have access to small
quantities of water and do not have a sewage system, in addition to 1.1 billion
people without clean drinking water, leading to the deaths of over three million
people annually.
Participants of the Forum were also unanimous that the global water crisis is a
concrete reality, not a 'fairy tale', because the 'ghost of thirst' haunts the
majority of the Middle Eastern countries, including Pakistan as well as
sub-Saharan Africa. The report indicated inequality in consumption between
industrialized countries, where per capita water consumption ranges between 400
and 600 liters per day, and the poorest countries, where the per capital
consumption is less than 20 liters a day, taking into account the inequality
between these countries in terms of the potential required for access to safe
water.
This global crisis may be seen in light of the World Water Council (WWC)
reports. The WWC has been stressing the need to redouble financial investments
to face inequality in water distribution in the world. It has estimated that
the UN needs some $20-30 billion annually until 2015 to achieve one of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which urge a reduction in the number of
those who do not have access to safe drinking water and sanitation structures
in developing countries.
The water crisis may also be seen in light of the many indications about the
seriousness of the water situation in the Arab World, because the Arab
countries have scarce water resources in terms of the average share of water
allocated for a cultivated area, the per capita share of water, or
inappropriate geographical distribution of these resources and the difficulty
of controlling and exploiting many of them.
It goes without saying that the Arab countries are among the poorest water
regions in the world, as they have only 1% of the global renewable water,
whereas some 5% of the world's population lives in this region. A report
presented by the Arab Council for Water to the 4th World Water Forum pointed
out that the available stock of per capita water consumption in the Middle East
and North Africa decreased from 4000 cubic meters in 1950 to slightly more than
1000 cubic meters currently, and is expected to drop to 577 cubic meters in the
region by 2050.
The Unified Arab Economic Report gives a more severe futuristic picture of the
water situation in the Arab World. It estimates that the per capita share of
water will decrease to 500 cubic meters in 2025 because of high population
growth rates and the decline of the amount of water taken by Arab countries
from common rivers, which represent half the amount of available water. The
same report also estimated the Arab water deficit needed for domestic food
production at 58 billion cubic meters per year and said that it is expected to
rise in 2030 to 378 billion cubic meters, which will negatively affect the
achievement of Arab food self-sufficiency.
The future of water in the Arab countries foreshadows a very dangerous
situation, not only because of the limited water resources, but because the
majority of water resources spring in non-Arab countries and the Arab countries
do not have full control of them. This definitely exacerbates the problems of
water and causes dangerous economic and political problems over the
distribution of water resources regionally, which may lead to conflicts and
wars in the future. It is to be noted that such conflicts have already emerged
in the past few years. Some of them were related to Arab-Israeli water
disputes, Israel's control of the resources of the Jordan River and its
withdrawal of large quantities of water from the Yarmouk River, in addition to
its control of more than two billion cubic meters of Arab water resources.
There are also some differences between Syria and Iraq with Turkey over the
Tigris and Euphrates basins. Turkey has large-scale and long-term projects to
make use of the Euphrates River water, in addition to differences between
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Nile River water.
Organizing the investment of the Arab limited water resources is the basis for
sustainable development, which requires strengthening Arab co-operation to
optimally utilize the available water resources and improve the use and
preservation of these resources.
* Mr. Massoud is an economics expert at the Canadian Center for Middle East
Studies