Can you believe earth is running out of sand?
Peak sand and an end to construction as we know it
Nature
Saudi Arabian women are planting a million mangroves
A team of women in Saudi Arabia are planting a million mangroves.
Row, kayak and SUP for the sea!
Part of International Coastal Cleanup Day 20 kayakers will paddle from Caesarea to Jaffa, Israel this weekend September 18 to 20. The team of kayakers are supported by the Mare Nostrum Project, which aims to raise awareness of the need to protect the Mediterranean Sea and its coastlines. The Israeli event “Rowing for a Clear […]
50-year-old terrarium breaks records, and it’s not from Dubai
Plants sealed inside a large glass jug a half century ago are self-sustained inside a perfect ecosystem. Is there a message in this bottle for the parched Middle East?
Israeli Wildflowers Show Environmental Education Can Inspire Change
Today there are a dizzying variety of wildflowers blooming across Israel, welcoming the months of spring. Fifty years ago some of these plant species were on the verge of extinction. With the help of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Nature Reserves Authority, the 1965 campaign to publicize the law […]
Hydropolis Aims to Restore the Nile Valley’s Natural Agricultural Rhythm
Just about everyone learned in their early geography classes that the Nile Valley was once a fertile haven. Crops proliferated on the green banks due to natural flooding that deposited rich nutrients, although occasionally these floods inundated and destroyed crops as well, and the land of the Pharaohs was a mecca for agriculture. But when […]
Rain and Qatari folktales of nature in film
A community project in Qatar explores local folktales and what they can teach us about nature in the Middle East
Ancient Nabatean Wisdom to Push Back Desertification Today
Petra’s pink city was built by water smart Nabateans. Ancient Jewish prayers still recited today include special mention of dew in the summer and rain in the winter. Survival of Israelites back then, and of the Israelis in modern times, rests largely on how much water is available for agriculture. While Israel has answers to […]
Date Palms, Palmaculture and Greening the Middle East (INTERVIEW)
Palmaculture is a new name for an old concept – one which helped green the Middle East with traditional palm gardens called bustans For centuries now date palm groves have been present in the hot deserts of MENA stretching from Morocco in the west to Yemen in the south. Indeed these man-made ecosystems have been […]
Gaddafi’s Great Man Made River Follow
The Great Man Made River: 70 percent of Libya’s fresh water comes from it. Muammar Gaddafi, the eccentric strongman of Libya for more than 42 years and often referred to as the Mad Dog of the Middle East, wound up dying like a dog at the hands of his own people. Now that he is […]
Ancient Egyptian palm trees going extinct
Environmentalists have called for urgent action to save the last 400 argun palm trees, a rare desert palm tree highly valued by the ancient Egyptians
Iran’s “Dead Sea” Lake Urmia is drying up with no one to protect it
Lake Urmia (Persian: دریاچه ارومیه, theDaryache-ye Orumiye, Azerbaijani Urmu gölü, Kurdish Wermy, Armenian: Կապուտան ծով, Kaputan ts'ov; ancient name: Lake Matiene) is a salt lake in northwestern Iran near Iran's border with Turkey. Like the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan, and Aral Lake in Iraq we could lose this lake forever if we don't take action today.
Ecological Artist Shai Zakai
Shai Zakai: Self portrait 4X2 m. photograph on canvas purchased by the Ministry of Environment. Since nature can’t speak for itself, Israeli environment artist Shai Zakai has appointed herself as the human moderator. For more than a decade she’s been working as an ecological artist, to communicate and record humankind’s impact on our fragile world. […]
Studying the worldwide effects of desertification in Sde Boker
Israel's pioneering Desert University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), is currently hosting the 2nd biannual 'Drylands, Deserts and Desertification' conference at their deep desert outpost at the Sde Boker Campus.