Shark Fin Soup Contributes to World Hunger

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It’s not a stretch. Vanishing shark populations affect the food chain in a very concrete way. Karin’s post on shark meat’s high mercury levels made it clear: a bowl of shark fin soup is a  bowlful of poison. But a slower death awaits people who depend on healthy seas. That means all of us. Because  […]

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Durban Gives 6 Reasons for the Middle East to Celebrate

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Funds for mitigation projects and the Carbon Development Mechanism saved in “Hail Mary pass” at climate talks While many environmentalists are decrying the COP17 climate talks (# COP17FAIL: Climate Change is a One-Size-Fits-All Problem) as being imperfect, I see some real progress hidden in all that bureaucratese. For MENA (Middle East and North Africa) nations, the best […]

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UAE Tests Produce for Pesticides

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Protecting food security in Abu Dhabi. A press release from the United Arab Emirate’s Ministry of Environment and Water states that in the past year, 8000,000 fruit and vegetables were tested for safe levels of pesticide residues. It seems that the scandal in Egypt over illicit pesticides resonates all over the Middle East.

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Possible End of Kyoto at Durban Threatens MENA Renewable Energy

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CDM funding for renewable energy in emerging nations is endangered in Durban, South Africa With the increasingly likely non-renewal of the Kyoto Accord after 2012 at this week’s international climate talks at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, renewable energy project funding throughout […]

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Iraqis Pour Their Art Out at Venice Biennale

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Azad Nanakeli returned to his Kurdish home Erbil to find all of the wells contaminated with waste and chemicals. AU is one among many art pieces on display at Iraq’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Fewer canvases are overflowing with pristine landscape scenes as unsustainable building programs throughout the Middle East encroach upon this […]

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King Abdullah Gives Saudi Women the Right to Vote – Just to Battle EthicalOil.org

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Saudi King Abdullah announced on Sunday that he was giving women the right to vote and run in municipal elections. What a coincidence. One week after it seemed that Canadian oil was going to beat the Saudis to the gigantic American market by making an inane comparison between the relative ethicality of the two fossil fuel purveyors, since Saudi women can't vote, King Abdullah has given Saudi women the right to vote. Suddenly now, dirty energy lobbying group EthicalOil doesn't have a marketing leg to stand on.

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