Glaciologist Konrad “Koni” Steffen passed away at aged 68 on August 8 in an accident in Greenland. Steffan was a renowned researcher on rising sea levels, and died after falling into the kind of crevasse that global warming has created. “It looks like climate change actually claimed him as a victim,” a colleague said. His […]
The night before the Israel Defense Forces’ 1976 mission rescuing over 200 hostages from hijackers in Entebbe, Uganda, Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Pinhas Alpert, then head of an Israel Air Force base forecasting unit, provided intelligence that was critical to the success of the operation — the weather conditions commandos were likely to encounter en […]
Just when the weather was cooling down in the Middle East a little, we get woke up again with the usual alarm and this time from a United Nations panel: humankind is to blame for global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns in a new report just out.
Already working on wind farms in Israel, this company launches a full scale solution for wind farms worldwide Meteo-Logic, a software provider of custom-made accurate weather forecasting, launched yesterday a new service specifically designed to provide the wind farm energy industry with highly accurate localized weather forecasts. Meteo-Logic offers detailed weather parameters and tools required […]
Environmentally-friendly designed straw bale houses are energy efficient and earthquake resistant. Pakistan's poorest groups rebuild lives through Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB) micro-financed project.
Saudi researchers develop a new model for predicting flash floods in the Middle East. They cripple cities like Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and take lives each year in the Middle East: flash floods come without warning, and are hard to predict (check out our flash flood survival guide), but now Arab scientists at the King […]
Cloud seeding not more effective than chance (or prayers?) finds new research. Prayers are answered as rain starts falling in the Middle East –– but not before hot, possibly climate change related dry spells have helped spread wildfires in Lebanon and Israel. But those looking to cloud seeding to ignite a rain: better do a […]
Learn how to reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding with tips from eco-Muslim Rianne ten Veen. Image via Amrufum The sun is shining and the days are long right now in the Middle East, which can only mean one thing- it’s wedding season! Invitations are flooding in and every night there seems to be […]
Prof. Colin Price suggests link between volcanic ash, cloud formation and global weather patterns. Native Americans used smoke signals to indicate danger, and a white plume is sent up by the Vatican when a new Pope is chosen. A new research project by Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute researchers has shown that where there’s […]
Could Prof. Colin Price’s new discovery become a new tool for monitoring the effects of climate change? Sunspots, which rotate around the sun’s surface, tell us a great deal about our own planet. Scientists rely on them, for instance, to measure the sun’s rotation or to prepare long-range forecasts of the Earth’s health. Some new […]
I remember the day when it rolled in early in May, or hit us rather, like a wall. Sandstorms are common in Israel and the Middle East. This awesome force of nature is best witnessed by this aerial photo taken by Yonatan Zur. We wonder if these kind of events will increase with climate change? […]
Why would a prominent Israeli-born professor at Indiana University decide to change his research emphasis from economics and political science to climate change and ecomigration? And to move from Israel to the United States? Ecomigration is not an entirely crazy idea, and some western people have already started planning and moving to the most suitable […]
Hurricanes are Earth’s most deadly storms, causing tremendous devastation and loss of life around the globe every year. There is some evidence that the number and intensity of hurricanes may also be changing as a result of global warming. Until now hurricanes had been somewhat a mystery, due to them spending most of their lifetimes […]
For those of us who live in the Middle East, those hot dry heat waves known as khamsini (in Arabic) or sharav (the Hebrew term) appear to be becoming more frequent, as well as more intense. They also seem to be occurring during times of the year when they ordinarily are not supposed to – […]
(Palm Island in Dubai) A couple of weeks ago I was in New Orleans with my parents at the annual craziness known as Fat Tuesday during Mardi Gras. Besides the excess of everything I saw there including waste, and the nasty black eye I sustained from a large set of beads being thrown on my […]