22/9/2015 Syria’s civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a “doomsday” vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials said on Monday. The seeds, including samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have been requested by researchers elsewhere in the Middle East to replace seeds […]

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Netafim, a leading global supplier of drip irrigation technology, helps fulfill Ben Gurion’s dream of developing the Negev and the whole world; founder Naty Barak views his project as a bridge for peace. Alexander J. Apfel, Tazpit 09.18.15 Fifty years ago, Naty Barak was just one of several farmers in Kibbutz Hatzerim located in the […]

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The Palestinian Territories and thirteen Middle Eastern countries are expected to face extremely high water stress in 25 years’ time. Megan Rowling Aug 26, 2015 REUTERS – Nearly half of 33 countries expected to face extremely high water stress by 2040 are in the Middle East, where surface water is limited and demand is high, […]

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Climate change could cause second Holocaust, says Yale historian By GABE FRIEDMAN/JTA 09/20/2015 Snyder, author of the new book “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning,” draws parallels between the World War II and more-contemporary battles for resources. In a bold New York Times Op-Ed published last weekend, Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder […]

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Hundreds break through police lines to the Lebanese parliament building, demanding an end to the two-month-old crisis. Paul Chaderjian | 21 Sep 2015 Thousands of Lebanese protesters have returned to Beirut’s streets, demanding that politicians take action to end the country’s rubbish crisis and calling on their leaders to step down. Hundreds of activists on […]

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Protesters staged a new rally on Friday in the northern Akkar district to reject government plans to set up a “sanitary landfill” in the town of Srar, as the ministers of agriculture and interior held a meeting with the region’s MPs and municipal chiefs to explain the project to them. The sit-in that was held […]

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By JT – Sep 20,2015 Tafileh Wind Farm is the first wind farm in the Kingdom to start providing electricity generated by renewable wind power to the national electric grid (Photo courtesy of the Jordan Wind Project Company) AMMAN — The National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and Jordan Wind Project Company (JWPC) announced the commencement […]

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Afcon Holdings is building two wind farms with 25 turbines apiece in northern Israel. Amir Ben-David 09.20.15 For the first time in decades, Israeli is building wind turbines which will create electricity by harnessing the power of the wind. Afcon Holdings, a part of the Shlomo Group, has started construction in recent days on two […]

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Sep 19,2015 Amman is a major metropolis where about one-third of Jordan’s total population lives. The sheer size of the capital city and the number of people living in it poses untold challenges and hardships to the Greater Amman Municipality, perhaps on par with the awesome national responsibilities facing the central government. The GAM leadership […]

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By Mohammad Ghazal – Sep 16,2015 AMMAN — Traffic jams on Amman’s streets cost motorists around JD1 billion annually, according to an estimate by an official at the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM). The estimate includes money paid by motorists on fuel wasted by idling cars and the cost of lost time, Ayman Smadi, executive director […]

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By Muath Freij – Sep 16,2015 – MMAN – The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) said on Wednesday it would expand its campaign to tidy the roofs of Amman’s buildings to include awareness-raising sessions at schools. Raed Haddadin, director of the building control department at GAM, said the municipality will start the awareness campaign right after […]

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JERUSALM POST Israel approves greenhouse emissions reduction plan By SHARON UDASIN 09/21/2015 MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz), chairwoman of the Knesset’s Social-Environmental Lobby, called the approved plan “no more than lip service.” Cabinet members approved Israel’s new greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets on Sunday, paving the way for the country to submit its plans to the […]

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By JT – Sep 16,2015 AMMAN — The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to exempt electric cars from registration fees, which range between JD8,000 and JD9,000, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The introduction of the incentives, the government said, seeks to encourage people buy plug-in cars to cut fuel bills and to protect the environment, […]

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Cleanup raises awareness of the problem of debris on beaches, a serious global problem; In Israel, plastic bags account for 30% of total waste, compared to 10% worldwide. Yaron Druckman 09.20.15, 10:25 / Israel Business Last weekend marked the 30th International Beach Cleaning Day, which is meant to raise public awareness of the preservation of […]

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UN study finds 3 billion people lack access to controlled waste disposal facilities. Zafrir Rinat Sep 16, 2015 Three of the world’s 50 biggest active garbage dumps are in the Gaza Strip, an indication of the poor conditions in the territory. There is one site near Dir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, and a […]

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On the outskirts of Beirut, mountains of putrid garbage are rising and tempers are flaring as a months-old rubbish collection crisis shows no signs of being resolved. The desperate capital has taken to dumping its rubbish in huge makeshift piles, with the largest — in Karantina at the northern entrance of the city — neighboring […]

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By Elsa Buchanan | International Business Times – Tue, Sep 15, 2015 Syrians and Palestinians refugees living in insanitary conditions in Lebanon’s camps are at risk from cholera and typhoid epidemics as the country struggles with an ongoing rubbish crisis, health organisations have warned. While Lebanon is home to more than 1.8 million registered refugees […]

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Kate Rothschild, International Advisory Committee Member, gives insight into recent visit Kate Rothschild, a member of EcoPeace’s International Advisory Committee, had an Op-ed published in the Huffington Post after her recent tour of the Hebron Stream with EcoPeace. Kate followed the flow of the polluted stream from Hebron, through the Negev desert and into Gaza. […]

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BreezoMeter is one of the world’s leading start-ups when it comes to supplying information on air quality data. No wonder so many delegates at this week’s DLD conference sought out their expert opinion. Danna Harman Sep 11, 2015 TEL AVIV – One of the most popular booths at this week’s DLD conference on innovation in […]

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Fresh water is growing scarcer in our warming world, not least in California and the Middle East. There is a crying need not only for crops that can survive in harsh conditions, but for better irrigation technology. Saturas, an Israeli startup founded in 2013 under the auspices of the Trendlines Agtech incubator, is developing a […]

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