By SHARON UDASIN 07/01/2011 01:24 Experts say drilling will be clean and won’t leave a footprint; IEI’s shale extraction process aims to produce 40 billion barrels of oil. Talkbacks (13) Shooting out of a pipe at the Zoharim oil shale drilling site southwest of Beit Shemesh on Wednesday morning was the first shale sample from […]

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By Taylor Luck AMMAN – The government is set to receive bids for the country’s first wind farm next month, as energy officials attempt to revive the Kingdom’s drive for renewable energy. According to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaled Toukan, eight shortlisted international firms are to submit bids in July for the planned […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Warning that “there is no such thing as a safe nuclear reactor,” environment activists staged a sit-in on Wednesday to express their rejection of the Kingdom’s nuclear programme. Wearing gasmasks and white overalls and surrounding themselves with radioactive nuclear waste barrels, scores of young men and women lay down on […]

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By Taylor Luck AMMAN – Energy officials on Thursday accepted bids for the construction of the country’s first nuclear reactor as protests over the peaceful nuclear programme continue. Amman accepted technical bids from three short-listed energy giants – Russian Atomstroy Export, Canadian AECL and a consortium comprising French firm AREVA and Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries […]

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Jet fuel leak could endanger animals in Negev reserve In the incident, more than 1.5 million liters of jet fuel leaked from a pipeline after earthmoving equipment ruptured a portion of the pipeline. By Yanir Yagna and Zafrir Rinat A fuel leak that continued for hours yesterday seriously damaged the Nahal Tzin nature reserve and […]

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Plan for housing project that would damage nearby kurkar bridge was on brink of final approval; Haifa regional planning and building committee introduce changes to plan that preserve bridge. By Zafrir Rinat Residents of Atlit and environmental organizations won a victory yesterday in their battle against a building plan that would severely damage a nearby […]

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By Shuki Sadeh Something changed in Israeli society just a week ago: The Dead Sea Works, one of the many companies owned by the Ofer family, appealed directly to the public via a huge advertising campaign, instead of sticking to its previous tactic of lobbying politicians and regulators behind the scenes. The company spent $1.5 […]

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* o o Share o reddit this * Duncan Clark * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 June 2011 10.44 BST * Article history With a rising global population, increasing water use per capita and depleting reserves of groundwater, there’s no doubt that blue gold, as water is sometimes called, is an increasingly precious resource. Yet despite a […]

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Earth’s water-stressed nations are borrowing against the future, as rising populations use stocks faster than they are replaced * o o Share o reddit this * Comments (58) Children of the revolution … water bottles are brought in to a housing complex in Beijing, China. Children of the revolution … water bottles are brought on […]

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By Khetam Malkawi AMMAN – The World Heritage Committee on Saturday inscribed Wadi Rum of Jordan, a mixed site displaying unique natural beauty and cultural significance, on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. With this win, Wadi Rum joined the Nabataean city of Petra, the Byzantine ruins and mosaics of Um Rasas and the Umayyad desert palace […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Inspectors have registered 80 hunting violations over the past three months, according to the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN). The violations include hunting without a licence from the RSCN, hunting endangered birds and animals and hunting birds out of the allotted period, Mahdi Qatramiz, head of the […]

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NEIL REYNOLDS OTTAWA— From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2011 The London-based World Energy Council says Israel’s Shfela Basin, a half-hour drive south of Jerusalem, holds 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, possibly making the energy-vulnerable country (as expressed by The Wall Street Journal) “the world’s newest energy giant.” With reserves of […]

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The Adullam region is in danger of destruction from oil-shale extraction. A multinational oil company is set to build an extraction plant at the Biblical site where David battled Goliath, in the Valley of Elah. After the experimental first stage of oil extraction assesses economic feasibility (estimating damage to water, parkland, air, and antiquities is […]

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Will the hotel owners find that they have ‘friends in low places’? By Zafrir Rinat The government will promote a plan to harvest the salt from industrial evaporation pools near the Dead Sea, in a bid to prevent the pools from flooding the hotels at the sea’s southern end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday. […]

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Dead Sea Works decides to launch its first-ever campaign to explain that the southern part of the Dead Sea would have dried out because of the pumping of water for regional use and that it is unconnected to industrial activities. By Zafrir Rinat If the recent decision to harvest the salt in its pool in […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 06/27/2011 21:02 Netanyahu evaluates flooding problem that may threaten hotels; green groups praise PM support for harvesting 20m. tons of sea salt. Talkbacks (6) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu toured the Dead Sea region on Monday morning in order to evaluate first-hand the impact of the flooding problem that could potentially threaten the […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – The Dead Sea Panorama Complex will operate fully on solar power by the end of the year to conserve energy and reduce its carbon footprint, officials said on Monday. Construction work on a $2 million project to switch the complex from running on electricity to solar energy is currently under […]

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While some ecological initiatives have been introduced in Israel’s urban areas over the last few years, the country is way behind its counterparts in the developing world. By Daphnee Hacker Israel’s notoriously hot summer began as humid as usual this year, but to the shock of many Tel Aviv residents, even the beaches could not […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 06/20/2011 03:05 Campaign aims “to fight police’s refusal to enforce” rules in these lanes so taking public buses becomes less of a burden, helps improve environment. Talkbacks (6) The Green Movement has launched a campaign to bring greater enforcement to public transportation lanes in order to give the public more of an […]

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By Khaled Neimat AMMAN – With almost a million cars expected to enter Kingdom this summer, concerned authorities are gearing up to tackle the challenge. Both the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and the Public Security Department’s (PSD) Traffic Department have drawn up plans to deal with road congestion, officials said on Tuesday. Khaled Hadadin, director […]

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