By Zachary Shahan •
November 14, 2009
About two kilometers from the Dead Sea and two from where Jesus was christened, in the country of Jordan, Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute and his crew created a near miracle turning desert into a lush permaculture garden.
In August in this location, Lawton says that temperatures could rise above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). People farming there were farming under plastic strips and using tons of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. The idea to grow a lush forest or garden of edible plants would probably make people laugh or roll their eyes. Nonetheless, the permaculture crew had exactly this vision in mind and a little funding to help them to do it.
By Amiel Blajchman •
September 28, 2009
NATO’s Science for Peace program and the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) have awarded a team of three universities, one Jordanian, one Israeli and one American a grant to set up two parallel water desalination plants at one site each in Jordan and Israel. This grant is meant to promote collaboration across borders and between the two neighbouring countries, in a region not known for its congenial ties between neighbours.
By Rhishja Larson •
September 21, 2009
A pair of male vultures at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo who successfully reared two chicks together have split up and started new families with female vultures.
Ten years ago, two male Griffon vultures met and fell in love. They built a nest - as vultures do - but couldn’t produce an egg.
The situation prompted Israeli zoololgist Shmuel Yidov try an experiment: A newly-hatched vulture chick was carefully placed inside a swan’s egg shell and slipped into Dashik and Yehuda’s nest.
By Susan Kraemer •
August 2, 2009
Iraq used to export food. This year it will be importing 80% of what gets eaten in a nation that was once the breadbasket of the Middle East.
The last two years of drought are exacerbating the effects of war and mismanagement; doubling the frequency of sand storms, killing trees and crops, drying up riverbeds and marshes and turning arable land into a desert wasteland.
Recently one of the worst sandstorms in living memory lasted an entire week, choking throats, clogging eyes and afflicting asthma sufferers in particular. But electricity problems might have even more far reaching effects.
By Rhishja Larson •
July 30, 2009
In order to provide safe food for critically endangered vultures, Pakistan has opened a “vulture restaurant.”
After 95% of the vulture populations in India, Nepal and Pakistan were lost due to poisoning by the drug Diclofenac, the idea of “vulture restaurants” have been catching on.
Vulture restaurants serve up the carcasses of cattle that have been monitored by a veterinarian prior to death, to confirm the animals have not been treated with Diclofenac.
Following on the success of Nepal’s vulture restaurants, Dhartee Development Society, in collaboration with the UNDP Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme has opened a vulture restaurant in Pakistan.
Draws upon a recent news reports in Science about the stem rust fungus, Ug99, that is sweeping the globe and threatening to decimated the world’s wheat harvests. Also, the politics behind some nation’s reluctance to give full access of their seed banks (which may possess genetic varieties of these crops that can withstand this and other diseases) to other nations.
By Levi Novey •
July 17, 2009
Here’s some lighthearted news to bring a smile to your face. A nearly 20 year old giraffe at the zoo known as Israeli Safari has given birth to her 11th baby, setting a world record. She is formally known as Denissa, but more humorously known as “super-mum.”
By Derek Markham •
July 16, 2009
300 volunteers in Pakistan planted 541,176 mangrove trees by hand in a single day, setting the Guinness World Record for tree planting.
The volunteers, using no mechanical equipment, planted the mangroves in the Indus River Delta wetland ecosystem in the Southern Sindh Province of Pakistan, beating India in a friendly competition which seeks to preserve endangered forests and help temper the global warming effects of deforestation.
By Dave Harcourt •
July 9, 2009
Scientists from the University of Haifa have shown that Desert Rhubarb, has evolved to ensure that it makes more of the limited rainfall in the Negev Desert than other competitor plants.
Desert Rhubarb (Rheum palaestinum) grows in Israel and Syria, but was studied in the Negev desert by the University of Haifa. Desert Rhubarb is a perennial hemicryptophyte, that grows during the rainy winter in mountainous desert areas where the average annual rainfall is only 75 mm (just under 3 inches).
