Category Archives: Economy

Aquila Magazine: Ancient Innovation For Modern Problems

Posted on April 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here’s a sneak peek of my latest article for Aquila Magazine’s Earth Issue. It’s all about indigenous populations making the most of their ancient traditions to cope with an increasingly unpredictable climate. As well as highlighting the continued importance of ancient water tunnels (called aflaj) in Oman, I spoke to an expert on community adaption in Bangladesh about the floating gardens (called baira) which are providing a lifeline to flooded communities. There’s also a snippet on the amazing work of Hassan Fathy in Egypt…

Aquila Earth Issue

Want to read more? Well all you have to do is download (how eco is that?!) a copy of the latest Aquila Magazine here. It’s only a couple of dollars for a mag jam-packed with goodness. Go on, you know you want to!

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Posted in Architecture, climate change, Climate Justice, Economy, Environment, Ethical, Food, Green, Islam, Middle East, Muslims, Water, Women

Tagged Aflaj, Ancient Adaptation, Aquila Style Magazine, Bangladesh, climate change, Hassan Fathy, indigenous populations, Oman

SISTERS – The Green Edition: Faith, Families and Features

Posted on April 1, 2013 | 1 Comment

Screen shot 2013-03-26 at 20.27.29 After lots of work and even more enthusiasm (well done Brooke!) the very lovely and very special green issue of SISTERS is out. It’s bursting with green quizzes, features, top tips for your home and also a round up of some great eco-Muslims organisations. I’ve contributed an article on the issue of population growth and ask the whether large Muslim families are a blessing or a curse. Read on for more and also to download or buy your own copy.

Large Families SISTERS page 1 Large families SISTERS page 2

@FabulousSISTERS – Hymens, Hijabs and Helmets: Muslimahs Who Cycle (arwafreelance.com)

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Posted in Children, climate change, Climate Justice, Economy, Environment, Ethical, Fashion, Food, Green, Hijab, Islam, Mosques, Muslims, Women, Youth

Tagged Green Muslims, SISTERS Magazine

Mapping Palestine’s Environmental Civil Society – The Good, the Bad and the Uncooperative

Posted on December 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Palestine

A study mapping the environmental actors in Palestine shows a desperate lack of co-operation between organisations and donors keen to play it safe with ‘practical projects’

The lovely people at Heinrich Böll Stiftung had done something that I have been procrastinating about for almost lifetime (well, not quite a lifetime but a good couple of years at least). They have mapped out the important actors and organisations on the environmental scene in Palestine. Exciting, right!? They have painstakingly gone through all those websites, NGOs and institutes with an environmental focus to bring us a clear image of the state of the environmental movement in Palestine. They found that out of 2,245 NGOs registered in the oPt only 104 were environmentally-focused and of these, just 56 were actually still active. More juicy details after the jump.

The Facts on Green Palestine

- 104 registered environmental civil society organisation in the West Bank and Gaza

- 56 civil society organisations are actually still active

- Over 70% of environmental civil society organisations feel that their relationship with other organisations is competitive rather than co-operative

- Limited funding and efforts to raise their grassroots presence are two main reasons for the competitiveness between organisations

- 8 key organisations in Palestine based on their size, the variety of programmes implemented and geographic range:

Most organisations complained that international donors attempted to remain neutral by focusing in practical action and lacked the political will to enforce real changes by addressing Palestinians’ rights to natural resources. As such many organisations felt their projects were simply ‘coping mechanisms’. Even so, the relationship between NGOs and funders was generally described as co-operative if highly dependent.

: For the full article and to find out the top 9 key green organisations in Palestine go to GreenProphet.com

: Palestine (Photo credit: Squirmelia)

Organic Farming Boom in Palestine (greenprophet.com)
Without A Strong Civil Society, Middle East Environment Has No Chance (Op-Ed) (arwafreelance.com)

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Posted in Apartheid, climate change, Climate Justice, Development, Economy, Environment, Gaza, Green, History, Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, Occupation, Palestine, Protest, Public Sphere, Recycling, Refugees, West Bank, Women, Youth

Tagged Civil Society, Palestine

Interview with Masdar’s Director of Sustainability – Nawal Al-Hosany

Posted on December 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

In 2010, after eight days of hiking in freezing temperatures Nawal Al-Hosany reached the Uhuru Peak of Kilimanjaro Mountain. She explains that she underwent the challenging climb to highlight the impact of climate change which is melting the mountain’s snow and to encourage greater action in the Middle East. Al-Hosany who joined Masdar in 2008 as the sustainability associate director is now its director of sustainability. She also director of the influential Zayed Future Energy Prize. I caught up with her to talk about Masdar and how you incentivise renewables in a rich, oil-producing country.

Here’s a snippet of the interview which you can read in full at GreenProphet.com.

GreenProphet: A recent report titled “Prospects for Energy Technology Advancements in the Energy Sector,” written by yourself and IRENA highlights the opportunities available to MENA if they embrace renewables. Why is now such a good time to adopt renewable technologies?

Nawal Al-Hosany: The MENA region, and especially the Gulf States, has an opportunity to leverage its expertise in energy and move into new sectors, including wind and solar power. The future energy mix will include renewables, and we should embrace this transition. In addition, the region also has an abundant solar resource – an energy we should tap into to address energy security and our rising demands. Although the region’s renewable resources have been underexploited, technology advances and increased deployment are now making certain forms of clean energy economically viable across the region.

Who are some of the women working in the environmental sector that inspire you?

The lack of women working in the environmental sector, and the opportunity to do more, is what ultimately inspires and motivates me. We only have a handful of women across the globe that are participating in the discussion on renewable energy, sustainability and addressing climate change. These are global issues that impact us all, irrespective of the roles we play or that have been defined [for us] by society.

Interview with Masdar’s Director of Sustainability – Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany (greenprophet.com)

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Posted in climate change, Climate Justice, Development, Economy, Environment, Green, Green Energy, Middle East, Muslims, Public Sphere, Women

Tagged Masdar, Nawal Al Hosany, UAE

SISTERS: Muslimahs Dig Into Fresh Food

Posted on December 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

arwa aburawa green muslims sisters muslimah food growing green eco environmental

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Posted in climate change, Climate Justice, Development, Economy, Environment, Ethical, Islam, Middle East, Water

Tagged Gardening, Kuwait, SISTERS Magazine

Palestinian Women Are Being Failed by Refuge and Shelter Services

Posted on November 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

When I first heard about the murder of Nancy Zaboun in Bethlehem on Monday, July 30, all I could think about was that another woman had been let down by the system. A weak and underfunded protection system, which fails to support Palestinian women dealing with domestic violence and abuse in the West Bank, makes women choose between living with their abuser and being trapped in a women’s shelter where there is limited education, freedom of movement, or prospects of a better future. And, as a woman of Palestinian heritage, Nancy Zaboun’s murder makes me angry. I am angry that more was not done to protect her from years of abuse and finally murder. I am angry that resources are so poor that women often choose to risk their lives rather than enter a shelter. Continue reading →

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Posted in Apartheid, Crime, Economy, History, Human Rights, Middle East, Palestine, Protest, Public Sphere, West Bank, Women

Tagged Palestinian women

E-IR: How Can Islam Help Us Tackle Climate Change?

Posted on September 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

With the latest scientific findings predicting even more drastic changes to the earth’s climate[1] and the complete failure of the UN climate summits to agree a fair and decent deal on cutting the world’s emissions,[2] it is clear that we are running out of time to tackle climate change.[3] Rather than a steady increase in attention and action, it seems the world’s government are slowly going quiet on climate change, distracted by more pressing concerns such as unemployment and the economic recession.[4] The most recent UN COP17 conference in 2011 at Durban, South Africa, failed to put climate change back on the world agenda and big players such as the US and China don’t appear to be taking their responsibilities seriously.[5]

One topic that has been given a recent boost by this desperate state of affairs is geo-engineering which is defined as ‘the deliberate manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change’.[6] Indeed, a field experiment which consists of spraying sun-reflecting chemical particles from a balloon into the atmosphere over Fort Sumner in New Mexico to artificially cool the planet has just been given the all clear.[7]

However, embracing geo-engineering as ‘Plan B’ is not only dangerous as the outcomes of planetary-scale experiments are highly uncertain; it is undemocratic, irresponsible and ignores the fact that we have a perfectly good ‘Plan A’ – to cut our emissions. We just need better ways of convincing people to do that. One area that is commonly overlooked when exploring ways to encourage greater climate awareness and action is faith and religion. Islam, in particularly, which is perceived as the faith of oil-rich sheikhs is sidelined with sparse academic research highlighting the insights Islam has to offer an environmentally vulnerable planet. Continue reading →

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Posted in climate change, Climate Justice, Copenhagen, Development, Economy, Environment, Ethical, Green, Islam, Middle East, Muslims

SISTERS Magazine: Green Couples and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Posted on August 24, 2012 | 3 Comments

Here are the latest articles I’ve penned for SISTERS magazine for your reading pleasure. It was great fun to do some proper digging around Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) which is a topic I’ve read about over the years but never really investigated properly. I want to say a huge thanks to Kate Harvey, a Muslim mother of two from Maine, who spoke to me about her personal experiences with MCS and what Muslims can do to help. I also really enjoyed talking to Jake and Laila Thornes from Manchester over a cuppa about their eco lifestyle as they were such a sweet and humble couple mashalla.