Environment and nature

Firefighters spray water to extinguish flames in a forest in Izmir, Turkey, Aug. 16, 2024.

Wildfires spread across Turkey’s tourism hub Izmir amid regionwide heat wave

Wildfires rage in Turkey’s tourist heartland, forcing airport closures and evacuations amid fierce winds.

ORI AVIRAM/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Jerusalem wildfires rage for second day as environmental groups blame Netanyahu

According to Israeli environmental groups, the government has repeatedly ignored calls to prepare for the threat of fires and to take more decisive action on climate change goals.

Ed Giles/Getty Images

17 missing after boat capsizes off Egypt's Red Sea coast

The boat set sail on Sunday despite warnings from the Egyptian Meteorological Authority about large waves on the Red Sea.

US President Joe Biden speaks to the press before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 5, 2024 as he heads to South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Ting Shen / AFP) (Photo by TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden postpones Germany, Angola trips over Hurricane Milton

The White House cited the need to prepare for the "projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton" as well as deal with the impacts of Hurricane Helene.

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Analysis

Climate change, overreliance on Israeli gas add to Egypt's power crisis

The sun sets behind high voltage transmission towers (electricity pylons) along a highway in El-Shorouk, a satellite city about 47 kilometers outside the city center of Cairo, on July 24, 2023.

By Jack Dutton , Rosaleen Carroll

Wildfires in Turkey: 11 dead, 78 injured as heat soars to 50 degrees Celsius

Turkey fire

14 Jordanian, 5 Iranian pilgrims die at Saudi Hajj from extreme heat

Muslim pilgrims pray at dawn on Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the climax of the Hajj pilgrimage on June 15, 2024.

Record rainfall forces Gulf cities to rethink climate change

Motorists drive along a flooded street following heavy rains in Dubai early on April 17, 2024.

United Arab Emirates

An aerial picture shows workers using a crane to plant trees in a park project by the roadside in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on March 29, 2021. Although the OPEC kingpin seems an unlikely champion of clean energy, the "Saudi Green Initiative" aims to reduce emissions by generating half of its energy from renewables by 2030.

Saudi Arabia plans to plant 10 billion trees in the desert

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s tree-planting program raises environmental awareness, helps society reconnect to nature and creates employment opportunities for rural communities.

LNG powered ship

Qatar LNG expansion plan turns spotlight back on methane emissions

The natural gas industry is a major emitter of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that receives less attention than carbon dioxide, despite having a much higher warming potential.

Marine life at a coral reef in the Red Sea waters off the coast of the southern port city of Eilat, Israel, Feb. 10, 2021.

Israel protects two rare fish species in Mediterranean

Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel published a law amendment to protect the Goldblotch grouper fish and the dusky groupers, but marine life lovers say the measures are not enough to ensure the recovery of these species.

TOPSHOT - Palestinian spear-fishermen prepare to dive with an underwater photographer in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 15, 2020. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Oil spill in Mediterranean reaches besieged Gaza Strip

An oil spill in the Mediterranean washed up to the shores of the Gaza Strip, threatening the fish wealth and the beach season amid great challenges for government agencies in Gaza to clean the beach given their lack of appropriate resources.

Volunteers riding in kayaks take part in a water-waste removal and cleanup campaign in the Nile river off the island of Manial in Egypt's capital Cairo on March 7, 2020. - Early one morning in Cairo, a flotilla of some 300 environmental determined activists paddle their kayaks across the Nile, fishing out garbage from the mighty waterway that gave birth to Egyptian civilisation but now faces multiple threats. In the past three years they say they have picked some 37 tonnes of cans, plastic bottles, disposab

Egypt forges ahead with campaign to make the Nile 100% plastic free

The VeryNile initiative has been working since 2018 to remove plastic waste from the Nile River and has launched a project to support the fishermen of Cairo by providing them with additional income and access to health services.

Air pollution covers the Iranian capital Tehran on December 23, 2019. - Schools in Iran's Tehran province have been ordered shut until due to severe air pollution, authorities announced, extending their closure to a full week. Tehran city was cloaked by thick toxic smog for a third successive day on Monday that blanketed out landmarks like Milad Tower and the snow-capped Alborz mountains. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran’s capital suffocating amid blame game over pollution

For nearly a month, residents of the Iranian capital have been exposed to record-high air pollution amid the government’s confusing explanations and failure to work out a solution.

ROSH HA'AYIN, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 21: A passing ultra-Orthodox Jew watches as Aviv Recycling workers use a strong vacuum to move plastic bottles from a collection cage into their truck November 21, 2006 in Rosh Ha'Ayin in central Israel. Aviv managers say they recycle about 15 percent of the country's PET plastic waste annually, some 4,000 metric tons or 80 million bottles, but have the capacity to sort, clean, crush and sell more than double that if recycling programs in Israel were more efficient. (Photo b

The battle against the bottles: Israel extends law on plastic containers

The Knesset Economics Committee has now approved extending the Bottle Deposit Law, so it will also include family-size plastic bottles.

TOPSHOT - A picture taken on May 14, 2019, shows a general view of the Hodeida port in the Yemeni port city, around 230 kilometres west of the capital Sanaa. - Yemen's Huthi rebels have handed over security of key Red Sea ports to the "coastguard" but much work remains to remove military equipment, the UN said. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images)

Yemen’s Houthis grant UN inspectors access to aging oil tanker

Experts say the FSO Safer, a dilapidated vessel that contains more than a million barrels of light crude oil, is at risk of rupturing and spilling more oil than the Exxon Valdez.

Israeli activists and demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a Global Climate Strike in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on September 27, 2019 against inaction on climate change. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel not ready for climate change challenges

Israel is increasing its goals for the use of renewable energies, but the Ministry for Environmental Protection says it is nowhere near enough.

Saudi Arabia warns of ‘oil spot’ near aging tanker off Yemen's coast

UN officials have described the FSO Safer, an aging vessel that contains 1.14 million barrels of light crude oil, as a ticking time bomb.

Access to Asi River turned into left-right battleground in Israel

A tweet by Yair Netanyahu turned a battle over accessing the Asi River into a political war between right and left, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi.

Flooding in Turkey kills at least eight in bitter reminder of climate chaos

The government has pledged to rebuild areas hard hit by a weekend flood, but activists warn the construction of roads, dams and buildings in flood zones means more disasters are likely to follow.