December 29, 2009, Updated September 24, 2012

Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians hosted a cross-border workshop on environment blogging to spur Middle East change in response to a call from the United Nations (UN).

Since most countries in the Middle East have much to improve in all areas of environmental protection, the UN has called for more reporting on the environment in the Middle East to spur awareness and change.

In response, environmentalists and writers from Palestine, Jordan and Israel met in Madaba, Jordan in late December for a two-day workshop: “Blogging for the Environment,” sponsored by three organizations that took on the UN challenge: Green Prophet, the premier Middle East environment news blog; the Jordanian youth organization Masar Center; and the Palestinian Volunteering for Peace group that organizes service trips for foreigners.

Funded by the San Francisco-based United Religions Initiative, 19 prominent journalists and bloggers in Arabic, Hebrew and English met to brainstorm new ways to report on and instigate environmental change in areas of activism, design, urban health, religion and clean technologies. The bloggers plan on reporting their encounter on GreenProphet.com.

Green Prophet founder Karin Kloosterman says, “The environment is a leveler connecting Muslims, Jews and Christians in this part of the world. By focusing on our shared challenges like global warming, water and pollution, we hope to encourage the crucial conversations and work in the field for a cleaner, more rewarding and sustainable Middle East.”

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