The damage inflicted on Egypt’s lakes testifies to man’s ability to quickly destroy what nature took centuries to create. Lakes — or wetlands — add to the varied topography of the country, but environmental damage is seriously jeopardizing their habitats. In some cases…

Omar Samra, the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest in 2007, is one step away from achieving his “7 Summits Challenge” of climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents. Last January Samra successfully climbed the sixth of…

The leading slogan of Egypt’s revolution has been “Bread, Freedom and Human Dignity,” reflecting the deterioration of Egyptians’ quality of life throughout Mubarak’s thirty-year reign. Consequently, an array of human rights issues have featured among the demands made since the…

For many years, Upper Egypt has not been on the radar in terms of concerted national development policies. But it is a region with much potential for developing a sustainable tourism sector that would benefit its population by creating job…

One of the few new faces in Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet is Minister for Environmental Affairs Mostafa Hussein Kamel. A number of cabinet changes following the January revolution left Mubarak-era Environment Minister Maged George untouched. As he was a military man,…

Although the Middle East contributes relatively little to greenhouse gas emissions on a global level, several studies have shown that the region is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These effects include severe droughts, water shortages, and flooding…

Egypt is currently gripped by campaign frenzy as candidates prepare for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Not only is there a staggering number of new political parties, but also issues that had previously been overlooked are finally being addressed by electoral…

It would be difficult to negate the view that our planet is facing an increasing amount of environmental problems. Environmentalists strive to highlight the fact that ongoing efforts seeking to address these wide-ranging problems still fall short in attaining a…

Measuring the gross domestic product (GDP) of a nation continues to be the main indicator of its economic strength. GDP refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country during a given period of…

Food safety is a multi-layered problem involving an array of issues, whether environmental, health or economic in nature. What seems to distinguish it, in Egypt at least, is the fact that it is yet to receive the attention required to…