Entries by Circle of Blue

Super Dam: Egyptian Concern for Nile Water Security Spurs Cooperation Over Ethiopia’s New Dam

The dust of Egypt’s leadership transition has barely begun to settle, and already the new government is working to forestall any loss in supply or access to the Nile’s waters. Meanwhile, Ethiopia continues upstream with one of the largest hydropower projects in the world.

Q&A: Photographer Norbert Schiller on the Nile River Basin

In reporting on the Nile River Basin, Circle of Blue spoke with Norbert Schiller, a journalist and photographer with more than 25 years of experience covering the Middle East and Africa. He is currently a columnist for Mint Press News.

Deep Sea Gas: China Follows Japan in Pursuit of New Energy Source

Though methane hydrate, a newly discovered unconventional natural gas reserve, is seen as an alternative to coal-fueled power, the technology for tapping deepwater supplies is not yet viable.

Iraq’s First National Park: A Story of Destruction and Restoration in the Mesopotamian Marshlands

The inauguration of Iraq’s first national park earlier this summer represents a step toward national rebuilding for the war-torn country. But restoration of Iraq’s marshes also offers a grander vision for regional water cooperation throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

Azzam Alwash

Can war end in environmental rejuvenation? It did for Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshlands, believed by many to be the Biblical Garden of Eden. The marshes — straddled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that wind their way from Turkey’s eastern mountains through the desert plains of the Middle East — were systematically destroyed by Saddam Hussein’s […]

Punjab’s Food Producers

Before the Green Revolution of the mid-1960s, growers in northern India produced an elegant feast of native fruits, grains, and vegetables. By the 1980s, Punjab and Haryana states had together become the largest rice and wheat producers in India.

Chandigarh, Shared Capital of Punjab and Haryana

Home to 1 million, Chandigarh is considered the ‘cleanest city’ in India. It also has the highest per capita income, thanks in large part to the agricultural boom since the Green Revolution of the 1960s in both Punjab and Haryana states of northern India.