Reflections on a visit to the USA during the first days of the Obama era, and in the wake of the Israeli elections.

New “personal rapid transit” electric taxis will be in operation by the fall.

Photo by the author. One of those standards jokes/complaints that you hear a lot in the Middle East is “well, unfortunately, we have no oil in this country.” I hear this line often in Israel. People use it to express how much better life would be for us if we were an oil producing nation, [...]

Abu Dhabi is out to recast itself as the Silicon Valley of renewable energy technologies.

Masdar City in Abu Dhabi: zero waste, no cars, carbon-neutral, and powered by renewable energy. Could this be the template for future cities?

A revolution in green city design or a modern-day Shangri-La? On this increasingly urban planet, it’s becoming clear that the solutions to our problems will come from our cities. But what happens when it is our cities themselves that are creating most of these problems? The emergence of the ecocity concept has been one of [...]

Inspired by the original, Brazilian politicians are adopting the name Barack Obama.

The following is a sort of war diary that I kept during the recent violent conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, known in Israel as “Operation Cast Lead.” This text, my own personal protest against the war, was published on my blog in real time during the first few days of fighting, and reflects [...]

A photo essay by Daniel Cherrin.

Once a year, people who live in the city are given the right to explore it freely, without the beeping, noise and exhaust of half a million cars. Above: Kids on bikes cruise past the Azrieli towers. That’s right – Yom Kippur. A somber day of introspection in most of Israel, in mellow Tel Aviv [...]