“My story gathering has led me all over the world. Each journey took me to a perfect example of one facet of the problem or one hint of a solution. I was near the end before I realised that I had looked for my answers on several of the world’s most forgotten islands, self-contained places that have a gift for prophecy…”
Alanna Mitchell is a great writer, an excellently capable and determined journalist, and most importantly, someone who cares about the state of the earth and all the species that inhabit it.
In her 2005 book ‘Dancing at the Dead Sea’, which grew out of winning an environmental journalist of the year award, Mitchell crossed the world and doggededly pursued leads and contacts to uncover some of the key environmental issues, in some of the key hotspots. This is a finely crafted and evocative tale of that journey, beginning in Jordan, on the banks of the Dead Sea, where she was collecting the award. The award led to a residency at Oxford University in the UK, where her fascination with the work of Charles Darwin was able to flourish, and she was able to start walking in his footsteps. She writes as a talented interpreter of his theory for the modern green or eco-conscious audience, and weaves Darwin’s life and thought through her own journeys, both personal and professional. Continue Reading »
The wonderful wild weather of last week, and according to forecasts, in the week to come; has inspired a series of special water-related posts. This first one examines the findings of a new International report focusing on the condition of the World’s Oceans. It does not unfortunately make for happy reading………………….
Ben Halpern, a research scientist in California published a report last week in Science Journal, which concluded that only about 4% of the world’s oceans remain unaffected by human activity. Pollution, fishing (read ‘over fishing’) and climate change feature at the top of a list of 17 human activities that have destroyed pristine ocean areas and irreparably damaged water quality, marine life, and the fragile eco-system that exists beneath the waves. Continue Reading »
Channel One’s Yoman reports on the struggle by residents of Florentine, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, against the city’s building plans in the area. The city wants to build a ring of skyscrapers encircling the adjacent Neve Tzedek neighborhood, as well as a new neighborhood in Florentine that would include buildings up to 11 stories tall. According to residents, there is no logic in building expensive apartments in skyscrapers for absentee foreign residents while people who live and work in the neighborhood are being pushed out because of a lack of affordable housing, kindergartens, schools and parks.
The struggle in this bohemian neighborhood, where artists and students live in small apartments above cafes and workshops, reflects the current discourse regarding the changing character of the city, which is intensifying as the mayoral election approaches. Meanwhile, says Mayor Ron Huldai, “Everything I do, I do on behalf of the southern neighborhoods and the disadvantaged.”
Jerusalem art students tried their luck recently at weaning Israelis off their addiction to plastic bags at the city’s Machane Yehuda market. Green Prophet recently reported on ‘Plastic for Free’ phenomenon of nylon-binging in Israeli shops, so it’s welcome news that their new shopping bags are not only eco-friendly (made from cloth instead of plastic), they’re cheap (1 shekel each) and stylish too (courtesy of students from the nearby Bezalel Academy of Art and Design). In my report for the Jerusalem Post I recounted an all-too familiar shopping experience in Israel:
“Don’t worry, it’s only a plastic bag,” a fellow shopper at Mahaneh Yehuda market told me when I declined the offer of a free plastic bag to carry home my groceries.
Their antidote the nylon-addiction comes in the shape of the woolen sakita. Alas, the limited-edition bags were all snapped up in one day, but the idea behind them is long-term: there is an alternative to plastic bags (or if you can’t resist them, then at least re-use them). And in case you were wondering why this matters, Israelis use five billion plastic bags each year which, if they don’t end up in landfill sites, litter open spaces and kill wildlife that swallow them.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to act” is a personal motto of two enterprising environmental pioneers, Devora Liss & Shoshanah Finkelman, who have initiated the Jerusalem Of Green Project, based at the Mercaz HaMagshimim (New Immigrant Absorption and Community Centre) in Jerusalem’s German Colony.
The JOG Project mentors anyone who has an idea for an environmental project, and gives them the necessary support, resources and a little funding to get the idea up and running.
Currently there are 4 projects that Shoshanah and Devora oversee, both through a monthly ’round table’ meeting with all the participants, and with regular one to one sessions with each participant.
The projects in development right now include a Recycling Initiative for Yeshiva students; a Green Audit project that gives householders and families the chance to have their lifestyle and energy output ‘audited’, and a scheme to bring to shoppers and shops on Emek Refaim in the German colony a localised cloth shopping bag, in place of the ubiquitous (and hopefully soon to be outlawed) plastic bag.
I will report back on these projects and how they develop over the next few months in a series of special posts. Continue Reading »
Last week Green Prophet introduced Sophie from Tinok Yarok, when she started her weekly column on ‘greening’ your baby. This week Sophie discusses the cloth nappy debate. Thinking about switching to the cloth diapers of yesteryear? Here’s Sophie’s take:
This week I am introducing you all to the cloth nappy debate. This is a big one so it will probably run for a few weeks. Next week I will take you through all the different types of cloth nappies available and will also talk about doing without; then there’s all those so called accessories, so stick around and let’s hear what you think too!
For today’s Eco-Mum, options are happily increasing all the time and nobody can say that it is like days gone by. Cloth nappies come in all shapes and sizes allowing mum and baby to find the best and comfiest option possible. So what’s all the fuss about? Continue Reading »
I stepped off the bus this evening and standing on the sidewalk before me was this great alien looking device. It was about two thirds my height, a bit wider, but square, with flashing lights emitting from the top. This device, while it appeared to come from another planet or dimension, it seems was a garbage can, solar-style.
Solar power seems to be one of the most promising alternative energy out there… The reason? It’s out there! The question is how to harness it: The car? More efficient cells? How about trash?
While most Israelis take pride in having made the desert bloom, some of the imported “blooms” have been contested over the years as threats to the ecosystem. In a land where Biblical passages echo everywhere, it’s sometimes disconcerting to realize just how dramatically the face of the landscape has been changed in recent years, and how many sources of that change have their roots–so to speak–in foreign soil.
A particular source of controversy is the pine tree forests, which are a 20th century invention in these parts. Now some researchers are asking: has the pine tree gotten a bad rap? And more interestingly, can dramatic changes to the ecosystem, performed without knowledge or understanding of ecology–still be okay?
Green Prophet has some cool news, which we can’t announce just yet. But talk of the “news” spurred some internal dialogue amongst our writers.
And it’s not only us. Our readers have also been asking about organic gardening during the shmitta year.
Are there any loopholes around the halacha?
What does shmitta mean?
We love the idea of shmitta. The biblically ordained one year out of seven when the land is left to lie fallow (this applies to the land of Israel only, btw). We’d been talking about it and what it all means. No sooner had I pressed the send button on my email to James and Jack, and we get a message in our comments section from Michael Doniger.
Have our prayers (and questions) about shmitta been answered?
Bring out the tissues. When we heard the news that a 15 metre fin whale had made it to Ashkelon, in Israel, our hearts filled with joy. We know whales have come to these shores before. Take Jona and the Whale story, for example. Our hearts sunk. The young female calf found swimming off the shores of Israel has died.
After struggling and thrashing for half an hour around the port, near the Israeli town of Ashkelon, reports the Jerusalem Post, the calf finally sank below the water’s surface. Obviously in distress, the Ashkelon police, divers and distraught veterinarians stood helpless along the shore, unable to get the whale to deeper water.
Television footage showed air bubbles on the water’s surface slowly fading away. Newspaper reports say the cause of death unknown. “We tried to show him the way to the opening of the port but he came back in,” said Aviad Sheinin, chairman of the Israeli Marine Mammal Research Center.
“Obviously it’s a very sad situation for us. Fin whales don’t come very often to Israel,” he said.
Now that the snow has cleared, its time to give the garden and plants and trees some energy and care again……
My compost bin is made from 2 old pallets, found abandoned on the streets. There are 3 fixed sides, screwed together, and a fourth wall, which is moved into place as and when. From other bits of the pallet, I made slabs of wood that with the aid of stakes knocked into the earth, when balanced on top of one another, form an internal dividing wall.
This splits the bigger bin into two: one for current compost, the other for compost that I’ve stopped adding to, and other than an occasional random turn with a fork, is being left for however long it takes to completely decompose (or is subject to the whims of my gardening patience, which varies depending on the season and what’s growing). knocking this together is so easy, and depending on how fancy you want the bin to be, needs only the pallets, a dozen screws or nails, a hammer and a drill, muscle and elbow grease.
Remember, your plants (and the planet) will thank you. Continue Reading »
It’s hardly surprising that “Survivor” is a hit: who doesn’t come home from work and immediately hunger to watch white trash in bikini tops hurling bleeped insults at each other over a picturesque campfire? Is it just us?
Anyway, it turns out that “Survivor” is not just the last refuge of the dregs of every culture; it is also an ecological hazard. And now the Israeli “Survivor” is taking heat for filming in a Dominican Republic nature reserve.
We’ve been to visit the straw bale legends Bill and Athena Stein in Arizona. Israelis are getting into their own groove building with strawbale. Watch the time-lapsed video and the creation of a straw bale geodesic dome, at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava Valley.
Lately, we are of the notion that it’s more green to build and rebuild in the city rather than develop new tracts of land, but if you must build that eco-village in the desert, an earth-friendly approach is key. See more on Kibbutz Lotan here (eco-guesthousing in Israel.
Greening your life, doesn’t require you to overhaul your house. In previous weeks, we discussed small ways you can green your kitchen and your bathroom; we’ve even started a series for greening your baby. This week, let’s take a look at the bedroom.
When John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded the song Give Peace a Chance from their hotel bedroom in Montreal during a 10 day honeymoon bed-in, it was hardly random that they chose their sleeping quarters as the place to launch their political campaign against war.”We are just looking for a little peace,” John wrote in a song about the event. Continue Reading »
Israelis, as the saying goes, are like a cactus fruit, because they are prickly on the outside but sweet in the middle. We kind of think Israelis are like bamboo too: strong as steel but soft and smooth. (If you are into eco-chic, you’ll know why we are talking about bamboo.)
Thanks to Designist Dream, we learn that Israelis are getting into bamboo, which is a material perfect for furniture and even kids toys. Those in the know consider bamboo to be one of the best alternatives to wood.
Bamboo is “green” for a number of reasons. It is stronger than oak, the most durable hardwood, and it can withstand wear and tear. Continue Reading »
For years it has seemed that Israel and Thailand were enjoying a trade agreement that should keep both sides happy: we send Thailand our pushy and notoriously litterbug tourists, and they send us their illegal workers to scrub floors for half price.
But it seems that Israel has something else to offer Thailand in addition to its young, its daredevils, and its midlife crisis suffering thrill seekers–and that something is water technology. Continue Reading »
Jerusalem, the Holy City for three religions, is often known as Jerusalem of Gold due to the yellowy-pink stones from which the buildings are cut. Until the winter that is. We’ve had heavy snowfall in the city this past 24 hours covering it in white and leaving schools, businesses and buses at a standstill (check the view from my balcony – left).
Israel’s climate has gone a little crazy recently, with an exceptionally mild spell until mid-January, since when temperatures have dropped to a record low. The extent to which this is connected to man-made climate change remains speculation for now. But one thing scientists are more certain of is that the fragile and arid environment in Israel, and many of its neighbours, will be especially vulnerable to the fluctuations in global climate predicted in the future.
Kids in Beit Shemesh schools–religious and secular alike–will soon be learning about environmental issues. A new initiative on the part of Sviva Israel, a religious environmental NGO, is bringing discussion of ecological topics into the classroom.
In particular, kids will learn how to recognize their “ecological footprint” and be encouraged to tread lightly with some practical tips, such as how to recycle. Kids will present the ways in which they’ve reduced their carbon footprint before the class.
This recently published book’s full title is ‘A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel’s Rift Valley,’ and it is just that; in 2004 Jerusalem-based writer and translator Haim Watzman took 2 weeks to travel up the Jordan Valley from Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shmonah in the far north, meeting a wide range of people intimately connected with the valley, and reflecting upon the environment of the diverse area.
The resulting fascinating and well-written travelogue chronicles the human ecology of this geological place. It doesn’t try to be a resource of the environmental issues there, and yet in his written meditations and recording of conversations, with Uzi Avner for instance, former chief archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Eilat region, Watzman succeeds in blending stories of rock formations, geological shifts, tales of ancient peoples told through their remains, and weaving in and out of all these, Israel’s ongoing struggle for survival and relations with its neighbours. Continue Reading »
“My story gathering has led me all over the world. Each journey took me to a perfect example of one facet of the problem or one hint of a solution. I was near the end before I realised that I had looked for my answers on several of the world’s most forgotten islands, self-contained places that have a gift for prophecy…”
