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Israel starts The National Institute for Climate Policy Research

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel will create The National Institute for Climate Policy Research to promote science-based policy. By translating scientific knowledge into best practices, the Institute aims to pioneer evidence-based policy solutions, ensuring sustainability and prosperity across all levels of governance and industry. Climate change policy in Israel is lacking.

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Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future

A few short decades ago, the ladies of Lakiya had a very different life. Their traditional Bedouin clans lived in encampments throughout the Israeli Negev Desert, herding animals. When their families were relocated to government-built towns, the women became aware of how their illiteracy, and their society’s rule against mingling with men who are not […]

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Will Dark-sky Ecotourism Spread to the Mideast?

Israel’s Negev Desert, Jordan’s Mount Nebo, Medaba and Wadi Rum are a few dark sky destinations for stargazing. Paris is known as the city of lights. So is Medina Saudi Arabia, Be’er Sheva Israel and Las Vegas, Nevada. We shouldn’t overlook Baltimore Maryland, Varanasi India, Quanzhou China and Milford Pennsylvania. Each of these cities is also […]

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It Took 15 Years to Build This and That’s a Good Thing

Remember the good old days when it took decades to build major monuments? Historians estimate that 30 years passed before the back-breaking pyramids of Giza came to glory, for example, and more than a century after construction began in 1882, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is still not finished. Although laborers might disagree, there’s something […]

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Is Urbanizing the Solution to Israel’s Housing Crisis?

Forest in central Israel, as seen from Ein Karem Some architects and economists are proposing Israel solve its affordable housing crisis by turning central Israel into a “megacity,” similar to Hong Kong, and moving the nation’s lush nature reserves and agricultural lands to the Negev and the Galilee. Supporters of this solution insist it would […]