It’s easy for us to think of modern humans as the sole destroyers of all things living, but ancient humans also competed with other predators, using traps. This includes nomadic people from what is now Israel’s Negev Desert. A 5,000 year-old leopard trap, made from piles of stone, was just identified in Israel.
Sucked dry by an unforgiving sun, my travel companion and I were badly in need of hydration and nourishment yesterday afternoon. Frankly, I had resigned myself to a day full of headaches and delirium, but then we stumbled across an improbable oasis located miles from nowhere in Israel’s Arava desert. Once no more than a ramshackle […]
A young child sits in a Haitian tent city – a temporary housing solution for displaced refugees. Thousands of African migrants will soon be moved to similar units in Israel’s Negev Desert to the dismay of local residents. Following a spate of violence against African migrants living in southern Tel Aviv, the Defense Ministry has […]
Climatology models applied to urban planning could yield greener cities. If you have ever walked down the street in a city full of high rises and felt a sudden blast of cold air, or witnessed a swirling mass of dried leaves, chances are you experienced an artificial microclimate created by the surrounding buildings. It turns […]
Thanks to a recent decision by Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister, Tourists heading for Ramon Crater won’t have to compete with unsightly transmission lines. As we push to exploit the Negev desert’s ubiquitous solar energy, we inevitably have to deal with evacuating said energy. Typically that involves unsightly transmission infrastructure: towers, lines, transformers, and more. Israel […]
Ancient farmers used indigenous knowledge to sustain communities at Avdat in the central Negev as many as seven thousand years ago. That wisom may hold the key to the future according to specialists. I visited Avdat this August on one of the hottest days of the year when temperatures soared well above 40 degrees. Then, atop the […]
The Mayor of Omer insists that Bedouins are behind the felling of thousands of trees on disputed lands. Every so often we are put in the unfortunate position of having to weigh our environmental concerns against socio-political issues. A while ago, we wrote about Palestinian architect Omar Yousef whose philosophy and style are based on […]
Solar Millennium AG is the next in a string of companies to withdraw its bid from the tumultuous Ashelim tender in Israel. In their recent newsletter, Bloomberg reports that the German solar power plant developer Solar Millennium AG has withdrawn its joint bid for a 240 MW solar thermal project with the Israeli firm Minerva […]
Israeli solar energy innovator Sunday Energy has been chosen to construct a solar energy panel array in a section of the country’s Negev desert region, according to an article in Globes financial news. The 5 mw installation will be constructed together with Moshav Yad Natan in a 120 dunam (42.5 acre) area where the land […]
For many tourists to the Israeli Negev desert, a visit to the Bedouins includes a commercialized camel ride and perhaps an afternoon spent in a tent near Mitzpeh Ramon. But as the Jerusalem Post writes, the Desert Sites tourist company is offering a revolutionary immersion Arabic course in the last week of July in the […]
For those of you familiar with the typical American college student spring break, you know that it generally entails transporting an Animal House environment to exotic locations such as Cancun, Fort Lauderdale, the Bahamas, or the Carribean. However there has been a movement in recent years to offer students an alternative to these stereotypical spring […]
With everything going on over the past month, many of our thoughts have been turned towards the southern area of Israel and the Negev. At more than 60% of the country’s land mass, however, the Negev desert should really be part of the Israeli consciousness more often. Community based NGO Shvuat ha-Adamah/Earth’s Promise, based in […]
Last week we wrote about Kibbutz Kramim, a cooperative in the Negev that is currently working on building a multicultural model of environmental sustainability in the form of an eco village. And this week we’d like to introduce you to Elias Messinas, the green architect behind the operation. Messinas’ firm is the strategic environmental consultant […]
With so much negativity in the southern part of the country and the Negev right now, it is refreshing to learn about positive things going on in the region, such as the blossoming eco-village Kramim. Founded recently by a group of visionary young Israelis and immigrant families, Kramim hopes to serve as a multicultural model […]
We’ve seen that environmentally conscious tourism is becoming more than a buzz word, what with government initiatives stepping in, and the various alternatives in eco-tourism that Israel now offers–including Kazakh yurts! Australian-born tour guide Zel Lederman customizes personal tours for groups and families with Israel Travel Company: Israel Off the Beaten Track, including tours with […]