Loggers get $5 a tree in Syria now that the heat of conflict is on, and the cold winter has set it in. In Darkush, Syria, civilians must turn to their environment for the basic need of warmth. Day after day, freezing temperatures prevail, and tree after tree is cut down. The national park to [...]
The Jewish version of Arbor Day Tu B’Shevat is more relevant today than ever. Transformed from a general agricultural holiday into a dedicated arboreal conservation initiative in the early 1900′s, this celebration takes place towards the end of January during the Hebrew month of Shevat. This holiday addresses the travesty that trees previously revered by [...]
A UK-based scientist has removed trees from world famous works of art to highlight the threat of deforestation In the field of climate change, we are constantly asked to imagine nightmarish scenarios. Situations where water may run dry, where mass migrations are provoked by food shortages or where extreme weather events on the rise. These [...]
Lebanon celebrated its Arbor Day on December 7. Activists, students and environmentalists gathered in open spaces to plant trees. Recent years have seen growing grassroots and government efforts to preserve Lebanon’s famed cedar forests, but there has been scant attention paid to rare juniper trees. There is currently no law to protect the vanishing Lebanese [...]
Illegal logging is not only killing the planet – it is supporting organised crime too Back in 2010 we reported on the case of Moroccan activist Mohammed Attaoui who was facing imprisonment for his stance against illegal logging. Living in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, Attaoui insisted that ‘mafia-style’ corruption was behind illegal logging which threatened [...]
Two Carmel forest oak trees lay on ground after being cut down: photo by National Parks Service’s Nathan El Baz It wasn’t enough that less than two years ago Israel’s Carmel forest areas suffered one of the worst fires in Israel’s modern history . Nearby communities like the Ein Hod artist village and Kibbutz Beit [...]
The cedar tree, Lebanon’s national symbol , has been for centuries overused by various civilizations. Reforestation might not bring them back from the brink. The Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus Libani, is an evergreen coniferous plant native to Lebanon, Syria and southern Turkey. Cedar forests once covered the entire Mount Lebanon chain but the cedar,an emblem [...]
The privately-owned Abdali development company promises that the new 384,000 sqm commercial center in the heart of Jordan’s capital Amman will offer “lush inviting spaces that beckon and call for your attention.” “Notice the elements subtly woven into the new downtown’s [sic] environment,” their web marketing person gushed. “Delight in the blossoming urban forest close [...]
“Trees can sense that you’ve come to help them“ – Oded Yaffe: Photo by Ilya Melnikov Helping to save and protect trees is an ongoing task in a small countries like Israel and Jordan that have been frequently plagued by wildfires. And by over development in Jordan. One dedicated person, Oded Yaffe who has devoted his [...]
A bit ridiculous? Change your font size by one point and save trees…? It’s called the Minus One Project, and it is a very neat example of a practical project with one very specific objective: it encourage offices, schools, homes and everyone else to lower their font by one size before printing. Maybe not the perfect idea [...]
Saudi Artist Abdulnasser Gharem is surviving on oxygen released by this tree in the Gulf. If you’ve ever had a plastic bag around your face, even for a second, you will know how quickly it cuts off the oxygen supply. Depending on your character, this can result in immediate panic, or in my case, extreme [...]
Jews around the world celebrated Tu B’Shvat last week. The holiday began as a “new year” for trees – a time when the tithing of fruits was determined. But for the past 100 years it has become known as an ecological holiday.
Authorities in Jordan are stepping up the monitoring of forests to stop illegal logging over the winter months The onset of winter can only mean one thing- the weather is going to get colder and in Jordan, that means a rise in illegal logging. According to the government, illegal logging for heating purposes and for [...]
British Muslim environment campaign Trees4Life explains why Islam encourages tree planting, with hopes to to reduce carbon emission and reforest Middle Eastern/Asia regions, in an exclusive Green Prophet interview.
We already know what plastic bottle trees look like, how will 10 newspaper trees look? For Christmas last year, Israeli artist Hadas Itzcovitch gifted her city of Haifa a tree made from 5480 upcycled plastic bottles (pictured above). Constructed immediately after the disastrous Carmel region fires broke out and destroyed so many trees, Itzcovitch’s tree [...]
Tighten your city’s green belt on World Habitat Day: Plant trees everywhere, in cities all over the Middle East. When we think of treehuggers, and people who advocate treeplanting, we think 80s hippie, or Julia Butterfly Hill, the gal who lived in a tree for 2.5 years to fight against deforestation. Or the old-fashioned model [...]
The Groasis Waterboxx inventions provides the perfect micro-climate for plants to grow in dead zones - deserts and mountain slopes. Read how it works.
The sting operation “Weeds in the Underbrush” uncovered a cartel of tree-trimmers in Israel. It’s really quite common to see the entire tops of trees lobbed off, and sitting by the side of the road in Tel Aviv, and other cities in Israel. It makes one sad, especially since it’s often done in the summer [...]
Latin America, once a part of the Spanish Empire, is home to Trees Give Life, the Muslim ran tree planting project. Read more on the tree huggers in Mexico.
Palestine’s green city attracts new criticism after developers admit they will be replacing 3,000 JNF trees with indigenous olive trees Rawabi, Palestine’s first planned and green city was bound be a project full of stumbling blocks. An ambitious plan to help revive the fortunes of the West Bank, it not only had to prove its [...]
The campaign to stop the destruction of 2,200 trees in Jordan’s Ajloun forest gathers pace as the government states it now will assess the environmental impact of the proposed development project In response to the demands of the ‘Halt Ajloun Deforestation’ campaign, the Jordanian government announced it will now carry out an assessment of the [...]
The answer to climate woes for pines and and maples may be blowing in the wind. Sad news so soon after the Jewish New Year for the trees: Many tree species might become extinct due to climate change if no action is taken in time: This is the conclusion of a new research study from [...]
Myths and facts about the “Jewish Earth Day” This Wednesday evening and Thursday, Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of Tu B’Shevat (15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat). Tu B’shevat traditions include planting new trees, and eating dried fruit. Tu B’Shevat has also become the Jewish Earth Day, to celebrate the environment [...]
Environmentalists have called for urgent action to save the last 400 argun palm trees, a rare desert palm tree highly valued by the ancient Egyptians In the remote regions of Sudan and Egypt the argun palm tree- a rare desert tree whose fruit was discovered by archaeologists in Pharaoh tombs- grows under a harsh sun. [...]
This Lebanese oak tree has survived for 1500 years, but many others were destroyed in recent forest fires. Sawdust from Lebanese cedars has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and the Bible recounts how the trees were brought to Jerusalem for the building of Solomon’s Temple. The cedar even appears on the Lebanese flag. But [...]
Sometimes less is more. WWF creates a brilliant file format that can’t be printed. The Chinese used to write books on silk. Think about that for a second. If you thought you had to produce an entire sheet of silk in order to pass on that really bad joke your father sent you, might you [...]
Muslim starts sustainable tree planting operation to make Ethiopia green once again. Visiting Ethiopia after a thirty year absence, Geshaw Tahir an Ethiopian-born Muslim was struck by one thing. The green landscapes and trees that once surrounded his home had all but disappeared and were replaced with dry fields, eroded and ruined after years of deforestation. [...]
What is your T-shirt saying? Buy one of these and you plant a tree in Lebanon. T-shirts have been used to convey messages for decades. These days, popular messages on tees may indicate what city you’re a fan of (as in I heart NY) or what brands you like (in the form of a big [...]
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 [...]
‘Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops’ (Green Books,UK) by Martin Crawford This book is unusual. Firstly, by virtue of covering the topic of forest gardening at all, but also unusual in another respect. Many gardening books either concentrate on being packed with practical How-To information, or on offering glossy fantasies [...]
Trees tell stories. And it’s not just because you can see and measure their rings. In Israel there are thousands of old trees with history. Serious history. Some have “seen” great battles, heard prophets, witnessed the advent of new religions and the rise and fall of different empires through the ages. The Jewish National Fund [...]
As Karin has reminded us, Tu B’Shvat (the new year holiday for the trees) is coming up in a couple weeks. This means that many people are gathering dried fruits and nuts (in a squirrel-like fashion), but it also means that others are planning a Tu B’Shvat seder. What is a Tu B’Shvat seder? The [...]
Summer is always hot in the Middle East, but this season has gotten really fiery in Lebanon, where blazes have damaged over 15 million square meters of forest since June. The Lebanese Daily Star reports that farmers who burn their land after clearing it don’t take note of wind and dry conditions that quickly spiral [...]
In Israel for the first time last week, Hollywood stars Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts (and their two cute kids) planted a pistachio tree (and other trees) in the Galilee with the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Though we loved their appearances in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “King Kong”, we think that tree planting certificates and [...]
A UN worldwide tree planting campaign has now reached the 4 billion mark in its drive to plant 7 billion trees world wide. The campaign is being undertaken to fight the effects of climate change; as well as to prevent soil erosion, one of the most common reasons for desertification in many parts of the [...]
Earlier this year, we saw members of the Lebanese group IndyACT trek out into the snowy wilderness to protect Lebanon’s snow from catastrophic climate change. This week IndyACT members, along with their friends in the Association for Forest Development and Conservation (AFDC) were back in action, putting the heat (so to speak) on decision-makers to [...]
(Yuli Ziv, founder of MyItThings, cofounder of the Style Coalition) I first talked to Yuli Ziv when she was in the middle of a paparazzi storm. It was Fashion Week in New York and she was just about to enter the Justin Timberlake show. Walking over to her website MyItThings, the Tel Aviv native, now [...]
“So Hiram, King of Tyre, gave King Solomon timber of cedar and timber of cypress according to all his desire.”-Book of Kings vs. 24 A recent article by Ahmed Khatib in the Lebanese Daily Star emphasized the dangers of climate change and global warming to Lebanon‘s remaining cedar groves, which have been a historic national [...]
Each week Orthodox Jews read one segment of the Five Books of Moses so that they can complete the entire Five Books within the course of a year. In last week’s Eco-Rabbi post we discussed water and life. In this week I will discuss man, trees and the receiving of the Bible (Torah) on Mount [...]
Our resourceful friends at the Bedouin NGO Bustan are refusing to allow the current tension in the South of Israel affect them. Despite having to cancel some tree planting dates due to the war and the related school closures, they have upped sticks to Tel Aviv and are organising a benefit evening this coming wednesday [...]