For two days this week, at Jerusalem’s Conference Centre, the first Jerusalem Environment and Nature Conference took place. You can read a preview post here. For this Green Prophet correspondent and greenie, it wasn’t the dull political speeches and pontificating that mattered (all of the politicians who showed up, spoke and left immediately, kindly donated […]
Could nature ever obliterate all our traces? How would it undo our monumental cities and public works, and reduce all our myriad plastics and toxic synthetics back to benign, basic elements? Alan Weisman: ‘The World Without Us’ 2007 Halfway through reading this enthralling book, I realized I was looking at the world in a new […]
If you love the moving image as much as us here at Green Prophet, and believe in its power as an agent of change as well as information and entertainment, here’s advance notice of the 5th ‘Eco-Cinema Festival’, which opens tomorrow night at Jerusalem’s Cinemateque on Hebron Road. Opening with Israeli director Uri Rosenwaks new […]
This is some advance publicity for a film I haven’t yet seen, but it comes from a highly talented Israeli director Uri Rosenwaks, who made ‘The Film Class’ (2006) about the black Bedouin tribes of Rahat two years ago, which I highly reccommend as an illuminating portrait of a fascinating and little-known part of society, […]
Here at Green Prophet we regularly publicize the bigger recycling initiatives around the country that we hear about, like our recent posts on Plastic Bags & Art Recycling , Smell the Recycled Roses, and Abu Yoyo: Closing the Loop in Banner Advertising. While we hope these large scale inspiring projects keep coming, and we salute […]
To follow up with some more candidates for Israel’s bird poll, here are two more beauties: the Barn Owl (‘Tinshemet’ in Hebrew) and the Lesser Kestrel (‘Buz Adom’). This whole exercise seems to be an interesting lesson in exploring human anthropocentrism in naming other species. Barn Owl Lesser Kestrel We don’t really understand what’s “lesser” […]
Here as promised, bird lovers, are 2 more of the candidates in the Green Prophet/Israel National Bird Poll: The Hoopoe The Palestine Sunbird Is the Palestine or Yellow Tufted Sunbird the same as the Olive Backed Sunbird? It looks very beautiful, and as the olive is the unofficial food/fruit of the Middle East, maybe that […]
Here is a Green Prophet exclusive: our very own poll to vote for Israel’s National Bird! View Poll |View Results Online Poll PoweredBy MicroPoll Following on from the recent post ‘Choosing Israel’s National Bird’ (which you can read here) which explains the intense media and national interest in deciding which feathered friend should represent Israel from […]
We are delighted to be able to share this enlightening article on greening sex and sexuality, courtesy of our friends over at the Dinah Project. The Dinah Project is a wonderful endeavor in promoting healthy sexuality from a woman’s perspective (but not exclusively), through education, open communication, and recommendation based on experience as educators and […]
While we at Green Prophet wouldn’t encourage anyone to clutter their lives with tons of stuff, there are some wonderful green gadgets on the marketplace now – the Solio mobile phone charger for instance, uses all this wonderful ‘shemesh’ we have instead of electricity … and Israel is at the forefront of this research and […]
Feeling gloomy and despondent about Climate Change? Do you feel, like my dear Welsh friend Tim in London whose default position on this (and everything) is that we are all “doomed”? Well, we here at Green Prophet are all about finding optimistic solutions, and giving attention to some of the projects that are trying in […]
Mongolia, nestled between twin superpowers China and Russia, is home to the world’s last truly nomadic population of herders, living seasonally across the vast Gobi Desert. I’m a passionate scholar of all things Mongolian, having lived there for nearly a year some years back, and this gave birth to my fascination with Indigenous peoples and […]
Green Prophet today heard about an interesting environmental conference we thought readers would like advance warning of: the Jerusalem Environment & Nature Conference, to be held at the capital’s Binyanei HaUma Conference Centre, on May 18-19. The conference features 6 sessions over the 2 days, all exploring the perspective of what has been achieved here […]
Green Prophet was contacted this week by a green husband and wife team who are in the eco-business of making composters here in Israel (see left). Regular readers of GP will know that we are mad for composting: Mulch, Rot, Invigorate and A Half Empty Bin and Some Worms. Ilan Bar-Kat and Lisa Bloom live […]
Mathis Wackernagel, Phd, co-creator of the term ‘Ecological Footprint’, will be in Israel on Thursday, speaking at a Tel Aviv University Porter Environmental School presentation. Wackernagel completed his doctorate in Community & Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and his thesis research led to his development of the concept of […]
“The Land, in its depth, does not forget” S.Yizhar (1916 – 2006) S.Yizhar (Yizhar Smilansky) was Israel’s foremost writer, professor of literature and education, and long serving MK, but primarily a man of the land. He served the State of Israel in many ways, as soldier in the War of Independence, as peacemaker, formidable politician […]
I recently spent a wonderful week relaxing and enjoying the green and quiet of Tuscany, an area of Italy steeped in viticulture and olive oil production. We went there to rest, write and read, dip into the pools of mountain streams, and kick back high in the quiet mountainous area outside Fivizzano, an ancient town […]
Yes folks, to celebrate the coming of spring, we here at Green Prophet have a great green giveaway! Thanks to the kind people over at Sourcebooks Publishers (sourcebooks.com), we have 2 copies of ‘Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style‘ by Christie Matheson to give away. See the recent Green Prophet review of ‘Green Chic’ […]
“Embrace the fabulousness of green living” Green Chic – Saving The Earth in Style by Christie Matheson Don’t believe it is possible to remain stylish while going green and living a simpler, more planet-friendly lifestyle? Then this book is for you – writer Christie Matheson has aimed her new book precisely at this target […]
Municipal elections will be held across Israel in November, and here in Jerusalem the current incumbent, Uri Lupolianski, will be challenged by Nir Barkat and Arcadi Gaydamek. While Jerusalem is always hotly contested for many reasons, this year a coalition of green groups has launched an initiative to get the environmental agenda high on each […]
“We are not gaining knowledge with every generation. We are losing it. A dark and gathering sameness is upon the world.” – Terry Glavin – ‘The Lost & Left Behind: stories from the age of extinction’ 2007 This is one of those very few books that sit right in the hand – a few pages […]
Back in January I wrote about the ‘Tread Lightly’ environmental project run by the Guardian Newspaper in the UK, (you can read the previous post here) and promised an update, so 3 months later, I’ve reviewed my pledges and progress, and that of the entire community who signed up – to date, 4209 folk around […]
Brits amongst us might well be familiar with the concept of ‘green’ or ‘ethical banking’ through publicity surrounding the Cooperative Bank and Triodos, or other UK high street banks that are falling over themselves to offer this new, trendy financial facility, which is also spreading rapidly through the American banking system; but what about Israel? […]
I’ve been researching Bedouin issues in the Negev Desert for about 5 years, and one of the first individuals I met was Nuri El-Ukbi. Nuri and the El-Ukbi tribe have claims to the land named in arabic El-Araquib, which is roughly situated between Rahat and Beersheva. It is a vast area of land, roughly 19,000 […]
Next time you find yourself wandering through the Wilderness of Zin, Trekking in Timna or lost in Lahav Forest, spare a thought for young Christopher Johnson McCandless, whose dreams of tramping to Alaska foundered in 2003 when he died trapped in an abandoned bus on his way there. He was trapped in the sense that […]