They say hope floats. Israel’s premiere environmental architecture firm Geotectura has certainly taken this statement to heart. Joseph Cory a designer at Geotectura, has worked with an aerospace engineer, to develop floating solar balloons capable of collecting solar energy in crowded cityscapes and places where large solar panels are not a viable alternative. They hold […]
Not long ago Eli Cohen, the founder of Ayala Water and Ecology, was invited to New York City to propose solutions for cleaning the city’s sewage using plants in an environmentally friendly way. He’s already got a number of sites working in Israel and hopes to raise money to build a pilot plant in the […]
This Green Prophet is a little skeptical about Shai Agassi’s electric car and bold claims, but she is impressed by the range of companies in the portfolio of Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV). Consider companies such as Aqwise for cleaning municipal sewage using bacteria, plastic beads and a special aeration system; or Metrolight, a company that […]
An old computer these days isn’t necessarily useless. It doesn’t work like it used to, but it may still have a function in your life, saving you resources, time and money –– plus all the environmental benefits of not having all the nasties in your computer end up in landfill, and endangering other people’s lives. […]
There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness -Mahatma Gandhi It was my first year of university and I had just settled into city life. There were lots of friends, parties – a great social scene. Burdened by the cost of having to support myself, I eyed the fancy […]
Growing up as a kid, my favorite nature shows were either the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom or specials about Jacques Cousteau as he explored the great seas. Some of those hours glued to the tube made me into who I am today. Thanks to some key words penned into a story on ISRAEL21c, marine […]
Before the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit Asia, Beverly Goodman had an impossible time explaining her research to peers. Since the catastrophic tidal wave struck, she has been able to remove about 10 slides from her presentation. She makes no light of the event, but was surprised to see how overnight the world had […]
America has one, so does Latvia and Singapore. Israel is getting ready to select it’s very own national bird — a tough choice given the volume of bird species that use Israel as a flyway every year, travelling from Africa to Europe and then back again. This green prophet is in favor of the hoopoe.
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Ecover is lauded by the United Nations for protecting the earth, and the company’s products scour many a lean and green TreeHugging homes — even ours. Looking beyond the products’ labeling and phosphate-freeness, the Organic Consumer’s Association decided to do its own tests. Among some of our favorite eco-brands emerged Ecover. The much-loved household product, it […]
Ten miles from Mexico, nestled in a humid valley in Arizona we arrive in Canelo for a straw bale building workshop. This is a place where 11 year olds drive, breakfast with songstress Linda Ronstadt is not uncommon, and people from all walks of life share a common ground. The workshop hosts, Bill and Athena […]
If so, consider getting yourself nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental Protection. To be awarded on Israel’s 60 year anniversary, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is looking for a few good green women and men. Lucky winners will get the chance to meet Shimon Peres, Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra and Minister Ruhama […]
Enviro-friendly folks like to extol the virtues of using Ecover. We use some of the products ourselves. Heck, the company’s even been recognized by the United Nations for their work in “cleaning” up the environment. The plant-based products, which include dish washing soap to floor detergent, are popular among the green types, especially those who […]
Want to know the best place to cloud-gaze in Canada, how to recycle bottles in Berlin, or where you can climb into a treehouse in Tel Aviv? The Green Map System gives us another way of looking at our world — and the movement is starting to take hold in Israel. (See our last post […]
“At a time when steadily increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, coupled with the acidification of the ocean’s waters, precipitate the ongoing process of global warming, the importance of following long-term changes and trends in aquatic photosynthesis increases dramatically,” say Dr. Ilana Berman-Frank and Prof. Zvy Dubinsky, of Bar-Ilan University. This is important since about 50% of […]
Analysts from Tel Aviv University and San Francisco offer sound solutions for looming energy crises: With electricity rates soaring as much as 150% since 2001, and predictions of severe and regular blackouts in states such as Washington and Virginia, there’s a clear need for new thinking about electricity. A recipe for preventing a dark future […]
It may pay to invest green, but Israeli green funds are momentarily in the red, reports the Israeli business newspaper, The Marker. Israeli green mutual funds trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) invest primarily in foreign companies. The growth of the shekel, the nosedive of the dollar, plus a decline in the cost […]
The Earth has a memory. It has records of African flowers blooming in the summer; it remembers cold, desolate Arctic winters since winters began, and the spawning of coral in the Great Barrier Reef one night, every spring. I remember my first lesson as a child, on how the Earth remembers. The teacher had brought […]
We all know the saying: one's mans trash is another man's treasure. Embarrassing as it was in my younger years, my father was a collector and seller of other people's trash and today makes a living from it. He calls it curbside shopping.
How can you set your professional dreams in motion if you have mountains of fear to overcome? For some it may be quitting one’s job to start up the new “green” home business, for others it may be as simple as asking the boss for a raise. For me, as an environmental journalist dreaming about […]
At the beginning of my teenage years in Canada, I remember my mother talking in hushed tones about Aunt Hana, who suddenly and mysteriously starting feeling strange aches and pains in her body. Doctors couldn’t find a systemic cause for her ailments, until she traced back dates to when she was last in Poland visiting […]
Slowly, but surely Israel is catching on to the idea of green building. We are wondering if the Israeli-style new “green” building neighborhood set to take over 650 dunams of land in Kfar Saba is really as green as it boasts. A while back we read about single-family homes to be built there (a la […]
All the life of a sloth. Karin talks about all she knows on the Slow Food Movement. Have you ever had the pleasure of watching the life of a lazy sloth? In Costa Rica on the Pacific shore near a busy surfing village, I rented a room in a small hotel for a week. There […]
Hebrew University, sent Green Prophet this press announcement today. Water seems to be the talk of the town these days: Possessing only 6.2% of global freshwater resources to supply 21% of the world’s population, China’s severe water shortage has become one of the most pressing dangers the country faces, threatening its fast-growing economy. Despite its […]
You read about it here first on Green Prophet. Now watch the vid. Tel Aviv’s Naomi from Abu Yoyo has found an ingenious way to recycle city banner adverts. She makes bags, wallets and book covers and sells them back to media companies. Ingenious, no?