Russel Cohen

Russell became interested in the intersection between Judaism, Zionism and the environment as a teenager in the 70s, reinforced by a year as a kibbutz volunteer in the early 80s. That interest took a back seat to the need to earn a living, and he spent the next several decades in corporate IT with one of the Big 4 banks in South Africa. He has returned to his first love by writing on Jewish affairs, the environment and technology as a blogger and freelance writer, while also providing support to small office/home office (SOHO) computer users. He writes under the screen name Maskil and tries to collect his thoughts here (http://blog.maskil.info). Russell lives in the urban village of Norwood in Johannesburg with his wife and daughter. Russell can be reached at russell (at) greenprophet (dot) com.

Israel's Kibbutzim: Renewal through Cleantech?

Profitability + altruism + saving the planet? Yosef I. Abramowitz from Arava Power, Kibbutz Ketura Israel – one of the latest ventures in clean tech launched from an Israeli kibbutz. The Kibbutz Movement celebrated its centenary in 2010, but the last decades of the 20th Century were not kind to Israel’s collective settlements. The shift in […]

Ormat Set to Release Alaska's Geothermal Energy Potential

With dwindling natural gas reserves, will South Alaska be powered with geothermal energy? Ormat may be the first to open Alaskan territories, still virgin to this clean technology. Yavne, in Israel’s Central District, was briefly home to ancient Israel’s Sanhedrin (its highest rabbinical assembly). The town of 32,000 can also claim to be the original […]

Green Zionist Alliance (GZA) – Bold Resolutions for 36th World Zionist Congress

Can Zionism claim Green credentials? The jury is still out on this one. On the one hand, Zionism was initially very much a “back to the land” movement, in the European Romantic tradition. Trees were being planted in Palestine as early as 1901, there was a strong emphasis on agriculture and “redemption of the land”, […]

The Limits of Growing Biofuel Crops on a Desert Island

Quick, name the scarcest natural resources in Israel. I’m sure that “land” and “water” would feature prominently in most people’s answers. Israel is, to all intents and purposes, a “desert island’, with finite – very finite – natural resources. Not your romantic desert island, and not an island geographically, but rather politically. Not a desert […]

Tigo and AGA Deal Means Solar Energy for Residents of High-rises

Tigo offers a tech and IT solution to squeeze more energy from the sun, which may be going vertical in high-rises through US partner. Solar energy has traditionally been a land or “area-intensive” form of alternative energy. Solar energy generation required massive, land-hungry solar power farms in order to compete with conventional equivalents, or large […]