Much of the bottled water on the market is actually not so natural. As a rule, bottled water is no safer or healthier than the H2O that flows from municipal water systems. Many are bottled from natural sources; however, some are simply filtered or even only tap water in a fancy package. The ones that […]
Try to buy in bulk from warehouse stores or the shuk. Often these items come in big jars which you can use. But even if you cannot, you’ll often find that they offer items that have less packaging and therefore have less trash when you are done using them. An added benefit is that it can […]
I can go on “home-binges” where I will coop myself up inside for days at a time. There can be the productive kind where I’m a workhorse and so do not get out. There are other times when it’s just out of laze… After one of these binges my house will inevitably end up a pigsty. […]
Installing Low-Flow showerheads and faucet aerators is probably the single most effective water conservation action you can do for your home. Inexpensive and simple to install, low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators can reduce your home water consumption as much as 50%, and reduce your energy cost of heating the water also by as much […]
Living in Jerusalem’s city center is an occasionally harrowing, occasionally exhilirating experience. Towards the middle of the spectrum (with “harrowing” being defined, roughly, as beer bottles shattering against the side of the building at 3am) is the state of grocery shopping in the center of town, or rather, the lack thereof.
Did you know that when you drive at a speed that is over 40 mph using the air conditioner uses less fuel than having the windows open? Because of air resistance when you travel with your windows open you slow down your car and you use more gas. If you are traveling over 40 mph […]
(In Hebrew) Channel One’s Yoman reports on the struggle by residents of Florentine, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, against the city’s building plans in the area. The city wants to build a ring of skyscrapers encircling the adjacent Neve Tzedek neighborhood, as well as a new neighborhood in Florentine that would include buildings up […]
Most neighborhoods have recycle bins for paper. However there still are many that do not. If you are unlucky enough to live in one of these neighborhoods tie your newspapers into a bundle before you dispose of them. This way you can prevent newspaper from blowing through your neighborhood and you can use one less […]
Jerusalem art students tried their luck recently at weaning Israelis off their addiction to plastic bags at the city’s Machane Yehuda market.Green Prophet recently reported on ‘Plastic for Free’ phenomenon of nylon-binging in Israeli shops, so it’s welcome news that their new shopping bags are not only eco-friendly (made from cloth instead of plastic), they’re […]
Character vs. flash: An old building in the city center, and a shiny, new Aroma. What gives a city its particular character? Is it the city’s architecture, its parks and open spaces, its scents, its people? An article in Ha’aretz’s Real Estate section last week did a pretty good job of conjuring up downtown Jerusalem […]
Jack discovers a solar-powered trash compactor in Jerusalem. I stepped off the bus this evening and standing on the sidewalk before me was this great alien looking device. It was about two-thirds my height, a bit wider, but square, with flashing lights emitting from the top. This device, while it appeared to come from another planet […]
Central Tel Aviv’s beach and tayelet. Democracy is a messy system. Churchill was probably right when he said that democracy was the worst system of government, except for all of those other systems that have been tried from time to time. However, democratic decision-making is an art, and in most cases its practitioners are […]
A short public service announcement from our friends over at Zalul.Last year we wrote a story on Israel’s sewage problem “The Sludge Report” and the fact that it regularly flows into the sea. You’d have thunk by now, that a country as advanced as Israel (talking ’bout electric cars and mighty microbes) that we’d find […]
This kicks off the first in a series of tips to make you and your life, a little more green. Home is where the green heart is, and the kitchen is a great place to start making your home more environmentally friendly. As children, who can’t remember the kitchen being the center of activity in […]
We have never seen these “green police” in action, but we’d like to believe that they exist, if only in our dreams. This video is a cheesy commercial for Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry police, and what they will do to you if you pollute. Watch out! It’s in Hebrew, which makes their Cops-esque slogan sound […]
The hot environmental topic this season, seems to be about banning the bag – the plastic bag that is.Zalul ‘s blog Clear has reported on it this week and has provided a link (in Hebrew) where you can sign a petition to get the plastic bag banned in Israel.San Fran has done it, so has […]
It’s Friday, and hey we like videos. Here is a short movie on an Israeli green achievement: the dud shemesh. Israelis were quick to adopt the low-tech technology which uses heat from the sun to warm sink and bathwater.We are pretty sure that the invention was pioneered elsewhere. But that doesn’t stop us from puffing […]
Some people call for Israel to be wiped off the map. We say, put us down on a Green Map. That’s just what a local NGO SPNI and students from Green Course in Jerusalem have done (see the above video). Green Maps is an international enterprise, that lets locals and visitors literally map out ecological […]
Tel Aviv is the first Israeli city, and the only city in the Middle East to join Earth Hour, a new worldwide campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Lights out for Tel Aviv will happen on March 29, 2008 at 8 pm, so get your solar-powered flashlights handy. Tel Aviv joins cities in Denmark, Australia, […]
Unlike Americans and Canadians, Israelis are none too quick to start building with strawbale and adobe. I did meet a couple pioneers over the last 5 years who have built adobe homes: Lila, a German immigrant who lived near Arad in the Negev and Shai Gonorov, an eccentric Israeli living off the grid in Shaharut, […]
Apartments for China, outfitted with individual greenhouses. We’d live in one of these eco-abodes. Outdoor vegetable gardens are nice, but as it turns out, they are so 2007. Now Technion Institute researchers Tagit Klimor and David Knafo have developed a design for high-rise apartments that will have their own self-sustaining greenhouses. The greenhouse spaces will […]