Short-term surges in air pollution in New Jersey from the 2023 Canadian wildfires were associated with a higher stroke rate and more serious strokes, according to a preliminary study released March 3, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78^th Annual Meeting next month.

“Wildfire smoke contains pollutants like ozone and particulate matter, so it is more than a nuisance, it can be a public health hazard,” said study author Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. “The 2023 Canadian wildfires resulted in unprecedented declines in air quality across the northeastern United States. Our findings show that short-term exposure to elevated air pollution from these wildfires was associated with a higher incidence and severity of stroke.” 

Related: smoking and strokes

For the study, researchers used a stroke registry to identify all cases of stroke that occurred during June and July 2023 and during the same months a year earlier. Ischemic strokes are the most common kind of stroke. Bleeding strokes are more severe and often more fatal.

Researchers reviewed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data for both periods from air quality monitors located in Camden, New Jersey. They calculated average daily exposures for ozone which, when inhaled, can cause shortness of breath, coughing and aggravation of conditions like asthma. They also calculated daily average exposures for fine particulate matter, also called PM2.5, which is air pollution with particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less.

Ozone levels peaked at 136 parts per billion (ppb) during the wildfires in 2023 compared to median ozone concentration of 36 ppb. Particulate matter reached 211 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) compared to median concentration of 48.5 µg/m³.

Daily air quality data was matched with the timing of each stroke. Because pollution effects may take a few days to impact the body, researchers also took into account the levels from the preceding one to two days before participants had their stroke.

For ozone levels, 72% of the days were 50 ppb or less, with 28% of the days above the recommended level. The World Health Organization guideline for ozone is 50 ppb. Researchers compared 42 strokes that occurred on above average ozone days, with 80 strokes that occurred on below average days. For strokes that occurred on above average ozone days, the incidence of stroke, or the rate at which new stroke cases occurred, was 1.25 strokes per day compared to 0.93 strokes per day that occurred on below average days.

After adjusting for factors like age, sex, race, and cause of stroke, researchers found higher average ozone days were associated with a 0.32 higher incidence of stroke per day.

They also found for strokes on above average ozone days, there was a higher proportion of bleeding strokes and more large artery atherosclerosis, plaque buildup in major arteries.

For particulate matter levels, 38% of the days were above average days and 62% were below average days. Researchers compared 39 strokes that occurred on above average particulate matter days to 83 strokes that occurred on below average days. They found above average particulate matter was associated with longer hospital stays and higher scores on a scale measuring stroke severity.

“While longer-term air pollution has been recognized as a risk factor for stroke, less is known about short exposures to wildfire smoke,” said Cerceo. “Our study addresses a critical gap by providing more information about the neurological impact of wildfire smoke. Our findings can help guide stroke prevention and underscore the need for public health interventions during wildfires.”

The post Exposure to wildfire smoke leads to strokes appeared first on Green Prophet.

March 1 is World Seagrass Day, which celebrates the flowering plants that look like blades of grass waving in our oceans and in Puget Sound. The United Nations created World Seagrass Day as an opportunity “to promote and facilitate actions for the conservation of seagrasses in order to contribute to their health and development.”

Jennifer Ruesink, University of Washington professor of biology, studies the relationship between the environment and marine organisms, including eelgrass, the primary species of seagrass that resides in the waters in and around Washington.

In honor of World Seagrass Day, Ruesink explains what seagrass is and what makes the seagrasses in Washington unique.

What is seagrass and why is it important? 

Jennifer Ruesink: Seagrasses are “land plants” that have moved into ocean habitats. They have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. There are only about 70 species of seagrasses, representing just 0.02% of all flowering plant species.

Seagrass matters to humans in many ways. It cycles nutrients and carbon, provides habitat for fish and decapods, and it anchors sediment in place, which contributes to shoreline stabilization. It’s a sentinel species for good water quality — in fact, impaired water quality from nutrient pollution, coastal building and erosion are its biggest threats.

Beyond these utilitarian values, seagrass is “wonderful” in the truest sense of that word — the way it grows, moves and shapes the environment provides a continual source of wonder.

What makes seagrass different from seaweed and other ocean plants?

JR: In addition to seagrasses, there are many other photosynthetic organisms that live in the ocean. Collectively they provide half of our global oxygen. But the others are different from seagrasses: Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae, do not make roots or flowers. Tiny microalgae live on ocean surfaces, even on the seagrass leaves themselves. Other photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton, drift as single cells or small colonies in the water.

Seagrasses are colloquially called “grasses” because many have grass-like shapes with long strap-like leaves that grow from the base, and their stems move horizontally underground. From an evolutionary perspective, seagrasses do not group with the terrestrial grass family but instead have unique families or share relatives with freshwater plants.

What does seagrass look like in the ocean?

JR: If you think of a prairie on land, it is full of different plant species that grow to different heights, flower at different times, and extract light and nutrients with different efficiencies. Seagrass meadows are the prairies of the ocean, but they frequently consist of just one seagrass species. Because the number of seagrass species is so small, much of the dramatic variability occurs within single species, rather than across multiple species. Here in Washington we mostly have the same species — eelgrass, or Zostera marina — that’s found from 23-70 degrees north latitude on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

Tell us about eelgrass in Washington.

JR: The remarkable thing is that there is so much of eelgrass variability present within our state. For example, some populations have shoots that replicate solely by branching, making genetic copies of themselves as they go. Other populations have shoots that never branch, but instead germinate, flower and die within a summer, overwintering as seeds. Shoots in Washington range from a diminutive 0.7 feet to nearly 6.5 feet long.

You can find eelgrass at low tide in the intertidal zone and as deep as 50 feet in the clear water along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It lives in places that have ocean salinity, but it also lives near rivers where the winter salinities drop to about 85% freshwater. The eelgrass bed protected by the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is estimated at 8,000 acres, and Willapa Bay on the coast contains nearly 14,000 acres. Eelgrass also grows in a narrow “bathtub ring” on steeper soft-sediment shorelines throughout the state.

It makes sense that this diversity within a species is a product of evolving in the varied environments of Washington’s vast and convoluted shoreline. We think this variability should confer resilience to change, but that’s an ongoing exploration.

Washington also has two seagrass species other than Zostera marina: Ruppia maritima, which is a fast-growing species characteristic of brackish channels in saltmarshes, and Nanozostera japonica, which was established in the state in the 1950s after being inadvertently introduced from Japan. You can find them all growing together in a few places.

How would you suggest that someone celebrate World Seagrass Day?

JR: There are plenty of public-access shores around Seattle — including Golden Gardens and the south side of Alki Point — where you can see eelgrass growing. At this time of year, you might see black brant nearby. These small geese feed on eelgrass to fuel their migration. To see eelgrass, you need a low tide since it can’t handle staying out of the water very long. On World Seagrass Day, good low tides occur after dark — around 9 p.m. in the Seattle area. If you do find seagrass, you can take a picture and help data collection about its distribution by uploading your information to iNaturalist.

Any time you’re at the beach, you might find eelgrass washed up on shore: Keep an eye out for the leaves — green, flexible rectangles — especially if they’re connected to chunky brown cylinders — the stems, or rhizomes. Each node on the rhizome is the scar of a former leaf. This is fun to think about because it helps demonstrate the dynamic lifestyle of this plant: Each leaf lasts a couple of months before it’s left behind on the rhizome and decays. Meanwhile the production of a new leaf every couple of weeks both turns over the biomass and moves the shoot along the sediment.

The post Celebrate International Seagrass Day appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s late winter, almost spring in the Mediterranean, and the time to harvest wild greens is now. In a week or two, the best will be gone to seed, gotten leggy and tough, or infested with bugs.

I went out foraging for nettles, my favorite wild edible. I was aiming to make nettles dumplings, or as they’d be known in Italy, malfatti. See our other 5 ways to eat iron-rich nettles. And here we show inventive ways to make dumlings.

Malfatti means “badly formed,” and these dumplings, quickly shaped in the hand, have an awkward, rough look. Traditionally, spinach is the leafy ingredient, and the malfatti come out white speckled with green. These, based on nettles, are a rich, dark green.

I found this recipe in the late Leda Meredith’s book, “The Forager’s Feast.”

When I mention harvesting nettles to people who don’t forage, I get plenty of rolled eyes and the usual question: “Don’t you get stung, picking them?”

I do get stung. In my first years of picking nettles, I found that wearing gloves and taking scissors along was the way to deal with them.

Snip the stems and holding them with the scissor blades, put them down, all facing one way. That makes them easier to handle when rinsing them and hanging them up to dry.

But that was years ago. I pick nettles with bare hands now, and while I feel the sting, I don’t mind it anymore. Remember, all the sting goes away in the cooking. If you’re new to eating nettles and curious about their flavor, I’ll say that they don’t taste like spinach.

All wild greens are described as tasting like spinach, but the truth is that each has its distinctive taste, as with artichokes and lettuce, which are botanically related but taste nothing like each other. Nettles’s taste is dark, if you like, and a little salty; a little like seaweed.

This is how I learned to make delicious green malfatti. Like the ancient recipes that start, “First go out and catch a rabbit,” you need 4 ounces of raw, rinsed nettles that you went out and picked yourself.

Nettles Malfatti Recipe

Serves 2 as a main dish; 3-4 as a hot appetizer or side dish

Ingredients:

4 oz. – a tightly packed 1/2-cup of raw nettle leaves – stripped from the stems. My note: ignore any seeds present; they’re also excellent nutrition when young and green.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more if liked
1/2 cup cup flour for rolling the malfatti in
About 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup grated extra Parmesan for saucing the malfatti

Instructions:

Blanch the nettles. Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil.

Drop the nettles in and cook for 3 minutes. I set the timer on my phone to avoid over-cooking. You’re only blanching the greens here.

Have ready a bowl of cold water. Remove the blanched nettles from the hot water with tongs or a slotted spoon and immediately drop them in the cold water. Let them sit for a minute or so or until cool.

Drain the nettles in a colander or sieve, and squeeze as much liquid out of them as possible by pushing them hard against the side of the colander. Do this over a bowl, to catch that dark-green juice. It’s tasty and sky-high full of nutrients. You can add it to soups or green smoothies later.

Coarsely chop the wad of squeezed-out nettles.

Empty the pot you boiled the nettles in. Pour the olive oil in and set it over medium heat to warm. (Leda’s tip for reducing the washing up by one pot).

Cook the onion in the oil until soft and translucent, stirring, 4-5 minutes.

Using the knife blade of a food processor, blend the onions and nettles together with the salt and pepper, eggs, breadcrumbs, and cheese until you have a coarse paste.

Scoop the nettles mixture into a bowl, cover it, and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. I’ve let it mature as long as 24 hours.

Set a large pot of lightly salted water to boil.

Either flour a surface like a baking sheet with the 1/2-cup flour, or dump the flour into a wide bowl. Either way, flour your hands. You’ll need to flour your hands again at intervals.

Pinch off a generous tablespoon of the chilled dough and roll into a torpedo shape. Some prefer a nice round dumpling like a mazah ball; your choice. In either case, your palms will be green.

Roll each malfatti in the flour and set it aside on a floured surface while rolling the rest. If your bowl is wide enough, just place them around the inside and roll the rest of the malfatti in the flour heap in the center of the bowl.

Gently lower the malfatti into the water, which by now should be boiling. Don’t crowd the dumplings; they swell and need room to move. You’ll know they’re close to done when they rise and bob around. Cook them 4-5 minutes, no longer or they’ll break apart. You may need to do this in 2 batches.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked malfatti to a platter or serving bowl.

Gently pour melted butter over the malfatti, and sprinkle with the extra grated Parmesan. Serve right away.

Some take malfatti to another level by baking them, cooked as described above, in a bechamel or a tomato sauce for 15 minutes at 350° F – 175°C. Sprinkle with more cheese before serving.

The post Make nettle dumplings, also known as nettles malfatti appeared first on Green Prophet.

For too long, sustainability and profit have been treated as opposites.

One was about doing good, the other about doing well. But the businesses that will define the next decade are the ones that understand the two are now inseparable.

Sustainability is not a cost. It is a new way to make money.

At HiveKeepers, we stopped asking how to make beekeeping more sustainable and started asking how sustainability could make it more profitable. That shift led to the Micro Honey Harvester, a world-first modular system that lets anyone, anywhere, harvest pure honey without the complexity, cost or waste of traditional extraction.

Traditional honey extraction is messy, expensive and inaccessible for most people who care about sustainable food production. Large rooms, heavy machinery and dedicated facilities all create barriers for smaller producers trying to operate profitably.

The Micro Honey Harvester removes those barriers entirely. Designed with precision and intention, it eliminates the need for an extraction room. With a simple push of a button, beekeepers can harvest fresh honey from hive to home in minutes with zero mess. The result is less waste, higher yield, lower setup costs and a cleaner product ready for sale.

And here’s the part businesses rarely acknowledge: it can make you money.

Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.

For the first time, sustainability is no longer only an ethical choice. It is a financial strategy.

Consumers today expect transparency and traceability from the businesses they support. They want to know their purchases make a difference. By integrating sustainable systems like the Micro Honey Harvester, businesses don’t just meet this expectation, they exceed it. They attract new customers, command stronger margins and tell a genuine story that resonates with modern buyers.

HiveKeepers is already proving this model works. Our technology has been recognised globally, winning both an Apimondia Gold Innovation Award and an Australian Good Design Award. These accolades represent more than engineering excellence. They signal a vision for how design, purpose and profitability can coexist.

As Founder Simon Mildren puts it, “We didn’t want to make another product. We wanted to redesign an entire process and make it profitable for everyone involved, from the beekeeper to the planet.”

The Micro Honey Harvester reflects a shift in mindset. It shows what happens when sustainability sits at the centre of design, not the edge. Every element was created to reduce waste, save energy and simplify the harvesting process without compromising quality. The result is a product that benefits both the environment and the economy. It empowers individuals and businesses to take part in regenerative production, turning sustainability into something tangible and rewarding.

This is also a glimpse into the future of food production. Local, traceable, small-scale and connected. Just as microbreweries redefined beer, micro-harvesting is redefining honey.

Distributed production strengthens resilience and creates a closer relationship between the producer, the consumer and the land. It shortens supply chains, reduces waste and builds a more transparent and trustworthy marketplace.

HiveKeepers is part of a growing movement proving that innovation and sustainability are not competing goals, they are the same goal. The companies that understand this will lead the next wave of growth.

The Micro Honey Harvester is not just for beekeepers. It is for innovators, growers and entrepreneurs who see that doing better for the planet and doing better for their business are now one and the same.

This is not a trend. It is the future. Sustainability is the way forward, and it is the way to make money moving forward.

Simon Mildren, HiveKeepers: team@hivekeepers.com

The post Sustainability That Sells: How Profit and Purpose Come Together in the Hive appeared first on Green Prophet.

In 2019, an underwater robot camera exploring the seabed in part of the Antarctica’s Southern Ocean brought up footage of something no one suspected:a huge breeding ground of yellowfin rockcod fish.

You wouldn’t think that the freezing Arctic waters can sustain much life. One startling phenomenon is the greening of Antarctica due to climate change.The icy continent’s dim light, ever-present ice and extreme cold forbid human habitation and make research challenging.

The discovery occurred when the Larsen C ice shelf in the Wedell Sea calved; that is, an iceberg broke off the body of the ice shelf. Ice shelves play a large role in the rise and fall of global sea levels and contribute significantly to global ocean circulation and climate.

The research article published in 2020 states:

“The Weddell Sea, located within the Southern Ocean, is significant for its biological richness and its contribution to global ocean circulation and climate. It plays a critical role in forming water mass interactions that drive large-scale ocean currents, regulate global gas exchanges, and influence climate patterns. These interactions make the area a hotspot for biological productivity, activity, and abundance .”

The splitting off of the iceberg revealed part of the seabed that had been unaccessible until then. The opportunity to explore was there. A research team formed: the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 onboard the SA Agulhas II.

In addition to studying conditions on the seabed, the research team hoped to locate the remains of the Endurance, a ship on an British exploration mission that sank in 1915 (the Endurance was found in 2020).  Researchers dropped a camera robot dubbed “Lassie” into the sea.

The footage showed thousands of circular or oval shapes on the sea floor, arranged in a pattern covering hundreds of kilometers. They are fish egg nests, shallow forms scooped out of the sea bed, each with a protective raised edge of sediment packed around it. Parent fish keep guard, hovering over the eggs and fluttering their fins to keep them oxygenated.

The colonies are geometrically formed so that larger fish nest on the farther edges, while weaker, smaller fish, more vulnerable to predators, lay their eggs inside the pattern, preferably close to the shelter of rocks. When the eggs hatch, leaving empty nests, some fish even return and clear out debris that currents bring, to prepare for the next generation.

At first these shapes were a mystery. No one expected to find a vastfish colony thriving in one of Earth’s most extreme environments. Marine biologist Russ Connelly, of the University of Essex, England, said, “We weren’t actually sure what the videos were showing us at the time. We thought maybe it was a Weddell seal snout that was going down and bonking down into the seabed. Or that it was pockmarks from stones dropping from the ice and making craters.”

We already knew about diverse life form thriving in Antarctica. Penguins, seals, whales, seabirds, sponges, fish and squid are some, without even considering krill, the tiny crustaceans that almost everything else eats. The huge rockfish nurseries are a link in the wildlife food chain that came to light only after the Eclipse/Weddell Sea Expedition.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has proposed designating the Weddell Sea as a protected area. This would prevent international businesses with an eye on this huge fish nursery from mining the seabed and endangering the entire wildlife chain.

Thomas Desvignes, a fish biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says, “A lot of Antarctic ecosystems are under pressure from different countries to be released for mining, fishing and basically exploitation of the environment. The new research offers one more reason why we should protect the Weddell Sea.”

Connelly adds, ““In general, we need to explore more of the oceans, because … we’re so surprised at every single time that we see life exists at these depths. We need to see what’s out there before species that we didn’t even know existed have been lost.”

The post Huge Fish Nursery Discovered Under Freezing Arctic Seas appeared first on Green Prophet.

When Zarathustra started preaching around 1200 BCE in ancient Persia, which is known today as Iran, he wasn’t just founding a religion—he was creating the world’s first environmental protection movement. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. But there was a mantra and words to live by: don’t pollute the earth, water, or fire. Ever.

Take Zoroastrian burial practices. We’ve covered the Towers of Silence here at Green Prophet before—those circular stone structures where bodies were placed on top for vultures to consume. Why did they do this? Because Zoroastrians believed dead bodies were contaminated with evil (druj) and could not touch the sacred elements: earth, water, or fire.

No burial (pollutes earth). No cremation (pollutes fire). No river disposal (pollutes water). Sky burial was the only option that honored nature. The body became food for birds, a final act of charity. Today most Zoroastrians use cement-lined coffins to prevent earth contamination, or they’ve moved to other methods as vulture populations crashed from human causes such as electrical shocks and poisoning. But the principle remains: respect the elements that sustain life.

Celebrating Nature’s Turning Points

Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated on the spring equinox, is perhaps Zoroastrianism’s most visible environmental legacy. As we’ve written about on Green Prophet, this isn’t just a cultural festival—it’s a celebration of nature reawakening. Families grow sabzeh (wheat or lentil sprouts) weeks before Nowruz, watching green life emerge from seeds.

Goldfish are a traditional symbol of life, renewal, and fortune on the Haft-Seen table for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, representing vitality and a prosperous year ahead, though animal welfare concerns have risen due to millions dying after being released into ponds, leading some to use edible alternatives like marzipan goldfish or sugar fish instead.

The holiday marks when day and night are equal, when light spreads evenly across hemispheres. Fire is lit. People jump over flames during Chaharshanbe Suri, singing “my yellowness is yours, your redness is mine”—asking fire to take weakness and give strength.  The whole celebration is about alignment with natural cycles. Spring cleaning before the new year. Visiting graves on the last Friday. Placing hyacinths and tulips in homes. Everything synchronized with the earth’s rhythm around the sun.

Engineering in Harmony with Nature

Ancient Persians didn’t just philosophize about respecting the elements—they engineered around them. As we’ve explored in previous Green Prophet articles, their architecture shows remarkable environmental sophistication.

Wind catchers (badgir) in Yazd and other desert cities are essentially ancient air conditioning. These tall towers catch breezes and channel them down through buildings, sometimes over underground water channels called qanats. The Dolat Abad windcatcher in Yazd stands 34 meters tall—still the highest in Iran—and can drop indoor temperatures by 10 degrees without electricity.

Qanats themselves are engineering marvels: underground channels that move water from mountain aquifers to desert cities without pumping. Some are still functioning after a thousand years. UNESCO recognizes them as world heritage because they represent “creative genius” in sustainable water management.

These weren’t just practical solutions to live by. They were Zorastrian expressions of a worldview that said: work with the elements, don’t violate them. Here’s what makes Zoroastrianism ecologically radical even today: it treats environmental degradation as moral corruption.

The world is a battlefield between truth (asha) and lies (druj). When you pollute water, you’re choosing druj. When you contaminate earth, you’re siding with evil. Every small choice—where you put your waste, how you use fire, whether you honor or desecrate water is a moral decision that tilts the cosmic balance.

You can’t separate ethics from ecology in this system because they are the same thing.

Modern environmentalism often frames nature protection as enlightened self-interest or future-oriented planning. Zoroastrianism says: the earth itself is holy. Polluting it is sacrilege. You don’t need utilitarian arguments. You need to not be an asshole to creation.

There are maybe 100,000 to 200,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide, mostly in Iran and India (where they’re called Parsis).

Zoroastrianism introduced a radical idea for its time: that humans stand inside a moral universe. That our choices matter. Long before monotheism found its later forms, Zoroastrianism articulated heaven and hell, angels and judgment, free will and ethical responsibility. Judaism absorbed these ideas during the Persian period. Christianity and Islam carried them forward.

Today, Zoroastrians are not fighting for dominance. They are fighting for continuity. Intermarriage, migration, shrinking birth rates, and cultural dilution place constant pressure on a faith that does not proselytize and does not adapt easily. They don’t have a leader or a “Pope” figure making it difficult to create leadership.

Yet the ecological principles remain stubbornly relevant. In a world drowning in plastic, choking on emissions, and treating the planet like an expendable resource, Zoroastrianism’s insistence that nature is sacred, not because it’s useful to humans, but because it is sacred.

If Iran becomes free, consider visiting the eternal flame: The Yazd Atash Behram in Iran shelters one of the world’s oldest living flames — a sacred fire burning continuously since 470 AD. Though the temple itself was built in 1934, the “Victorious Fire” has survived centuries of exile, invasion, and careful guardianship, standing as a quiet, stubborn symbol of Zoroastrian endurance and divine purity.

The post Zoroastrianism from Iran is the world’s first eco-religion appeared first on Green Prophet.

We used to think climate work lived in laboratories, policy rooms, and protest signs. But these days it’s living comfortably inside Jewish thought. The Jewish Climate Trust is quietly proving that climate action doesn’t sit outside Judaism — it grows from it. Jewish Climate Trust (JCT) isn’t a think tank that lives only in theory, and it isn’t a charity that writes checks without strategy. It is a values-driven investment in how Jewish life — and Jewish responsibility — shows up in a world already shaped by climate change.

The starting point is simple and uncomfortable: the climate crisis is real, measurable, and accelerating. Denial is not a Jewish position. Despair isn’t either. Judaism teaches obligation without guaranteed success. You are not required to finish the work — but you are not free to abandon it. JCT lives inside that idea: it insists on action without pretending to own the ending.

The focus of the JCT is twofold: putting less carbon into the atmosphere and preparing communities for what is already unfolding.

But there is a third layer that feels distinctly Jewish: co-benefits. Every climate action should strengthen human relationships — between Jews and Jews, Israel and the diaspora, and across borders between people. We see that work in action in Israel’s Arava Center, a cross-border environment research study center that funds desert research, water, cleantech, advancing partners for peace along the way. Climate work, according to the JCT is not only environmental; it is social, political, spiritual, and it’s the moral thing to do.

In North America, JCT has made the largest climate grant ever given in the Jewish world, funding Adamah to accelerate Jewish climate leadership. This includes expanding the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, building regional hubs, and integrating climate into young leadership training. They also helped launch a Green Business Network, which is growing faster than anticipated.

Green Prophet founded a chapter of Green Drinks in Israel in 2009. Adamah is continuing the spirit with their next meet-up in Boston in February.

The goal is cultural change — not a single project, but a shift in how Jewish institutions understand responsibility.

In Israel, JCT is funding major research on climate preparedness and security. Climate awareness in Israel is not only about nature — it is about stability, health, migration, food systems, and national resilience. The JCT is pushing Israel to think ahead rather than react too late.

Regionally, JCT is supporting the Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy at the Arava Institute — one of the most important cross-border environmental cooperation platforms in the Middle East. When USAID funding was lost, years of trust-building between Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and international partners were suddenly at risk. JCT stepped in with a significant multi-year commitment, joined by private stakeholders, to keep this fragile but vital ecosystem alive.

Jewish Climate Trust has quickly attracted the attention and support of some of the most influential voices in Jewish philanthropy, drawing backing from prominent family foundations and business leaders connected to the Bronfman and Schusterman philanthropic networks, alongside climate-focused investors and community builders aligned with founding leader Nigel Savage. Together, these donors have committed many millions of dollars to build a serious, long-term climate platform for the Jewish world — not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic intervention in one of the defining challenges of this generation.

::Jewish Climate Trust

The post What is the Jewish Climate Trust? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Eyeing the mushrooms for sale in the local supermarket, I was intrigued to see shaggy, pearl-white Lion’s Mane mushrooms (H. erinaceus ). It’s not often found fresh, and is mostly used as a health supplement in capsule, powdered, or tincture form.

Traditional Chinese medicine has used it to improve memory and ability to withstand stress, and ease depression, for centuries. This could be helpful for women in menopause, to take just one population needing relief.

Western medicine has begun to recognize the benefits of Lion’s Mane mushrooms. Studies made on mice show tremendous potential for improving cognitive impairment, depression/anxiety, and other major ailments. This is attributed to the antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties of the mushroom.

Research so far has been limited, and mostly made on people with mild Alzheimer’s disease. Those studies show participants’ improved memory and mood after treatment with Lion’s Mane. Now a pilot study published in the National Library of Medicine presents a different angle: prevention of cognitive decline and health in older age by taking Lion’s Mane while still healthy.

Participants in the study were 41 healthy young adults, men and women, taking Lion’s Mane regularly over 28 days. They showed enhanced memory and improved mood, as well as more ability to withstand stress.

Laboratory mice treated with Lion’s Mane showed faster recovery from nerve injuries, protection against stomach ulcers, lower blood sugar, a healthier heart, higher immunities, improved memory and mood, and even cancer prevention.

Quite a list! Will Lion’s Mane mushrooms rise as the new miracle medicine? That’s something we won’t know until more extensive studies are done on humans.

Caveats: Lion’s mane mushroom might cause the immune system to become more active, which can be great in normal cirumstances such as during flu season. But this could increase the symptoms of auto-immune diseases.  According to WebMD, Lion’s Mane mushroom should be viewed with caution by people with these conditions:

Those with auto-immune disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus rheumatoid arthritis, pemphigus vulgaris (a skin condition), and others. If you have one of these conditions, it’s best to avoid using lion’s mane mushroom.

Patients taking anticoagulant/ antiplatelet drugs: Lion’s mane mushroom might slow blood clotting. This might increase the chances of bruising and bleeding in people with bleeding conditions.

Before surgery: Lion’s mane mushroom might slow blood clotting and reduce blood glucose levels. This might cause extra bleeding, and interfere with blood sugar control during and after surgery. Stop using lion’s mane mushroom at least 2 weeks before a scheduled surgery.

Before a transplant: The strength of immunosuppressants – medications that decrease the immune system – may be weakened by Lion’s Mane.

Diabetics taking medications: Lion’s mane mushroom might lower blood sugar levels. Taking lion’s mane mushroom along with diabetes medications might cause blood sugar to crash.

Now let’s assume that all is well and you want to taste the famous mushroom fresh. Lion’s Mane are hard to grow. To get them fresh, you had to either forage them yourself – assuming you were in the correct, humid forest conditions – or order them from specialty farmers.

I tried growing Lion’s Mane mushrooms myself, out of a kit, but alas – my kitchen window didn’t offer the right conditions. So I was excited to bring some of those Lion’s Mane mushrooms home. I’d have to eat a measured amount of the mushroom on a daily basis to benefit from its medicinal properties, but I wasn’t set up to conduct scientific research in the kitchen; I was set up to conduct culinary research, with my skillet, some good olive oil, and my appetite. I wonder – could we beat cogitive decline by eating Lion’s Mane mushrooms cooked in olive oil?

I chose a simple recipe that allows the umami-rich flavor of the mushroom to shine, without masking it by adding lots of herbs, cream, or other ingredients. This makes 2 appetizers. It may be doubled or tripled.

Enjoy!

Photo of sauteed Lion’s Mane mushrooms via acouplecooks.

The post Lion’s Mane Mushroom Recipe appeared first on Green Prophet.

I have my own little slice of paradise in a forest in Canada. It would be unsettling to say the least if the developers started carving up and developing the Crown Land, protected by law, around my land.

But this is what’s happening now in Iran, an a world-protected forest.

The story starts in a village called Sark, located in the Ponel–Khalkhal area, where road construction has begun to connect a newly built villa complex, and part of the UNESCO-protected Hyrcanian forests has been destroyed according to local reports in Iran.

Environmentalists speak of trees being cut down and heavy machinery entering the area. They say this organized destruction threatens the future of the Hyrcanian forests.

“I am an Architect and Restorer and an Urban Regeneration Expert working in the field of sustainable development, and I have spent years advocating for the preservation of my country’s heritage,” says Green Prophet contributor Ronak Roshan. (She’s called out the Aga Khan and their ecological award out for greenwashing in Iran).

“Recently, we were informed by the local community that road construction is underway in the Hyrcanian Forests to enable the development of luxury villas. Our field observations and initial documentation show clear signs of land-use change, unauthorized construction, and the expansion of private holding companies into forested areas, agricultural lands, and the buffer zones of this fragile ecosystem,” she says.

“Such activities pose a serious threat to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the site, endangering its ecological integrity, landscape continuity, and long-term conservation,” says Roshan,

While in just the past few months new warnings have been issued about the intensifying destruction of the Hyrcanian forests, field reports from the village of Sark in the Ponel–Khalkhal corridor in Gilan show that large-scale road construction has begun in the heart of the region’s ancient forests.

According to environmental activists, this work is being carried out in order to create an access route for a villa complex known as “Behesht Complex” (Paradise Complex).

According to information from informed sources, in order to obtain permits to continue construction of the Behesht villa complex, a road is being built so that afterwards the responsible authorities can justify construction “within the road corridor” and issue permits for the expansion of the complex.

Following this request, the felling of thousand-year-old Hyrcanian trees and the destruction of pristine vegetation has begun. Only a few families live in Sark village, and for years they have used a wooden bridge for their comings and goings. But now, parts of the forest are under pressure from road construction and site preparation for building, including earth removal, mountain cutting and alteration of the topography.

At the same time, environmental activists have sent a formal letter to UNESCO, warning about the planned destruction of the Hyrcanian forests, a World Heritage site, and calling for urgent international action.

In their letter, environmental activists write that this destruction is not limited to Gilan. They say this trend has been continuously ongoing for several decades and, especially after events such as the “Gilan, Capital of Construction” conference, has accelerated under the influence of certain individuals.

The activists have asked UNESCO to order an immediate halt, send a fact-finding mission to the affected areas, and issue an official statement of condemnation.

In Shahrivar (August–September) of this year as well, road construction from Tarom County to Shaft County, along the Dayleh-Sar highlands, began with tree cutting and destruction of the natural terrain, without obtaining any legal permits from the relevant authorities. As a result, 8.5 kilometres of rangeland and forest land in Shaft were destroyed.

The Hyrcanian forests form a long belt of about 850 kilometres, stretching from the Gorgan plain to parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Nineteen percent of the total area of the Hyrcanian forests registered with UNESCO—about 58,000 hectares—belongs to Gilan.

Environmental activists in Iran often face significant personal risk when speaking out about illegal land grabs, deforestation, or the destruction of protected areas. In recent years, several high-profile environmentalists have been detained, interrogated, or imprisoned on broad national-security charges, sometimes without transparent legal proceedings.

International human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern that environmental advocacy in Iran can be treated as political dissent, leaving local activists vulnerable to surveillance, harassment, and pressure from security institutions. This has created a climate in which many citizens are afraid to report ecological damage, making the documented cases of forest destruction even more alarming given the courage required to bring them to light.

The post UNESCO forest being developed in Iran appeared first on Green Prophet.

Why choosing a natural tree is better for forests, farmers, and the planet

Every December, millions of families face the same question: real tree or artificial? While artificial trees are marketed as convenient and reusable, the reality is more complex. When it comes to environmental impact, community support, and even holiday tradition, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of choosing a Real Christmas Tree. Here’s why.

Real Christmas Trees aren’t taken from forests — they’re grown on farms. In the United States alone, 350 million trees are growing on dedicated Christmas tree farms, planted and cared for by farmers solely for holiday use. The industry supports about 15,000 farms and provides work for over 100,000 people in full- and part-time jobs.

Related: Rent a real Christmas tree

Every year, Americans purchase 25–30 million Real Christmas Trees (according to the National Christmas Tree Association), directly supporting rural economies and preserving open green space, around 350,000 acres of it. Buying real means investing in American agriculture instead of overseas manufacturing.

Unlike artificial trees, which are made of non-biodegradable plastics and can contain metal toxins like lead, real Christmas trees are entirely natural and recyclable. After the holidays, trees can be composted, turned into mulch, used in dune restoration, or donated for wildlife habitat. That’s why more than 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs operate across the US. If one doesn’t exist, consider opening one as a college project.

Real trees also ensure continuous renewal: for every tree harvested, farmers plant 1 to 3 seedlings the next spring, keeping the cycle alive. They also smell a lot better than plastic.

Most artificial trees, about 80%, according to the US Commerce Department are made in China. Their production and shipping generate significant carbon emissions, and once they are thrown away, they remain in landfills for centuries. While marketed as reusable, studies show an artificial tree must be kept at lea

rs to offset its environmental impact, and most don’t last that long. The plastic lingers probably forever.

By contrast, real Christmas trees actively clean the air as they grow. A single farmed tree can take 7 years on average to reach typical height, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen throughout its life cycle. If you rent a tree, even better.

Real Christmas trees are one of the few agricultural products grown in every US state and across Canada. The top-producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington and these states ship millions of trees nationwide, ensuring that most consumers can purchase a locally sourced product. Christmas tree farms are an actual business.

Buying local reduces transportation emissions and keeps holiday spending circulating within nearby communities.

Christmas tree farms don’t displace forests — they preserve working green space and prevent development. Managed tree fields provide habitat for birds and small mammals, protect soil integrity, and maintain rural ecological balance. In many areas, former agricultural land has been restored through Christmas tree cultivation.

Beyond the environmental and economic arguments, there’s something deeply meaningful about bringing home a real tree. The scent, the feel, the ritual of choosing the perfect one, even if it’s only perfect to you, well these are things an artificial tree simply can’t replicate. A real Christmas tree connects you to nature, to local growers, and to a living cycle that continues long after the decorations come down.

And if you aren’t sold, go for an alternative tree idea. Here are 8 Christmas trees that you can make without cutting down or buying a plastic tree.

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