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Ohio Real Estate Investing in 2023

Bhok Thompson
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0
<strong>Ohio Real Estate Investing in 2023</strong>
solar energy in the trees
The Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council residents and small businesses in Dayton, Ohio received 100% renewable energy while saving money with electric aggregation for their electricity supply charges for a period of 12 months. 

This article examines whether Ohio is an excellent place to invest in real estate in 2023. Topics include the state of the Ohio economy, current trends in the Ohio real estate and housing market, and hot places to invest in Ohio real estate in 2023. If you want to learn more about the Ohio real estate market, read this article carefully because investing in the real estate industry can be fun and financially rewarding! Realtors Tiffin, Ohio, will help you choose the right home or profitably sell your current home.  They will also provide all the information you need and help with the legal side of buying real estate in Ohio.

Ohio Housing Market Overview

Located in the center of the United States, Ohio is the seventh most populous state in the country. Ohioans live in one of the best states to work in, with affordable real estate, excellent schools, large cities with thriving economies, and a wide range of leisure and entertainment options. Known as the Buckeye State, Ohio is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Cedar Point Amusement Park, and Hocking Hills State Park. Ohio has also produced seven U.S. presidents. In addition, the first ambulance service was established in 1865 in Cincinnati. It was the first state to pass a law protecting working women. Ohio also has a lot to offer sports fans. The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team. 

Moreover, two of the top 10 cities to live in in 2020 were Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. The most significant population growth is observed in and around large cities. Ohio has a developed public transportation system in the state’s major cities. Ohio has the seventh-largest economy in the United States. Manufacturing and finance are two of the largest industries booming in this state. It produces enormous amounts of plastic, rubber, and metal, more than any other state in the United States. On the realtor email list in Ohio, you can find a list of realtors with the experience and knowledge to quickly help you find the property you want, in the location you wish, at the price you want. Before we dive into real estate investment opportunities, let’s look at the state of Ohio’s economy and the impact of COVID-19.

The Ohio State Economy and the Impact of COVID-19 

Nearly 900,000 Ohioans have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the state has taken over about half of these jobs. The entertainment, trade, transport and public services, health care, and education sectors provide the most significant number of jobs. Despite the considerable impact of COVID-19, Ohio is gaining momentum to rebuild its economic potential. In general, the state’s population is actively growing, especially in large cities. Ohio has a large and diverse job market, affordable housing, and a low cost of living. And it is committing to invest in renewable energy.

Ohio real estate market in 2023

When looking at the current housing market, we highlight three key indicators: recent population growth, number of jobs, and real estate affordability in Ohio cities. If the real estate market meets these three indicators, they are at a high level, and it can be a good and profitable investment.

Ohio Housing Market Trends

There are vital points to consider with Ohio housing market trends. First, Ohio is home to about 12 million people, and the population has grown steadily by about 2% over the past decade. This growth rate is lower than the national average but still stable. A notable trend is Ohio’s aging population. Over the next five years, more than one in four Ohioans will be 60 or older. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the Ohio housing market. 

The state’s major cities are seeing the most significant population growth. Home values are valued conservatively in the state, and there is a growing labor market. Ohio has one of the largest economies in the country. It is home to 25 Fortune 500 companies and 338 colleges and universities, some with interesting efforts to make their cities green. Ohio also has many people working in health care. In 2020, Ohio ranked the 9th best shopping state in America. It has one of the best infrastructure ratings and a low cost of doing business. A growing labor market and the economy are always signs of a healthy housing market.

Affordable prices and profitable investment opportunities

Ohio is generally very affordable in terms of real estate prices compared to the rest of the United States. Affordability and low cost of living are two key factors why people come to Ohio. The average mortgage payment in Ohio is $765 per month, well below the national average. Approximately 35% of the population rents housing, and the average rent is about $600 per month. The state needs affordable rental housing for low-income families. The lack of accommodation for the poor is a key trend that can also be observed in other countries. 

Optimal places for investment

The best places to invest in real estate in Ohio in 2023 include Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton. Each of these real estate markets has different advantages and disadvantages regarding investing, and it is essential to familiarize yourself with interesting information about each city.

Investing in the Cleveland, Ohio, real estate market in 2023

Cleveland’s housing market is one of the state’s most popular real estate investment destinations. It’s easy to see why. For the past twenty years, Cleveland has been growing, and residents of Cleveland enjoy lake views and many interesting cultural attractions. In recent years, the center of Cleveland has undergone reconstruction at the cost of $50 million. The project envisions several acres of green spaces around public places, apartments, commercial buildings, and other essential places. 

The city’s top cultural attractions include the Cleveland Museum of Art, MOCA Cleveland (Museum of Modern Art), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cleveland’s job market offers high-paying jobs in industries such as I.T., healthcare, and manufacturing. In reality, there need to be more qualified people to fill these gaps. However, the coronavirus pandemic has seriously affected Cleveland’s labor market and economy. The service and healthcare sectors suffered the most labor losses. Because Cleveland’s economy is so dependent on the healthcare industry, there was a concern when job losses peaked in April. Since then, the healthcare industry has grown and is gradually developing. The median home price in the Cleveland area is around $167,000. Last year, the price increased by 7.9% and was expected to increase by another 5.1%.

Akron, Ohio

Arkron, ohio parks
Akron is full of public parks

Located just 45 minutes from Cleveland, Akron is known as the “Rubber Capital of the World” with a long history of tire manufacturing. Akron has a reasonably large area with a zoo and many unique neighborhoods. The median home price in Akron is around $80,000. Housing prices have increased by 8.6% since last year, and growth of 8.2% is expected next year. Certain areas of Akron offer profitable investment opportunities for investing cash flow in various real estate properties.

Parma, Ohio

Parma is a prominent suburb of Cleveland with a median home value of $140,000. Property prices in Palma are high but still well below the national average. In addition, property prices have increased by 9% over the past 12 months and are expected to increase by 8.2% next year. More and more people own housing rather than renting it. As a densely populated area, residents of Parma enjoy a mix of bars, cafes, and parks. Parma is also known for its public schools. With an average rent of $850, Palma is a very affordable place to live and invest in real estate.

Lorain, Ohio

Lorain is located 35 minutes west of Cleveland. The median home price is $85,000. Residential construction grew by more than 7% last year and is expected to grow by more than 8%. Lorain offers rental housing that starts at around $650, making it one of the cheapest places to live. This Cleveland suburb is excellent for families, with good schools and many parks.

Profitable investments in the Cincinnati, Ohio, real estate market in 2023

The abundance of jobs available in the job market, entertainment, and affordable housing prices in Cincinnati in 2023 earned it a place on the list of the best cities. The unemployment rate is relatively low here. Cincinnati’s workforce is predicted to grow by more than 6% over the next decade. More work means more people. Over the past decade, people have been actively moving to Cincinnati. Population growth is not the fastest in the country, but stable. With an expanding labor market, this trend is likely to continue. The median home price in the Cincinnati metropolitan area was $201,822. Last year, housing prices rose by 7.7%, and next year it is expected to grow by 5.9%. Cincinnati is a very affordable city, especially compared to other major cities in the country. Cincinnati’s rental market thrives because of the many students who study here. About 55% of people rent housing, and the average rent is lower than the national average. The housing market around the Cincinnati metropolitan area offers a unique opportunity for real estate investors. Available cash flows and long-term valuations in select Cincinnati neighborhoods.

Profitable investment in the Columbus, Ohio, real estate market in 2023

Columbus is the state capital of Ohio’s most populous city, with over 922,000 residents. Columbus is the best city for students because of the large number of colleges, affordable housing prices, and many diverse entertainment activities. Ohio State University is located in Columbus and is one of the largest employers in the region. Key industries in the Columbus metropolitan area include healthcare, public education, I.T., insurance, retail, and finance. The average household income exceeds the national average. The median home price in the Columbus area is $223,000. The home values increased by 7.6% and are expected to increase by 5.8% in the next 12 months.

Profitable investments in the Dayton, Ohio, real estate market in 2023

Dayton’s population is approximately 139,756, and it is located between Columbus and Cincinnati. Home prices in Dayton hover around $68,000. The home values increased by 16.3% compared to last year and are expected to grow by about 9% next year. Most Dayton residents rent their homes. On average, people pay less than $700 a month for rent. Dayton attracts young professionals and has a vibrant and diverse nightlife. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is also in Dayton. Canton, Ohio, is about an hour from Cleveland and 30 minutes from Akron. With 70,000 inhabitants, it is an excellent place to live with the family. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located here. Median home prices have increased approximately 8% since 2019 and currently stand at $117,000. House prices are expected to rise by 7.7% next year. Living in Canton is affordable, with an average rent of less than $600 per month.

Therefore, is Ohio an excellent place to invest in real estate in 2023? You have to decide if this is a good option for you. There is a lot of potential, especially in regions where the population and employment are growing. Affordable housing and a relatively low cost of living can be found even in Ohio’s larger cities.

 

A solar electric car with solar panels from Lebanon

Karin Kloosterman
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0
A solar electric car with solar panels from Lebanon
Lira car electric
The Lira electric car, via Xinhua

Hicham Husami from Lebanon has announced on Al-Manar TV (Hezbullah-Lebanon) that he has invented the Lira Ecological Car, the first car produced in an Arab country to run on electric and solar energy. It’s clunky and lacking slick design, but when people can’t afford the fuel to run their cars or diesel generators, it’s a godsend.

Husami said in a news clip translated by MEMRI that the car has a range of about 150 miles, and its fast-charge battery runs on solar panels. There are solar panels on the roof of the car as well. Due to the economic crisis which has led to an energy crisis, Lebanese are turning solar to run homes and small businesses to keep the power on.

“In order for this experiment to be successful, one should not drive it near the Central Bank building, so it will not skid and collapse,” he joked. 

Here is the transcript from the interview on TV:

Reporter: “At a time when the Lira [Lebanese Pound] has lost all its reputation and value, this place conceals a Lira of another kind — a Lira that cannot talk, but can drive using solar energy. Let us take a look.”

Hicham Husami, Lira electric car

Hicham Husami: “Despite the circumstances and the collapse of the Lebanese Pound, we invented the first car produced in the Arab world — in Lebanon — that operates on electric and solar energy. We have the honor to call it the Lebanese Lira.

Reporter: “It’s a solar car, called the Lira. In Lebanon, this is not a figment of imagination. It is a real project in progress. The man behind this car is an optimistic and determined Lebanese engineer.”

Husami: “I’m an industrialist. Because we are going through an economic crisis, we need new ideas that will revive this country, and will provide new job opportunities to our young men and women. We must not just wait for relief when the key to relief is in our hand.

“This car can drive you for 200 kilometers during the day without charging it. You can charge the batteries in half an hour. If you are in a place with no electricity and there is sunlight, the car recharges itself, through solar energy. Despite the crisis we are going through, we can stand on our feet. Lebanon is the first Arab country to produce solar cars.”

Reporter: “The idea of the Lira car is an honest manifestation of the Lebanese will to live and survive. In order for this experiment to be successful, one should not drive it near the Central Bank building, so it will not skid and collapse.”

"It's a shame that the Lebanese can barely afford gasoline, and it's even more painful to see people suffering to access the commodity every now and then," Houssami said
Hussami, Lira’s electric car. Via Xinhua.

Late last year Husami was interviewed by the Chinese newspaper Xinhua, “It’s a shame that the Lebanese can barely afford gasoline, and it’s even more painful to see people suffering to access the commodity every now and then,” Hussami said

Despite Husami declaring he’s the first, the Middle East area does have a number of electric car ventures forthcoming in Oman (see Mays Motors), Saudi Arabia Ceer electric cars, and even Turkey’s Togg EV. Israel also has a transformer car. 

Mays Motors, an EV, all electric car/truck from Oman
Mays Motors, an EV, all electric car/truck? from Oman

Why You Might Want to Consider Alternative Cancer Treatment in Mexico

Bhok Thompson
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0
<strong>Why You Might Want to Consider Alternative Cancer Treatment in Mexico</strong>
cancer alternatives
Raw juicing, behavioral approaches, organic food, spring water and CBD may help cancer. Look for alternatives, often complementing traditional therapies.

When you are diagnosed with something as serious as cancer, it can be difficult to think ahead and take practical steps to move forward. However, this is something that you have to do when it comes to things such as your treatment. There are various treatment options you can consider for cancer, but some of these might not have received FDA approval, which means that you might not be able to access them in the United States.

For those who are prepared to travel for their cancer treatment, it is well worth exploring alternative cancer treatment in Mexico. A lot of people these days want to open up as many doors for themselves as possible when it comes to treatment, and this is why they consider options such as this. There are many reasons why people who have received a cancer diagnoses decide to do this, and we will look at some of these reasons within this article.

Some Reasons This Is Worth Considering

There are various reasons why this is something that is well worth considering, and more and more people these days are exploring the alternatives. Some of the reasons you might want to do this are:

A New Opportunity for Treatment

One of the things to remember is that if you decide to have your treatment within the United States rather than traveling, you might be limiting your treatment options and opportunities. This is because certain treatment might not have yet been approved by the Food & Drugs Administration, and this then means that you cannot get that treatment within the USA. By traveling outside the US, you can open up new doors and more opportunities when it comes to getting treatment for the cancer.

Excellent Facilities

Another reason why you might want to consider getting alternative cancer treatment in Mexico is that it enables you to access state-of-the-art facilities at leading cancer centers. When you go for local treatment options close to where you live, you are also limiting the facilities you can access as well as the treatments you can consider. If you want to boost your chances of finding the ideal facility where you can access cancer treatment, it is a good idea to explore the options available to you outside the United States.

Innovative Treatment Alternatives

A key reason why people decide to explore alternative treatments in Mexico is that it enables them to access innovative treatments that they cannot yet access within their home country. Unfortunately, there is a lot of red tape involved in the approval of treatments, and this could make the difference between being able to get a treatment that could help you or having to settle for whatever is offered. If you are prepared to travel, you have a better chance of accessing innovative treatment alternatives for cancer.

These are some of the key reasons why people decide to look at options and alternatives when it comes to cancer treatment. 

Green Prophet does not endorse medical treatments. Please see your physician, Chinese doctor, or trusted herbalist before making any decisions about your health.

Maximizing Your Profits with Options: How to Leverage Your Portfolio for Success

Bhok Thompson
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0
Maximizing Your Profits with Options: How to Leverage Your Portfolio for Success
wind turbine, drone above looking down over the blades onto land
You want to invest in renewable energy or a better future. But whether it’s wind, sun or geothermal, you still need to play the same rules in the market if you are trading from home.

According to many, making unconventional trade moves (atypical for the general public) gives traders the superior edge needed to avoid the pitfalls of simple buy-and-hold investing. Options contracts are something that most casual investors often overlook when they start putting their money to work. Yet, these contracts that allow people to speculate on the future direction of individual securities or the overall stock market combine specificity with flexibility and act as an attractive hedging tool even when you are investing in impact companies focused on sustainability. 

For the uninformed, options get classified as financial derivatives that supply buyers the possibility, but not the obligation, to sell or buy an underlying security by a specific date at an agreed-upon price. As mentioned, they give investors risk-reduction strategies, get utilized as a hedging device, offer low-cost approaches for speculators to go short or long in the market with limited downside risk, and deliver spread and combinations tactics to traders that can be super limber.

Options have been around for more than four decades but are now turning heads regarding newbies to the investment sphere. That is so because of the belief they are too sophisticated for newcomers. Plus, the labels dangerous and risky have gotten unjustifiably attached to them by media outlets, making them seem like a problematic financial instrument when that does not have to be so. Below, we get into option portfolio management and how everyone can take advantage of these contracts en route to attaining sizeable monetary gains.

How Options Can Generate Income

Young guy trading at home on laptops
Anyone can now access trading software and options to buy shares with an investors account at the bank. But don’t make rookie mistakes.

There are multiple ways that options can generate income. Before that gets explained, it must get outlined that two types of options exist. They are calls and puts. The first gives traders the right to buy securities within a specified period, while the latter gives them the right to sell. Also, three categories of positions are in play in options trading, much like in other types. These are shorting, predicting that a stock’s value will fall. A long investing position estimates that its price will grow, and neutral means that the prediction is that it shall remain consistent.

Some more established widely used options strategies are covered calls, married puts, the protective collar, and the strangle and straddle option approaches.

With a covered call, investors purchase shares in a stock. Then they select to offload a call options contract to get the shares for a premium. Regardless of what occurs, they keep the premium from the sale, which offsets any losses in the case of the price dropping.

Also called a protective put, a married one is a similar maneuver to a covered call. Though, here, traders own shares in a stock. Plus, they have a put option to sell them. In a protective collar, traders own stock and vend a covered call while purchasing a protective put. That functions well with a neutral position that aims to hedge against the stock’s price dropping, coming with little risk. Note that the premium paid for buying the put option can get offset via offloading the call option.

A strangle strategy begins by getting a call and put options on securities with the same expiration date. It is a game plan utilized with multiple options contracts when one is confident that they know the direction that the underlying asset will move in the short and long term. The risk here is the cost of the premiums paid for the options contracts.

In a straddle option, investors get a put and call for the same asset and expiration date. The approach differs from the strangle in that traders purchase the put and call for the identical strike price, and they are unsure of the direction it will go. Again, the primary hazard here is the premiums paid on the contract. If the asset plummets, investors end in the black, and if it goes past the call strike price substantially, then there is little limiting profitability. Thus, the security must be volatile enough to offset the costs of the contracts.

Trading Volatility: Taking Advantage of Price Movements

Without question, options can supply leverage, meaning traders can pay small premiums, relatively minor ones, for market exposure in regard to the contract value. So, they can notch decent gains from noted dramatic favorable movements in the underlying product. Though, if the underlying stock does not drop or jump in the anticipated timeframe of the option, then the leverage could dramatically augment the investment’s percentage loss. Those are its downside implications.

Prices are continuously adjusting in financial markets. That is a positive because traders would not make money if they did not change. However, sometimes, these shifts happen more quickly than others. As volatility increases, so does the potential to make money quicker. That said, higher volatility also means greater risk. Once one gets a fair-value price, they can utilize appropriate options tactics based on their acceptable risk. It is vital to never trade anything on emotions. To have a plan and stick to it, modifying fair-value estimates for positions, particularly regarding the longer-term options where conditions will likely change. Never panic when things go negative for a week or even a month. Be confident in the conducted research and the projected price expectations. When a trader spreads risk, several misfired positions will not significantly affect the long-term overall performance of his portfolio.

Renowned strategies traders use to capitalize on securities that exhibit high volatility are buying puts, writing calls, shorting straddles or strangles, ratio writing, and performing iron condors. The latter two did not get discussed, and in an iron condor, the investor, on the same expiration date, combines a bear call spread with a bull put one, attempting to capitalize on a volatility retreat that shall result in the stock trading in a narrow range during the options’ lifespan. In this strategy, the maximum gain usually equals the net premium received. Ratio writing means nothing more than writing more options than purchased. And, in its most rudimentary form, it utilizes a two-to-one ratio with two options, written or sold, for every bought. The logic in play here is to capitalize on a substantial fall in implied volatility before the deadline of the option expires.

Leveraging Options to Increase Your Returns

In options trading, investors can boost their buying power by using leverage. Therefore, with less capital, they can still effectively control more prominent positions, and when a trade goes their way, the returns can be more than decent. In the eyes of many, leverage is the best advantage that options have over other financial tools, and why they are a preferred instrument for those who do not have sizeable capital to invest. That is so because options customarily cost far less than stocks. Hence, if an investor has $5,000 in their account, they can buy options contracts on a specific security that permits control, let us say, of $50,000 in value. They can earn more from the same price gains from the traded underlying stock. And that can get also get leveraged to protect profits and make them.

aleph farms, mars meat non-gmo
Green investing means choosing companies that think about the future of our planet and beyond.

Know that, as an unwritten rule, a limit of the fifty-to-one leverage ratio in stock trading gets enforced. Therefore, when someone buys a stock for $50, investors can only offload it short for $2.50. Nevertheless, options contracts have no leverage cap built-in, meaning it is possible to utilize the leverage of five hundred to one. Call ones allow a leverage one-to-one hundred. So, for instance, purchasing a call option contract on a stock trading at $50 should cost $500. Yet, if the stock jumps by $60, the call option will go to $5,000. $5,000 – $500 = $4,500. Ergo, the trader will snag a profit of $4,500, getting an effective 500% ROI.

Combining Options with Technical Analysis

Technical analysis is a tool that uses patterns in market data to spot trends and make predictions. Hundreds of technical indicators exist that traders can use to try and make valid estimations on how things will develop depending on the type of security and investment style utilized. When it comes to options trading, the implementation of technical analysis is somewhat of a controversial topic that stems from evidence showing that multiple hedge funds have proven in the past that timing the market accurately is extremely hard to do, as no magic indicators can get found that consistently give ideal sell and buy signals. Still, technical analysis provides everyone a context to what is occurring on the market and should not get neglected by anyone.

The best approach is to keep things simple and use a 200-day moving average. Other indicators to look into are volume profiles, the relative strength index, the intraday momentum one, and Bollinger bonds as a way to measure volatility.

Managing Risk When Trading Options

Without question, figuring out how to properly manage risk for stock options is likely the most crucial step in working towards maximizing profits using this investment tool. Most experts suggest focusing on trades that provide consistent 5-10% returns instead of trying to hit home runs. Also, they recommend placing orders to sell or buy specific stocks once they hit a certain price. That gets called a stop-loss, and it has gotten created to restrict an investor’s loss on a security position. Another handy risk mediating time is sizing positions within a portfolio using a distinct dollar amount an investor is willing to trade. Diversifying trades and paying for quality forecasting software is also a must to lower the odds of facing option trading losses.

The Bottom Line

It is paramount that everyone considering to trade options has a clear plan on how they will go about this endeavor and stick to their predefined objectives, not moving the goalposts as they go. Options carry no guarantees and remember that as the holder, you risk the entire sum of the premium you pay, and as the writer, you accumulate much higher risk. Those serious about this practice should buy reputable forecasting/market monitoring software and place stop-loss orders.

 

 

Coral reefs are losing oxygen: what this means for our seas

Karin Kloosterman
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0
Coral reefs are losing oxygen: what this means for our seas
coral reefs, free diving
Climate change is heating our seas so less oxygen can be absorbed. What does this mean for reef health? Chinese and Israeli researchers give data for policy makers.

Our life depends on oxygen. Water in rivers and the seas pick it up and dissolve it, and in this way, water is the blood for our earth. Water carries oxygen to the roots of trees and plants in the soil and also to plants, coral, algae and tiny creatures in our seas and oceans. Like fungi living in symbiosis with plants and trees helping them gather nutrients, algae in the sea work alongside coral.

Now with climate change happening and a rising of temperatures in the sea, coral reefs are having a harder time than ever as the globe gets warmer. You can see the effects in famous dive spots in Sinai, Egypt, where reef after reef is just dead and dusty. Marine researchers from Israel and China, working together, are sounding an alarm. 

Corals can’t cope

Corals face an ongoing reduction of oxygen in the sea water: They can survive but they pay a heavy physiological price that endangers the survival of the corals’ next generations: an impaired ability to capture prey and a growing reliance on energy provided by their symbiotic algae, with a decline in the reproductive processes, the researchers report.

These findings emerge from a recent study conducted at the University of Haifa: “Although corals survive, they pay a penalty. We are concerned that any further environmental changes, especially those affecting the corals’ interaction with their symbiotic algae, will seriously compromise their ability to cope with the declining oxygen levels,” notes Hagit Kvitt of the University of Haifa, who led the study.

Coral reefs are essential for healthy marine ecosystems and human ecology. They provide a habitat for around 25% of all marine organisms and contribute to the biodiversity of the marine system. In addition, coral reefs function as the “rainforests” of the sea: the coral lives in symbiosis with algae that are contained inside its cells and provide about 90% of its energy through the process of photosynthesis.

Global warming is affecting marine life in many ways, one of which is the decrease in seawater oxygen levels. Rising temperatures cause on the one hand a decline in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the ocean and on the other an increase in the metabolism of marine animals, including their need for oxygen.

“Consequently, the need for oxygen increases while oxygen levels decrease, which poses a greater threat to the animals than the rise in temperature itself,” the researchers explain. “Previous studies have found that some past mass extinction events were likely caused by a similar combination of rising temperatures and decreasing oxygen levels.”

The current study is published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science and incuded researchers from the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute in Eilat, in cooperation with researchers from China.

How researchers measured oxygen in reefs

The team sought to monitor the impact of the ongoing decrease in oxygen levels on the physiology and gene expression of a reef-building coral. Previous studies examined the changes in gene expression upon a decrease of oxygen over 12 hours, a relatively short period compared to conditions expected in nature. Studies examining the impact of 11 days of oxygen depletion focused solely on the physiological response and did not examine changes in gene expression.

The unique feature of the current study is that it examined both the physiological changes and the changes in gene expression over a longer period – 14 days – when the corals were kept at an oxygen level 90% below the normal level of their natural habitat (a drop from 6 mg/l O2 to 0.3-0.6 mg/l O2). 

The results of the study show that within the first 12 hours the coral activated processes that helped it cope with the oxygen depletion: it increased its energy production by means that are not dependent on oxygen, it increased the number of mitochondria to improve its utilization of cellular oxygen, and began to increase its nutrient acquisition from the symbiotic algae.

After a longer period – between one and two weeks – a decline was seen in processes related to reproduction, in particular those of sperm production, as well as a decline in the production of the stinging mechanism, that functions in prey capture and self defense.

According to the researchers, the study is very significant in terms of our understanding of the heavy price we will pay for climate change in the future: “This in turn will help us formulate policies for coping with the climate change we are bringing on ourselves,” the researchers conclude.

Buttery hamantaschen cookies for Purim

Miriam Kresh
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5
Buttery hamantaschen cookies for Purim

Hamantaschen purim cookies, Jewish baking
Jews bake hamantaschen on Purim, a holiday when kids dress up and eat the symbolic ears of Haman, a man from the Persian court who tried to use his influence to eliminate the Jews. 

It isn’t often you can bite into a cookie with a load of ancient history behind it. Call them Hamentaschen or Oznei Haman, or Haman’s Ears but make sure to bake up a batch of these buttery, traditional Purim cookies.

Filled cookies and pastries echo one of Purim’s  “hidden” threads. See our previous post about the Purim story and the goodies basket here. As Queen Esther concealed her Jewish origins until the time was right, Jews  created delicacies that conceal a sweet surprise inside their pastry shells. Hamentaschen is the Yiddish name for a cookie that translated into  Oznei Haman in Israel, where Jews of every ethnic origin enjoy them on Purim.

This year, why not walk right past the boxes of bakery cookies full of  artificial colors and too much sugar? Try baking your own, where you control the ingredients. You’ll present these home-made Hamentaschen with pride.

How to make homemade hamantaschen

Yield: about 24 Hamentaschen cookies

Ingredients for dough:

3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (can be whole wheat or the flour you love for cooking)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 egg, beaten
2 to 3 tablespoons water
Grated rind of 1 orange

Cookie Filling:

Any firm jam. Try also Nutella, chocolate, or poppy seeds.

Putting the cookies together

Sift sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl.

Add butter or shortening and mix in till you have fine crumbs.

Stir in the egg and water. If using whole wheat flour, you will need the larger amount of  water.
Add the grated rind and stir well.

Knead lightly for a few seconds to obtain a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in a clean, re-used plastic bag and put in the refrigerator to chill 1 hour. You can also make them at night and bake in the morning. Or freeze the dough and though before you want to bake it. Like oily Hanukah treats Purim cookies are best fresh.

Dust your working surface with flour and roll the dough out on it. Cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter or a large glass. If the dough is difficult to work with, sprinkle more flour on it and on the working surface.

Place 1 teaspoon filling in the center of each round and bring the edges up to make a triangle that reveals the filling. Pinch the edges shut.

Bake at 350°F or 190°C for 10 minutes. The cookies should be a golden brown. If still pale, bake another 2 minutes. Set on a wire rack to cook and become crisp. Store in a jar or put them in the traditional Purim Mishloach manot or shalech mones (and also called a Purim basket) –– gifts of food or drink that are sent to family, friends and others on Purim day.

Enjoy!

Other delicious pastries to include in your Purim basket this year:

The recipe was updated Feb, 2023

Ancient emmer roots using gene tools from today

Karin Kloosterman
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0
Ancient emmer roots using gene tools from today
emmer wheat in the field
Emmer wheat is an ancient wheat from the Middle East

Some people believe that CRISPR, a low-cost tool used in gene editing, is the devil. The concerns aren’t unfounded. What if a newly “edited” grain or plant or animal escapes from its cage and changes the face of the wild genome in question?

Should we, for instance, edit out disease in human populations? Or ADHD? What if we do, and those edits bring a cascade of other problems we couldn’t have predicted. A Chinese doctor He Jiankui went to jail in 2019 for editing a human gene that creates HIV-immunity in embryos and then implanted them in women who did not know this fact.

But what about gene editing for food as climate change puts a strain on water? GMOs or gene-edited plants do exist. And while naturalists don’t want to eat them, science can use gene editing tools, like CRISPR to reverse engineer and discover information they need while selecting beneficial traits from a wild population. That’s what is happening now in a study between American and Israeli researchers. They are using gene editing tools to pinpoint climate resistant genes in wheat.

When it comes to agriculture to grow climate-tolerant plants, current regulation in most Western countries does not permit genetic enhancement through artificial intervention designed to change the gene expression. A new study from UC Davis and the University of Haifa, attempts to use gene editing in a responsible manner to help pinpoint resilient genes in ancient cultivars of wild wheat.

In a recent study the group used gene editing and hydroponics to pinpoint which genes are responsible for long roots. Long-rooted wheat can search for water and minerals better in the wild and is a more ideal gene trait if seed bank researchers want to produce seeds from wild varieties that are climate resilient. 

“This is the first time that a gene associated with drought tolerance has been discovered and its function is validated in wheat,” said Gilad Gabay, the first author of an article published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. “Given the importance of wheat for global nutrition, on the one hand, and the fact that global warming is leading to an expansion of arid areas and impairing agricultural crops, on the other, this discovery is highly significant and will allow wheat to be grown in a wider range of climatic conditions,” he added. 

The roots of ancient farming

There is an established theory that farming started with the emmer wheat in the area around Israel, Jordan and Lebanon fifteen thousand years ago. As seed banks start to proliferate around the Middle East, and younger generations turn to farming, new ideas are formulating. Consider the bread maker Haguy Ben Yehuda north of Tel Aviv who discovered an emmer wheat variety he is now baking into bread. 

Haguy Ben Yehuda making emmer wheat into bread
Haguy Ben Yehuda making emmer wheat into bread

One of the largest wild wheat seed banks in the world is at the University of Haifa has been looking at how they can select the best cultivars from ancient grains. Tamar Krugman says: “Our gene bank includes thousands of strains of wild wheat from Israel and around the world.”

Seed bank Arava Institute
A seed bank at the Arava Institute in Israel

She and her colleagues at UC Davis applied gene editing technologies to help them identify a cluster of genes that make long-rooted wheat in the hope that they can replicate those seeds and use them in the future to grow hearty wheat in drought conditions. Climate change is expected to make some parts of the Middle East uninhabitable. See climate exodus, Middle East.

Details about the wheat study

In the first stage of the study, the researchers identified wheat cultivars in which significant difference were found in the field in yield production (over 2,000 kg per hectare) and in the plant biomass. However, what caught their attention was the fact that these differences were larger in arid conditions. In the second stage, tests in wheat fields and by using hydroponic methods found that these gaps in yield were due to differences in the root lengths.

In the third stage, the researchers used advanced genomics and bioinformatics tools to identify the genomic region that may include genes associated with the root architecture in wheat plants. This identification is considered extremely complex, since bread wheat has an enormous genome – over five times the human genome – that includes three distinct sub-genomes that include six copies of very chromosome.

In the final stage, the researchers managed to validate the function of the genes in the development of roots through the use of pioneering genome editing and genetic engineering techniques in wheat research developed recently at the laboratory of Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky. 

 

 

Sustainable, wild peeing in cities?

Karin Kloosterman
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Sustainable, wild peeing in cities?
GreenPee wild peeing urinal in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is dealing with wild peeing by installing public urinals that are made from hemp

Travelling to any city, even your own city for a day, at some point you’ll need to ask, where can I go? Cities haven’t yet solved clean, sustainable ways for us to pee when out in public, so when you go to cities like Tel Aviv you will see “wild peeing” men urinating all over the place. Moms and dads hold their children’s bottoms, often in plain view, in the air beside a tree. And you know what happened to the Italian in Bread and Chocolate who desperately wanted to be Swiss but was found peeing in public?

Peeing in public is humiliating for the person who needs to go, and it’s not good for our cities and parks that shouldn’t become a public toilet. 

If companies from Israel like Waze have solved traffic, some startup somewhere must be able to solve the problem of the clean, sustainable public toilet which remains hard to find and when we do, an unpleasant experience.

How can we make public toilets more sustainable and accessible? How can public washrooms in cities make us feel safe, clean and honored? Can we add urinals to trees? Use compost toilets? We have a traditional answer from NYC: just make it elevated and clean; and some interesting solutions from Holland. We asked and Green Prophet readers replied. 

John Goodman from John Goodman PR, who represents the PR office of Bryant Park, NYC tells Green Prophet that “one of the finest examples of a public urinal/bathroom in the country is the public rest room at Bryant Park in NYC. Conceived by Dan Biederman, Executive Director of the park, the public restrooms in this city park mirror those found in a five-star hotel. They are safe and continually cleaned and maintained,” he points out.

Bryant Park bathrooms
Bryant Park Bathrooms, credit: Noa Ben Hamou 

Funded by private donors the Bryant Park toilets contain two stalls for men and three for women who enjoy fresh flowers, paintings of the park made by artists-in-residence, and waiting bathroom attendants, with classical music in the background. 

Bryant park restrooms
Bryant Park Restrooms: The fanciest public restroom in New York City boasts fresh flowers, art, and a classical music soundtrack.

“What an important and perplexing problem. It is one that I have wrestling with for decades,” says environmental artist Pablo Solomon. “Sadly, we are poisoning our water supplies with drugs, hormones, chemicals from our urine. Most water treatment plants just cannot filter out all of the complex compounds which our bodies remove through urination.

“Living on a ranch, we have a septic system. Since our house is on a hill, we have developed a vertical filtering system for the fluids. This consists of about 20 vertical feet of alternating sand, gravel and clays using gravity. While not perfect, this works better than most alternatives.

“A workable alternative,” he says, and which is not going to work in public spaces “is to urinate in a pan or bucket (yes like was done for thousands of years) and then dump the urine in a place that might be
relatively okay, in pasture or yard/landscape areas–not a garden where you grow food. To kill the urine smell in the bucket in an environmentally friendly way is to put baking soda and add then add vinegar.” 

Trond Nyland, Founder and CEO of Mattress Review tells us, “you’re exploring an important and interesting topic, and since I have ample experience living and traveling internationally, I’ve seen green urinals firsthand.

Nyland says that GreenPee has installed a good number of streetside urinal hemp planters in Amsterdam, and it has significantly reduced unrestrained public urinating and saved tons of water for drinking. Instead of producing more waste, the concept centers on the hemp and urine mixing inside to produce fertilizer for city parks and others.

A sustainable urinal for women

He also recommends the woman version, Lapee which “offers a female urinal option that’s touch-free, ideal in the time of COVID-19. All open-air urinals have much better ventilation, decreasing the risk of transmission of coronavirus. Touchless options will be best in the times of COVID-19, so designers should keep this in mind.”

Lapee urinals
Lapee is a urinal made for females

But isn’t the idea of green urinals like in Amsterdam, a little bit too much, “out there” for Americans? No says Karen Condor, a writer:  “America is a melting pot. US culture has been shaped by many other cultures from around the world, including Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We adopt and adapt to things that seem outrageous at first then become normalized. Just think of tattoos or bento boxes just a few decades ago.

She’s familiar Amsterdam’s GreenPee, “the planter-like, hemp-filled, sustainable urinals as an attempt to
offset the city’s ‘wild peeing’ hotspots which will one day be a normal sight in American cities, too. Now that people know how to guard against coronavirus through sanitizing their homes and cars, they have evolved into mobile sanitizing. And it’s easier to sanitize a small area than to worry about an entire public restroom.”

Condor notes that this sustainable “alternative is also easier for a city to operate than full public
restrooms. This will help straining city budgets trying to meet population increase and tourist demand for more public restroom facilities. Cities would not have to allocate as much space or as much money for these “green” urinals. And given the growing awareness about the environment, cities pursuing green alternatives will see an increase in this type of idea being welcomed.”

My travelling friend who spent years in India had a novel idea, probably an ancient one, for going pee in public. She’d wear a long skirt and billow it out, and as she sat down could quietly pee in place with no one even noticing. But that’s still putting pee out in the public space. And we don’t want that.

What are future sustainable designers to do? Look to the squat toilet of the Middle East for ideas. You will find them in Sinai and Syria. And while they are growing less common in countries like Thailand, you can still find them there too. Still curious about peeing in other cultures, Abdul Al Lily explains how to use a squat toilet in Saudi Arabia.

Having to go pee is not going to go away. But having our nature spots, and cities full of public urine makes everything around us feel like a toilet. Unless you are in a toilet in Bryant Park, you really don’t want that. 

Tips for peeing in the wild (not on city streets)

It’s important to pee far from water sources (about 200 feet away) and about the same distance from trails and campsites to avoid impacting the natural environment. If you’re on a sloping incline, pee facing downhill so it flows away from you and not back down onto your feet.

 

Make ghorabeya, Arab shortbread cookies

Miriam Kresh
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Make ghorabeya, Arab shortbread cookies

Graybeh, Arab shortbread
Graybeh or ghorabiya are delicate Turkish cookies, an Arab form of shortbread, are easy to make and a perfect for filling Purim baskets or for breaking a Ramadan fast.

If there’s one weakness we confess to, it’s cookies. We’ve written about fruit-stuffed ma’amoul cookies and tehina cookies. Now meet Sephardic ghorabeya cookies, a delicacy with a simple nut flavor coming through in every sweet mouthful.

Ghorabeya turned out to be as meltingly delicious as promised, and easy to make too. Try them – but keep some aside for yourself before they disappear.

How to Make Ghorabeya Cookies

ghorayeba
Ghorayeba can be made with ghee. And Safeeda in the UAE shows the Indian influence on Arab cooking at her blog the Big Sweet Tooth

Ingredients for making Arab Shortbread

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons finely ground almonds or walnuts
1 tablespoon coarsely ground almonds or walnuts
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons orange flower water
or
1/2 teaspoon almond extract [optional]
1 tablespoon cocoa powder [optional]

Preheat the oven to 350F

In a medium bowl, blend the dry ingredients.

Add oil to the dry ingredients and mix.

* If using the the cocoa and almond extract, mix them in a small bowl first, adding a little of the oil to make a paste. Then add the rest of the oil and stir. Add to the dry ingredients.

The dough will be thick. Use a tablespoon to measure out 18 or so portions. Roll them tightly into balls. Place them on an ungreased baking sheet, or one lined with baking parchment.

Bake 25-30 minutes. The bottoms should be lightly browned and not dark while  the outsides will be a pale tan color.

Allow the cookies to cool thoroughly before moving. They are very delicate and will crumble if moved while still warm. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

Other delicious treats from Green Prophet:

Chocolate-Nut Clusters

Kibbeh recipe

Babah Ganoush

This recipe was updated in Feb, 2023.

Travelling to Washington: five suggestions so you are prepared

Bhok Thompson
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Travelling to Washington: five suggestions so you are prepared
treehouse DC washington
You can travel sustainably near Washington, DC by renting a treehouse in the woods.

Washington, the city in DC, is an ideal place to visit in the United States. The city offers beautiful tourist locations and is home to the three most iconic USA government buildings: the Supreme Court, the White House, and the Capitol Building on Capitol Hill. You will also find amazing artwork and architecture around the city, with happening nightlife you will never forget. Whether you’re planning a family vacation or just a quick weekend getaway, there’s something for everyone in Washington. Yet, before you check on other travel essentials, looking into connectivity in the city is key. Finding a local e-sim card at any hour of the day, yes? You will need it to locate your hotel, find your restaurants. Say no more. 

If you are looking for a good internet connection and reliable services during your visit to Washington, Holafly offers some good options: a secure connection through their roaming facility and unlimited data plans for you to travel easily throughout the trip.  

Five recommendations to consider when travelling in Washington

Know the weather

Washington is one of the most busiest towns in the United States, but if you want to visit make sure you dress for the weather. May and October are the most pleasant months but crowded. But, if you prefer less crowded and can bear the cold, then January and February are the best months. Choosing the preferred climate will allow you to pack appropriate clothing and gear for your travels.

Know the local transport 

One of the best features of Washington is that all tourist destinations are located close by. It makes it easier to roam around on foot. It is safe and allows you to know the city intimately. However, Washington also offers the safest and best metro for getting around. You can also opt for buses or monorails to hop between locations. However, if you wish to book a car rental, familiarise yourself with local traffic laws and parking regulations before you depart. Some areas may require special permits or fees for certain activities, so it’s best to know them before travelling. 

Know the currency 

The United States Dollar is the official currency of Washington. ATMs are available at reasonable distances allowing you to withdraw any time of the day. However, when travelling from a different country, asking your bank about the exchange rates and any other changes added to your card transactions can be significant. In such cases, carry some cash so you can roam hassle-free and avoid any glitches or heavy pockets later on. 

Know where to stay – and make it green

Whether you’re looking for something luxurious, or just an affordable place to crash after long days of sightseeing, Washington has plenty of options. Yet, before booking a hotel or an AirBnB, travellers must consider factors such as location, amenities and price range when researching potential accommodations in Washington. When travelling during peak seasons, expect higher rates and rush. However, to save cost you can book accommodations away from prime locations. Roaming around by foot or bike is comfortable in Washington, and it can help you save money while enjoying the art and architecture.

10 winter soups

Miriam Kresh
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10 winter soups
morocco chick pea soup slow food sustainable
Moroccan chickpea soup. Hearty and comforting.

We selected our best soup recipes for you. Some are familiar, some are truly exotic, and all are delicious. Bonus for soup-eaters:  big health benefits. These soup recipes call for plenty of fresh vegetables and grains and are packed with vitamins and minerals you need to stave off winter ailments.

So bundle up to go outdoors, but when you’re home, sit down in front of, lets’ say, a fragrant, creamy, roasted garlic soup. 

recipe vichyssoise soup

Fennel bulbs are in season now – at least, here in the Middle East. Providing you can get some, try this beautiful fennel soup from the Soup For Syria Cookbook by Barbara Abdeni Massaad. The recipe was developed by chef Greg Malouf.

greg malouf

White beans and loads of fresh, seasonal vegetables make a hearty soup to take the chill off winter days. Cook up our cannellini soup. You can either soak dry beans overnight ahead of time, or use canned beans. 

cannellini soup recipe

Turkish lentil and chickpea soup with bulgur dumplings. Sound good? Sounds mouthwatering to me. It’s a soup that takes dedication, with a longish list of ingredients, and dumplings to shape by hand. A soup for serious cooks and serious soup eaters.

Among your pantry staples there are probably lentils. This rustic soup from Lebanon offers a satisfying bowl of lentils cooked down with vegetables and rice. Good for body and soul. Lebanese lentil soup.

image-lentil-soup

Have you ever considered eggplant a soup ingredient? We have a whole soup based on eggplant.  Cooked with mushrooms, swirled with pesto and sour cream, creamy eggplant soup is a surprise and a pleasure. 

Chickpea and spinach soup appears on winter menus often, in the Middle East. I have a particular fondness for this Moroccan version of it. 

morocco chick pea soup slow food sustainable

Soup for breakfast? Why not? Moroccan cuisine developed a luscious,  sweet wheat soup perfumed with orange flower water and cinnamon. Start your day with a bowlful, and you’ll have steady energy at least until lunchtime, and probably past. Herbel, Sweet Moroccan Wheat Soup.

image-moroccan-wheat-soup

You know, of course, that Jerusalem artichokes aren’t artichokes and have nothing to do with Jerusalem. Unless you bought some in a Jerusalem greengrocer’s to make this soup. Savory with saffron and thickened with almonds, it’s simple to make. And it satisfies your taste for the mildly exotic. Jerusalem artichoke soup.

image-jerusalem-artichoke-soup

What’s vichyssoise doing here? Well, it’s a soup traditionally served cold, but we say it’s no sin to eat vichyssoise hot off the stove. We do it. And like it, a lot.

roasted garlic soup

We showed you bulgur dumplings from Turkey. We showed you soups brimming with chickpeas, croutons, and spinach. But we haven’t shown you the ultimate soup accompaniment: matzah balls.  Famous for pairing with chicken soup, you can serve matzah balls in vegetarian broth or clear soup of any kind. So here you are, our traditional matzah ball recipe.

image matzah ball soup

Why wombats have cubed-shaped poop

Karin Kloosterman
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Why wombats have cubed-shaped poop
 
wombat poop cubes
Why do some animals poo pellets, some tubes, and others pies, and how is it similar to cooling lava? Cracking the code for cubed poop.

Walk around a forest in Canada and you can’t miss the precise piles of round animal poop: Deer, moose, and rabbits. But there is one animal in the world (that we know of) that poops in cubes and it’s a wombat. How does the Tasmanian mammal do that? Yes, serious researchers want to know. Biologists get to ask ridiculous questions like this when they grow up, and then try to answer them using tools from science. 

A team from the University of Tasmania has determined that a wombat’s surprisingly long and intermittently stretchy intestines compress their poop (or stool) into cubes. The team has now pinpointed another factor to making cube poop, which seems to apply to all animals that produce feces in pellet form: how the poo dries in the animals’ guts.

cubed wombat poop
Cubed wombat poop, via Diana Fleischman

The research has been supported by the Ig Nobel Prize, the satirical prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research.

In the latest study, researchers built an artificial wombat digestive system and passed corn-starch ‘poop’ through plastic troughs, simulating intestines and added heat lamps to dry them out. Greater drying resulted in more closely spaced cracks — wombat poo, which contains 65% water, cracked into little cubes.

cube, square wombat poo

Human poo, made up of 75% water, comes out in longer tubes, and cow pat, containing up to 90% water, just slops right out.

wombats and cubed poop
Scott Carver and a wombat, via University of Tasmania

The researchers leading the wombat study is Scott Carver from the University of Tasmania and Georgia Tech’s Professor David Hu. They set out to crack the secret of the unique cubed poo of wombats: “There are many colourful hypotheses to explain the phenomenon, but nobody had ever investigated it. This research has been a fun effort to answer the questions of how and why,” says Carver.

How and why wombats produce cubed faeces has been a fascination to many people for a long time, he added. 

And there are applications in human health. Certainly you’ve seen photos or videos of how a healthy human poop should look? The scientists looking at wombat stool agree: “the methods and physical picture shown here may be of use to physicians and veterinarians interested in using feces length as a marker of intestinal health.”

If reading scientific papers is your thing, catch up on the latest wombat cubed poop research in: Drying dynamics of pellet faeces. And if you are interested in wombats, Womsat is helping protect them in Australia. If you are interested in doing science, check out our experiment using worms to eat plastic. 

Jokes aside about cubed wombat poop in Tasmania (it’s made so it doesn’t roll away in Tasmanian wind!), nature has the best technology. We study it so we can learn from it to make energy more efficient and medicine more attuned to our bodies. The field is also known as biomimicry. Wombats know why their poop is cubed. Do you?

 

 

Is Nahum Tower in Bat Yam, Israel the ugliest building in the world?

Karin Kloosterman
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Is Nahum Tower in Bat Yam, Israel the ugliest building in the world?

At one point Reddit users agreed that a 12-story residential building in Bat Yam, Israel is the ugliest building in the world. Don’t worry Bat Yam: Amman nearby in Jordan is the 3rd ugliest city. But still, the rumor circulated around the globe and whether it’s true or not is a matter of opinion. We went over to film the building so you can decide for yourself.

World's ugliest building, Bat Yam. The Nahum Tower.
World’s ugliest building, Bat Yam. The Nahum Tower. Via Haaretz

The Bat Yam building is called the Nahum Tower, and it was once a center for local life and creativity in Bat Yam. Why is this important and part of the sustainability discussion? Sustainable architecture is not just a question of use of local, low carbon materials and emissions-free building technology.

Buildings also need to be beautiful if they are to last for a long time, say researchers from Denmark: “If buildings speak to our senses, we look after them better,” they write.

Constructed in the 1970s and resembling a Soviet-era residential block, the Brutalist style building in Bat Yam has become an eyesore – like most other apartment buildings in the area of Tel Aviv – because residents build over their balconies and hang air conditioners and junk such as plastic storage cabinets wherever they please. This contrasts with Moshe Safdie’s 1967 Brutalist building built for the Montreal Expo. I’ve visited it and see how vision and maintenance can preserve the intent of the architect?

Moshe safdie, Habitat 67, Montreal, Karin Kloosterman, 2021
Habitat 67, a Brutalist housing project by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie for Expo 67 in Montreal. Karin Kloosterman for Green Prophet

As for the Nahum Tower in Bat Yam, “I’ve seen uglier buildings in Australia. This one is pretty unremarkable,” writes one Reddit reader. “I’ve seen uglier ones in Israel, in almost every city,” writes another. Others comment that it’s ugly compared to the price of a cost of an apartment. 

Bat Yam ugly building
Marion Greenhouse sketch for the Nahum building in Bat Yam

The Bat Yam building today overlooks a large network of shopping centers and clinics, which include disintegrating wedding halls, and a car park.

As you can see above, the original sketch by the architect Marion Greenhouse, was not that bad. Done in a Brutalist style, common in Israel, what the architect didn’t plan for was the Israeli concept of “trisim” or plastic shutters that would cover the open spaces to make room for extra living space. Oftentimes the shutters are broken or malfunctioning, and there is no city bylaw telling residents how their balconies should look.

ugly building bat yam, Migdal Nahum, tower
Sketch of the Nahum Tower by Marion Greenhouse. His family was in the Holocaust

The ugly Nahum building was filmed by a drone and published by a user on Reddit, where it earned the first place in the ranking, scoring higher than a Soviet building in Sofia in Bulgaria, slums in the city of Manila in the Philippines or buildings in Cape Town in South Africa.

In his memoirs, Greenhouse wrote about the project and that it was interrupted in the middle, lending reasons to why the building never looked the way it was intended: “The bankruptcy was due to the fact that they didn’t listen to me … I recommended to the developers that they build it in stages, starting with the commercial areas, and with the money they got from the sale of shops and the cinema they could finance construction of the residential tower. They told me that maybe I understand architecture, but I don’t understand business.”

Today, the cost of housing is astronomical in Israel where the cost of living doesn’t match the salaries, unless you work in hightech or the wedding industry. 

With a general disregard for making apartments attractive, visitors to Tel Aviv will notice how many of the older residential buildings are crumbling apart, and full of junk on balconies and roofs. Beautiful cities aren’t born they are made. Consider that Paris has bylaws for keeping it beautiful: I’ve rented apartments there for a couple months of my life and notes from the owners were very clear: No watering the plants after 7am (so the water doesn’t drip on people below), and no hanging laundry in the windows or off the front balconies. All laundry must air dry on the roof. 

If you hang out your laundry or carpets in Kuwait face a serious fine about $1000 as a fee against “visual pollution.”

Tel Aviv and Israelis in general don’t might hanging out their laundry in public. In fact, it’s encouraged. Where I live in Jaffa, it’s not uncommon to see strings of it hanging from small apartment flat windows on devices that attach to the windows. Even to see laundry hung in public spaces on lines between trees. Hanging laundry to air dry is a good thing. It means less power for electric dryers is used. But one of the problems in Tel Aviv is that it can be dusty. So know when to hang.

But back to the ugly question: what is the balance between respecting the things we own if they are maintained and physically attractive? Could we argue that better looking buildings are more likely to be cared for and protected?  Let’s look to a Sicilian window below.

Laundry in Sicily
The laundry in Sicilian windows isn’t ugly.

When the clothes go out in towns in Sicily, it looks like a celebration. They use a standard yellow or blue striped drape that gives uniformity, shade and also privacy to your tighty whities. Sicilians also fill their balconies with plants, and use quality ceramic pots and water their plants regularly so they stay alive.

The environmental artist Ran Morin once told me that he does not want to replicate Oranger Suspendu at hotel lobbies around the world, even though he’s been asked. “Do you know how hard it is keeping one tree alive,” he once told me when I ran into him in Jerusalem. Something to think about before we plant on balconies. Last thought so you are more informed here is an article on how to grow an olive tree in a container. 

Will Carbon Sequestering give us Clean Coal?

Brian Nitz
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Will Carbon Sequestering give us Clean Coal?
tropical rainforests trap carbon
The best way to deal with carbon is not to release it in the first place. Carbon capture is not the ultimate solution.

Sometime in the 1970s when our family outings were usually to places like Yogi Bear Jellystone park or the local drive-in movie, my father drove us to a coal-fired power plant. The local electric company had just installed smokestack scrubbers to comply with the Clean Air Act. The transformation from sooty grey smoke to puffy white clouds of steam seemed like a miracle. 

Nixon-era greenwashing

Dad taught Science so he was able to explain how the scrubbers used electricity to attract ash and soot. It was similar to the way a charged balloon attracted our hair or clinged to the wall. These scrubbers were amazing but they were not designed to reduce the lung-rotting sulphur dioxide (SO2 – sox for short), nitrogen oxides (NOx – nox for short) or ozone (O3). They did little to reduce the levels of brain-rotting mercury or lead and did nothing to slow the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere.

Twenty-five years later the company proposed three additional “clean-coal” power plants on the same site to take advantage of the grandfather clause of environmental laws written when the original plants were constructed in the 1950s. The proposal’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) said that new technologies did capture more pollution. Per megawatt-hour, each new plant would produce less SO2, NOx and O3 than the older ones. This factoid was repeated on advertising along with the promise for jobs. But the devil was in the details. In sum total along with the existing plants, regional air quality would decline and barely meet Clean Air Act standards only if the smokestacks were built higher than the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) allowed. 

I learned that photovoltaic solar energy was considered to be too expensive and that new nuclear power plants were disqualified until someone figured out a safe way to store the waste. 

The new “Clean-coal” power plants were expensive to build so they would have to stay online for at least 50 years in order to be cost-effective. Gas turbine power plants produce less CO2 per megawatt and are cheaper to build but they are more expensive to operate. Computer models recommended thousands of megawatts of offshore wind farms as the most cost-effective energy source. But these models were ignored.

Jobs were the ultimate trump card in the power plant debate but environmentalists brought up the probable negative impact of mercury and thermal pollution on the state’s fishing industry and the impact on traffic from the freight trains that would bring more than 6000 tons of coal every day to generate approximately 1100 Megawatts of electricity and release 12,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide into our atmosphere.

Despite more than a century of science showing the impact of CO2 on climate and the fact that a CO2 concentration of 4% is fatal, this invisible gas is not considered a pollutant. When anyone brought up the topic of CO2, the word “sequestering” was used as if it was a magic incantation that would cure our carbon-based troubles.

What is Sequestering?

The dictionary gives:
Se·ques·ter verb

  1. isolate or hide away.

“Tiberius was sequestered on an island”

In the context of carbon dioxide, sequestering refers to any method which can lock this greenhouse gas safely away from where it can harm us and our environment.

Since the O2 component of CO2 is not harmful, the simplest way to sequester CO2 would be to separate the Oxygen from the Carbon, reversing the coal-burning reaction:

C + O2 → CO2 + energy

to:

CO2 + energy → C + O2

Unfortunately unburning coal is almost as difficult as unbaking a cake. A wise college professor named Merlin once taught us the three laws of physics as:

  • You can’t win
  • You can’t break even
  • You shouldn’t even try.

Even if coal was pure carbon and air was pure oxygen, the coal unburning reaction would take more energy than we got from burning the coal. But let’s be optimistic. Maybe there is a way to sneak around that third law of physics, a trick to hide the carbon from mother nature.

Nature

Plants use chlorophyll and energy from sunlight to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. They already know how to sequester carbon. Over time these plants will eventually become coal which is mostly carbon. So it is possible to reverse that chemical reaction! Climate impact’s nature based solutions use plants as part of the carbon offsets which help companies move towards a carbon-neutral balance. According to an article published in the journal Nature, fast growing trees such as Eucalyptus and Acacia can absorb up to 5 tons of carbon per hectare per year.

Going back to my neighbourhood coal power plant, in order to store the 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide this 1.1 Gigawatt plant emits every day we would need more than 876,600 hectares of eucalyptus or acacia trees. That’s 8766 square kilometre, a forest more than 11 times the size of Bahrain! Even if this much land is available and not being used for housing or agriculture, trees don’t live forever and forests are typically cut down where their wood eventually decays or burns, releasing its carbon back into the atmosphere. Seaweed, algae and other plants have also been explored for their potential to sequester or capture carbon but it’s helpful to put sequestering into perspective. It took nature more than one hundred million years to sequester carbon into the coal we’ve already burned over the past 350 years. So go ahead and plant a tree. Plant as many as you have land for, but they aren’t the quick and easy solution we were looking for.

Physical Limits of Carbon Capturing

A second method for sequestering carbon is to store it directly. For example, the large caverns created by salt mining could be used as giant carbon dioxide storage tanks. Dry oil wells and abandoned coal mines could also be used for direct storage. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Canada and Norway are already storing more than a million metric tons of carbon dioxide underground every year. Other large scale underground carbon storage projects are underway in the U.S., China, Australia and Europe. But not every hole in the ground would make a good carbon dumpster. High pressure carbon dioxide could cause environmental problems similar to what we’ve already seen with fracking.

The Chemistry of Carbon Capture

One promising form of carbon sequestering involves a chemical trick. If carbon dioxide is pumped into an underground cavern made out of a type of volcanic rock called basalt, a chemical reaction takes place. The basalt is carbonized as it captures carbon dioxide into a mineral form. In an experiment conducted in Iceland where basalt volcanic rocks are common, 90% of the carbon dioxide injected was captured into stone in only two years. Similar natural processes would take thousands of years.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently refined this technique and published in a peer-reviewed journal the current record for the cheapest carbon capture at $39 per metric ton. Previous state-of-the-art carbon sequestering typically cost $57 per metric ton. 

Carbon Sequestering raises the cost of coal

We know coal isn’t good for our environment but we still burn it because it’s cheap. Coal currently costs about $40 per ton. But since burning coal produces twice its weight in CO2 and the cost of burning coal and sequestering its carbon is very close to three times the cost of coal: $120 per ton.

There are other chemical tricks involving building materials. One very common building material is lime mortar. Over time the mortar absorbs Carbon Dioxide from the air as it hardens into something resembling limestone in this reaction: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O

Giza pyramids cairo
The Giza pyramids in Cairo are slowly returning to a material like limestone 

The lime mortar used in the Great Pyramids at Giza are very slowly reacting with carbon dioxide as the mortar turns into something resembling the limestone from which it came. Self-healing concrete is how the Romans built structures to last thousands of years.

On the surface this reaction happens quickly but even after thousands of years, this reaction is not yet complete for the mortar that holds the great pyramids together. It is possible that new discoveries in chemistry will help us produce buildings that absorb more CO2 than was released during its construction.

What’s next for carbon sequestering?

We have more than a century of solid science telling us that our grand experiment to release millions of years of carbon into our atmosphere over the course of a few hundred years will end in tears. Each generation has kicked this looming environmental disaster down the road and passed it on to the next. The reason coal is still an enormous part of our energy mix is that our global accounting system doesn’t measure its true cost. We pretend coal is cheap but if we could measure the true cost of environmental damage or sequestering, it’s likely it would lose every advantage it has over wind energy, solar power or even nuclear power.

We must continue to explore new ways of sequestering carbon dioxide while reminding each other that the best way to remove carbon from the atmosphere is to not put it there in the first place.

Sustainable wildlife destinations to visit in 2023

Bhok Thompson
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Sustainable wildlife destinations to visit in 2023

an elephant in the safari

Travel provides us with endless opportunities to explore some of the most incredible wildlife destinations on the planet. However, it is important that we should do so in a responsible manner, in order to safeguard the environment and protect our flora and fauna for future generations to come.

Decades of rampant wildlife tourism has already damaged our fragile national parks and reserves, as a result mature lovers are now seeking places that promote conservation and uplift the local communities for sustainable travel.

As we fast forward 2023-24, a buoyant growth has been forecast for the tourism industry. As such many of the destinations given below are bolstering their responsible offerings by offering tailor-made safari holidays seeing the increased interest of the tourist to invest in a sustainable wildlife experience.

South Africa

The Noka Camp, Waterberg, Limpopo in South Africa is one of the few resorts on the planet that plough back 100% of their financial gain into the local community, for the benefit of the wildlife.

The camp enjoys a breathtaking location on a hilltop 100′ high, providing astonishing views of the Big 5 Lapalala Game Reserve and the meandering waters of the Palala River.

When it comes to sustainable tourism, the stunning lodge leads by example from generating their own electricity to manufacturing gin from the locally sourced products available in the reserve, apart from financing local animal breeding and relocation initiatives.

Brazil 

a market in Braziil

From love of football to colorful carnivals and dense green forests, Brazil is a country where nature flourishes, especially since it holds almost 50% of the Amazon Rainforest, which is home to 10% of the animal species found worldwide.

Your journey begins in North Pantanal, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage and Biosphere Reserve known to have the best concentration of flora and fauna on the planet, while staying at the sustainable Cristalino Lodge, located in the middle of a private reserve.

The clear and clean waters of the Cristalino River are best explored by boat.The birdlife here is exceptional, while wildlife enthusiasts can spot animals high up in the canopy from the top of the nature towers. You can also explore the forest trails on foot, to engage in a unique wildlife hiking experience.

Kenya

Matcha tea, man drinking

Located in the wild northern part of Kenya, the Saruni Samburu luxury lodge enjoys a prime location in the Samburu National Reserve in a pristine and private wildlife conservancy. Tourism here is used to directly support conservation and give back to the community who in turn protect this valuable environment.

The area around Samburu is practically teeming with wildlife and is considered to be the most exciting in this part of East Africa, simply because of the abundance of rare species.

Moreover, the lodge is perched overlooking a number of waterholes and provides a spectacular view of some of the famous wild animals found in Samburu, which often gather here to quench their thirst.

Tanzania

Tanzania safari

The Southern Serengeti in Tanzania is characterized by classic grassy plains and acts as the setting of the eco Lemala Ndutu Mobile Tented Camp.This mobile camp is known for providing a truly authentic bush experience in the northern part of the Ngorongoro Crater.

The camp moves from North to South with the season, to ensure that guests get a ringside view during the period of the great wildebeest migration between December and March. Predators and other members of the Big 5 are easily spotted during these months and guests can watch the drama which unfolds at this time of the year from their convenient location on the edge of a marsh.

The camp has been recently renovated to offer guests a comfortable safari experience, especially at the end of a hard day in the bush. Meals are freshly prepared and the camp ensures that a sufficient amount is set aside for the local community whose efforts are vital for conservation of the wildlife of the region.

Puerto Rico

Meet creatures in Puerto Rico

One of the most beautiful islands in the Antilles, Puerto Rico is becoming one of the top destinations for eco-conscious travelers around the globe. Puerto Rico has a wealth of natural beauty, from rugged mountains to tropical reefs and dense forests, densely populated by local wildlife.
Puerto Rico is home to a plethora of unique species – from native plants to rare, exotic animals.

According to Laura Juliá of Alandis Travel, an education group travel company to Puerto Rico, “the island would like to focus its tourist profile on ethical tourists that will respect the island and contribute towards its growth by giving back to the island during or after their visit.”

Are you up for the challenge?

Sri Lanka 

The Sinharaja Rainforest Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Enselwatte Estate in Sri Lanka. This is a place where time stands still as the eco-friendly lodge has been especially designed to provide the guest an exceptional experience of the surrounding forest in its pristine glory.

The comfortable chalets are designed using recycled shipping containers and come with every amenity one can hope for in the middle of nowhere.The eco-tourism concept is very much visible in the architecture of the chalets, perched upon stilts overlooking a tea patch.

Bamboo panelling adorns the interiors, while the floor and the observation deck are made from discarded railway sleepers. There are numerous nature trails from the lodge which allow the visitor to observe the local wildlife, spot a few of the 147 bird species and experience the unique rainforest ecosystem.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands 

Tucked away in a corner of a tropical forest in the spectacular Andaman Islands is an ecological collection of thatched tents and cottages which beckon visitors looking for a ‘green’ escape in the Bay of Bengal.

Barefoot at Havelock is probably the best sustainable accommodation option where guests can stay in spacious and tastefully decorated rooms, with attached bathrooms and all modern amenities.

Activities here include diving and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters looking for corals and other interesting marine animals. The key attraction at Barefoot is swimming with the elephants and enjoying a forest walk with these gentle giants along the beach.For those looking for a holistic experience, the in-house spa facilities at Barefoot are top class.

India

The Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve is located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and enjoys a reputation as one of the best destinations for spotting tigers in the wild in the entire subcontinent. 

Tucked away on the periphery of this famous park is Kipling Camp, the brainchild of Bellinda Wright, the driving force behind the Wildlife Protection Society of India, and one of the first eco-friendly lodges established here in 1982. As many as 15 acres of land has been set aside by the camp to offer minimum disturbance to the wildlife around the camp.

All the rooms have been constructed with the local style of architecture, connected by natural pathways and no fencing between the adjacent jungle and the property.The local community is engaged to keep the area clean and mingle with the guests for an unparalleled cultural and natural experience.The Gond artists and the local Bagia tribes find plenty of financial support from Kipling Camp.

The verdict

Eco-friendly resorts that combine comfort with greenery and wildlife are today the best launching pads for wildlife safari discoveries and for providing support to the local communities as well.

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