If you love almond butter and hate paying its high price at the store, make your own! It’s easy, and takes less than half an hour. What you need are raw almonds, salt, a clean, dry jar and either a food processor or a heavy-duty blender. Then you can indulge in almond butter smeared on crackers or toast; creamy smoothies with an almond butter protein boost, or almond butter-enriched savory foods like dips, salad dressings, and noodle sauces. How about baking with almond butter instead of dairy butter? Lots of possibilities there.
While almond butter has about the same nutritional value as peanut butter, it has a little more protein and offers healthy monounsaturated fats that lower risk of heart disease. Almonds are full of antioxidants and vitamin E, which your health will profit from. Forget the jars at the supermarket. Put raw almonds on your shopping list and whizz up some of your own fresh-flavor almond butter at home.
There’s minimal salt and no sugar in this recipe, although you can certainly add cinnamon, vanilla, and a little natural sweetener like maple syrup, bee’s honey, or silan date honey if you like.
Home-Made Almond Butter
Yield: 1-2/3 cups
Ingredients:
16 oz. (500 grams) raw almonds
¼ teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350º F – 175º C .
Toast the almonds on a baking sheet for 5 minutes. Stir them around and toast another 5 minutes.
Place the baking sheet on a rack and let the almonds cool down enough to handle easily.
Blend the almonds until creamy. Scrape the sides of the food processor or blender down to incorporate any stray crumbs. It will take patience and about 10 minutes to make the nuts into a creamy paste. Have faith, keep going; it will happen. If the butter clumps up into a ball, persist until it breaks down to a paste. Stop to let the food processor or blender cool down if it seems that the motor is overheating.
Add the salt to the smooth butter. This is also the time to add optional flavorings. Blend them in.
Note: Liquids like silan and maple syrup should be added when the almond butter has cooled down; they make clumps if added while it’s still warm.
Store the room-temperature almond butter in a jar and close it up. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
How about some toasted baguette slices spread with almond butter and garnished with flavorful summer tomatoes?
If you find you have some leftover raw almonds, think almond milk. Here’s our almond milk recipe. Enjoy!
Cattle egret searches for food in burned Be’eri nature reserve. Credit: APF Menahem Kahana.
Our previous post about this under-reported eco-disaster made some ripples in the media, but it’s a mistake to assume that the flames have already died out. Three months of daily attacks have caused staggering environmental damage to Israel’s southern communities and nature reserves. Every day brings fresh news of fires and damage.
It started with a couple of teenagers who thought it would be fun to attach burning rags to kite tails and set some Israeli fields on fire. Hamas quickly realized that the cheaply-produced kites are an effective tactic for harassing people across the border fence and damaging Israeli fields. They took over, expanding operations to fire-bearing balloons and helium-filled condoms, some with Molotov cocktails tied to their strings.
Summer winds carry the fiery weapons over the fence. Some have landed in playgrounds and home gardens, where children already know not to touch stray kites and balloons. Here’s one balloon with an explosive that drifted as far as 20 kilometers into Israel.
Balloon with explosive attrached. Credit: Matan Tzuri.
It’s estimated that incinerated farmland and nature reserves amount to about 17,500 dunams (4,300 acres, or 7 square miles). While the arson continues, those numbers will only go up. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority reports that some of the reserves have suffered irreparable damage.
What kind of damage are we talking about? Let’s start with the flora. According to the Jewish National Fund, in the reserves grew fig, pine, agave and carob groves. A rare wild garlic. Flowering quills that covered the lands with white every spring. Spur flax, brushwood, rockrose, pink sun-rose, thorny saltwort, and Egyptian sage. The Palestine iris, the anemone, the scarlet crowfoot and the Carmel bee orchid.
Be’eri Nature Reserve covered with anemones in springtime. Credit: Luke Tress
That’s just for starters. Hundreds of wild and man-sown species that supplied wildlife with food and shade – and delight in nature to people hiking through the reserve – are but black ashes now.
Be’eri Nature Reserve after kite fires via DRONEIMAGEBANK.
The Be’eri and Karmia reserves were host to gazelles, snakes, Indian porcupines, turtles and desert monitor lizards, which are so rare as to be monitored with hidden cameras; as well as hyenas, cranes and swamp cats, among others.
Koby Sofer, KKL ranger at Israel’s southern coastal plain, notes, “Swamp cats, cranes, hyenas and their cubs populate the reserve during this time of year. I assume the hyenas knew how to lead their cubs out of areas inflicted by the fire, although not always. Most of the damage done is to the reptile population and ground-incubating animals such as partridges and their chicks. There are birds that are still nesting.”
Nesting birds, which include the Eurasian hobby falcon, would have abandoned their nests and the eggs or fledglings to escape the flames.
Sofer, who holds a count of mammals crossing the Bee’ri reserve every spring, continues, “We’re talking about a bushy area that houses many animals who felt protected here. Our tortoises obviously didn’t have a chance to escape the fire, as well as the snakes that didn’t take cover. I assume that animals deep inside holes in the ground are protected,” he concluded.
Rafi Bavian, security officer of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, said in a interview with Ynet news, “We’re sure that time will do its part. When the rains return, plants will flower again. But to see the crater area burned like this, and to think of all the animals burned to death, is heartbreaking.”
Sheep flee fires on nature reserve. Credit: Barel Efraim.
We noted that people on both sides of the border are suffering from smoke and tear gas inhalation in our previous posts. While we can only report on health damage from the Israeli side, these are known facts: the rate of asthma attacks in children who live in the southern Negev is soaring.
Devastation of forests near Moshav Sde Avraham. Credit: Sara Lischinsky.
Sara Lischinsky of Moshav Sde Avraham observed a bulldozer tracing a swath around her home, cutting dry vegetation down – just in case fire approaches. Fire has already come close to several houses on her moshav.
Kite fires near homes. Credit Sara Lischinsky.
No wonder that stress is so prevalent that classes in mental resiliency have opened in the area. Those are only two long-lasting effects on the southern population of Israel. But then – those who care nothing about precious natural reserves don’t care about human lives, either.
Sustainable living is a practice whereby you reduce the consumption of natural resources. This sometimes could mean foregoing a product created through practices that do not support nature. In other instances, it could be translated to mean altering the way you do things so as to become an active part of the life cycle. With the depletion of resources and problems like global warming rocking the world, everyone is encouraged to try sustainable measures that help to protect the environment. At your home, you could lead with sustainability measures that are easy to implement.
Here are few ideas you could try out.
Be a community garden member
This is not just about producing your own products, but it’s a process you embark on to help in collective effort to conserve the environment in the farming process. Community gardening promotes sustainable living and the gardens create green spaces. The garden waste produced can be recycled into mulches, which go back to enrich the soil. In urban areas, green spaces help in not only enhancing the beauty of spaces but could be a good solution for offsetting carbon emissions. It helps to clean the air as the carbon is absorbed by the plants.
Embrace minimalism
Some people confuse the idea of minimalism with living on nothing, but that is not what it’s about. It means ensuring that all the things you own and use are put to maximum use and no waste is tolerated. Materials that are recovered as waste from processes are supposed to be returned to the production process to serve as raw materials. A minimalistic lifestyle helps you to recycle a lot more, and it will encourage you to be mindful of things you produce so as to emphasize on sustainability.
Change to more efficient lights
There is a big concern about the materials going to landfills. One of the ideas supported by experts on Eco Peanut is to reduce the use of products that are likely to cause this pollution. The lights you use in your home should not only help in energy conservation, but the source should be natural to avoid waste that would end in landfills. A good idea would include changing your traditional bulbs to CFL and using other natural light solutions. Longer lasting and energy efficient light sources will help to minimize waste that goes into landfills.
Use natural cleaners
The cleaners you use at home are made from a mixture of chemicals that if released to the environment could cause damage. To live sustainably, you are encouraged to use natural cleaners, which could be made at home from natural products. Vinegar can be used with water to clean surfaces, and saponin from quinoa works as a natural laundry detergent. When you use these cleaners, you will help in reducing plastic packaging and it also helps in protecting the water system from chemicals that would cause contamination.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Buying new products may feel like making your life more comfortable, but when you think about it you are contributing to making the environment dirtier. A solution you would consider is to reduce the need to get new products. This will translate to less waste, and it also means there will be less to reuse and recycle. To support the resolution to reduce waste, learn how to reuse items, which can be done through repurposing of products for other uses. Also, recycle waste cans and bottles. Get a recycle bin that you can fill then deliver the trash to a recycling station. Doing so ensures you don’t let waste go into the landfill.
Carpool, bike or walk to work
Driving is one of the biggest contributors to pollution and with electric cars yet to become mainstream, this challenge stands unshaken. You could contribute in your small way by reducing the number of times you use a car to travel to work or places you could walk or cycle to. If you really need to use a car, then carpooling would be a good idea instead of each person driving themselves. Doing this might not appear to be something big, but collectively if other 1000 people embrace the same idea the impact will be huge. You could encourage your friends to also do this.
Unplug devices not in use
In the spirit of conserving energy, you should consider unplugging devices that are not in use out of power. Even when off, some electronic devices continue drawing power and this could inflate your power bill. Help in saving energy while also protecting your wallet, so simply unplug any devices you are not using until the need to have them on arises.
Use daylight
Sunlight comes free and will not cost you a cent. When you use sunlight during the day, you help to minimize your dependence on fossil fuels for electricity. Solar panels could help you to get the electricity you need to power your gadgets and light your home, without having to use any fossils that will end polluting the environment. Some solar generators can even be used as a replacement for electricity and will sufficiently supply the energy you need. When you are camping, instead of having a gasoline powered generator you could find a solar generator that will serve the same purpose without polluting.
Green home building
Experts in support of sustainable living suggest that it’s good to consider constructing a smaller house that will not consume a lot of energy. You will spend less on lighting, furnishing, and furniture, and to further save you can get the items from a thrift store then donate them when you no longer need them. Integrate green home technology while building to allow your home to run on sustainable sources of energy.
It’s the responsibility of everyone to keep their surroundings clean and healthy. A good solution that would make this possible is to embrace sustainability, which supports processes and ideas that encourage making the environment clean and better. It is a way of life that is anchored in preventing pollution and ensuring you conserve energy while using reusable products.
So, you would like a web host for your newly created “green” website but haven’t a ‘clue’ how to begin to find one or what questions to ask if you have one in mind. It is understandable. The worldwide web can boggle all who like to ‘toggle’ between websites.
The best web hosting services allows website owners space on their server so that computer applications such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google, and Safari can access the files of said websites a server holds. The best web hosting services needs to have an in-depth understanding the technical issues of websites, the speed of load times, installing of various applications for their website customers, knowledge of SSL encrypted security between server and end user accessing a website.
Web hosting carries a great deal of responsibility in addition to just storing of web pages for the end user website owner. The best web hosting services provide a diverse range of other service options including domain name registration, email hosting services, SSL certificates, opportunity for website building, template style, eliminating the need for a web designer. Best web hosting services are able to bring speed of opening up a web page and have little to no ‘crashes.’ The server should keep a website running 99.9 percent of the time.
This is called, logically, uptime!
A web host is a necessity as no one is going to be able to view your site with its creative text, images, and artwork unless the pages are stored on a central computer known as a web server. When you learn how to host your own website on such a server you are now part of that immense world-wide web!
The best web hosting services will always provide a variety of plans in order to get a website published on the worldwide web. Some of the plans you can ask for are:
Shared Server Hosting: In this hosting plan, which is good for e-commerce sites, several webmasters will share space on a single server. This cost effective web hosting plan is good for static websites that are basic in design and need no high performance features.
Dedicated Server Hosting: A dedicated server can be costly but with such your website will not be affected by other website data as could occur in a shared server hosting plan. This web host plan would work best when
your site is attracting a lot of traffic that could bring site to crash for the overload of data being sent out continuously. Dedicated Servers are best for e-commerce sites.
Cloud Server Hosting: Cloud hosting is done through multiple servers that are networked with each other. With the multiple servers acting as one single server there comes such benefits as load balancing, no one point of failure, one server will back up the connecting server, and increased security of data transmitted. Cloud computing is easier on the budget as the web host companies will only charge on the basis of use of server. If you expect a day of large web traffic you can scale up website resources.
How often have you brought a watermelon home and cut it open to find it watery and bland? Disappointing, right? But read on to discover the signs of a sweet, juicy melon. Next time, you’ll spot the best one in the lot.
First, pick it up and feel its weight. If it’s heavy for its size, that’s a sign that its full of juice.
But is the juice in that watermelon sweet?
A yellow patch on the bottom end, which is where the melon lay on the field, indicates that it was picked when ripe. If the field patch is green or cream-colored, the melon won’t be sweet. Look at the photo below. The melon on the right at the second row from the bottom has a good-sized, dark yellow area around the bottom. That would be the one to take home.
If you look closely, you’ll also see that in the yellow part are brown lines, called webbing. The lines are signals that pollinating insects visited the watermelon flower. The more pollination, the more webbing, and the sweeter the melon.
A ripe melon will have a dull, not shiny surface that’s mostly smooth. Reject melons with cracks or soft spots.
Now turn the melon around and observe the stem. A green, inflexible stem shows that the melon isn’t ripe yet. Ideally, a good melon’s stem should be brown and almost dry.
Last, give its underbelly a good thump. A ripe melon will answer with a hollow boom, not a dull, dense sound.
A practitioner of Chinese medicine once told me that watermelons are a paradox: very yang with their bright red color, and very yin with their abundant juice. A mystery! Aren’t watermelons wonderful?
An ever-increasing number of people and companies are more conscious of the environment than ever. People choose the greener options, no matter if it’s food, clothing, office supplies, cars, and many other products and services. There are, in turn, other aspects to keep in mind when choosing the greener option, aspects that the average consumer is often not aware of at all. Aspects that may turn an eco-friendly option into one with an overall negative environmental impact. This is why it’s important to look beyond the surface when choosing a green product or service – sometimes, it’s not as green as it seems.
Take the internet, for example. It is generally seen as an eco-friendly alternative to many things. If your company switches to electronic invoices, it can save a lot of paper and, indirectly, lots of trees. If you choose to play Kiwi Pokies online instead of flying to Vegas, you’ll contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. And if you work remotely, you save a lot of fuel – and save the environment from all the exhaust fumes your car would spit into the atmosphere. And these are just a few examples. But behind the surface, the internet (especially the data centers) is a major consumer of electricity and said electricity doesn’t always come from renewable sources. And let’s not forget about spam emails that, according to World Stream, impact the environment as much as 1.6 million cars each year.
Another product category that may have a bigger impact on the environment than you think is organic food. The fruit and veggies produced in foreign countries and sold at your local supermarket have a positive environmental impact by reducing the quantity of chemicals used while producing them – they are grown without pesticides and without artificial fertilizers, after all. But if you take into consideration the carbon footprint of them being transported to your local supermarket, they are no longer as green as they seem. If you want to make a real difference, choose not only organic but local produce – those are the only ones that are truly environmentally friendly. The organic bananas grown in Ecuador and sold in France are not.
Last but not least, let’s take a look at the impact of diapers on the environment. Many voices say that reusable diapers are the greener option, considering the carbon footprint of the reusable ones. Actually, though, the carbon footprint of the two categories of diapers is pretty much the same – according to a study conducted by the UK’s Environment Agency, the reusable diapers are the greener option only if they are washed in energy-efficient washing machines with full loads, at 60 degrees, and line-dried. And their impact on the environment becomes truly significant only if they are reused for a second child – something most families don’t do.
There are many things that may seem environmentally friendly at first – but it’s always important to go beyond the surface to find out if they truly are. Because quite often they are not.
Beyond staking its claim as one of the most innovative countries in the world, Israel has made significant contributions in the realm of environmental conservation and protection. Most notably, Israel has taken the lead in water conservation solutions. From drip irrigation to desalination plants, Israel has made waves in a largely stagnant field of research and innovation, solving water crises around the globe.
But while California, Kenya, and North India have Israel to thank for their life-saving and economy-bolstering water technology, Israel still struggles with its own water security, and the situation is quickly deteriorating.
Since Israel’s establishment, policy makers have understood that the region’s desert climate and dry seasons would make water conservation crucial to the country’s survival. Since then, innovative technologies and policies have been addressing the issue. With nearly 90% of wastewater being recycled in Israel, the highest percentage across the globe, and nearly 80% of drinking water coming from desalination of sea water, Israel’s crisis should have presumably been averted years ago.
However, with all its efforts and advances, Israel neglected one major area of concern: conservation of its natural water resources.
Natural water flow in springs and rivers is decreasing rapidly nationwide. After climate change and years of drought, Lake Kineret is at its lowest. Famous for its wealth of water, the Dan and the Banias Streams that are the sources of the upper Jordan River, located in the Upper Golan between the Hula Valley and Mount Hermon, are at an unprecedented low, with their natural spring-water flow decreasing by almost half. In fact, Northern Israel is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 100 years, leaving the country’s natural water resources with a deficit of 2.5 billion cubic liters of water.
Despite these frighteningly low levels of natural water, most of the water used for agriculture in the Golan Heights, Galilee and Jordan Valley regions is still pumped directly from local springs, rivers and ground water. As such, there is little water left to flow in nature, thus causing further damage to the already dwindling streams and wetlands.
This summer, agriculture will utilize over 70% of the upper Jordan River’s natural water flow, an extraordinarily high percentage. Furthermore, natural spring-water is still being used as a resource for drinking, agriculture, industry, and tourism in the upper Kinneret Basin, creating a demand greater than the rate of natural regeneration.
For years, the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) has worked tirelessly to convince the government to take the necessary steps to save our natural water resources and to rehabilitate natural water flow in our springs and rivers. Thankfully, the government has finally heard our pleas and begun to address the issue by approving a water restoration plan for seven streams.
On Sunday, June 10, Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved a plan presented by Minister of Energy Dr. Yuval Steinitz, with the support of Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon and Director of the Water Authority Giora Shaham called the “Strategic Plan for Coping with Shifts in the Water Economy in the Years 2018-2030.” The plan calls for the reduction of pumping from rivers and streams in northern Israel and the creation of two new desalination plants to increase the quantity of desalinated water.
This major, national plan includes, among other things, a plan to restore the flow of natural spring-water to seven streams – including Betzet, Ga’aton, Naaman, Tzipori, and Kishon – in the northern Galilee, the Hadera River in central Israel, and Einan stream in the Hula Valley. Adapted from a plan originally drafted by SPNI in 2015, the plan will allocate NIS 81 million to repair the severe damage caused by Israel’s ongoing water crisis to the country’s rivers and streams.
After years of lobbying, we at SPNI congratulate the government for giving our natural water crisis the attention that it so desperately requires. However, the plan only addresses natural streams. No plans have been suggested to conserve the streams flowing into the Jordan river, leaving the river completely neglected. While the plan, if implemented properly, is a step in the right direction to ensure stable amounts of water for agriculture, consumption and natural revitalization, there is still much work left to be done.
Israel’s water woes have never stemmed from inability. After all, Israeli ingenuity has brought forth flowing water and blooming agriculture in the desert. But dealing with water issues has always just been a part of Israel’s reality. We will continue to lobby the government so that Israel continues to take the appropriate steps to correct this persistent issue. And if the government continues to prioritize the conservation of our natural water resources, we will truly have something to gush about: our title as the world’s true water innovation super power.
Aya Tager is a member of the Marketing and Communications team at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), the oldest, leading and largest environmental non-profit organization in Israel. This article is based on an interview with Dr. Orit Skutelsky, SPNI’s Coordinator of Water and Streams.
English is my primary language, but even if I didn’t speak some Arabic, Greek and French too, I’d still be multilingual. As a dancer, dance educator and choreographer, I have always believed that I speak the universal language.
Movement is life. As living beings, we move even before making our presence known to the world. But some take the art and sport of movement as their life’s work, and use dance to assert their presence – and sometimes, help others to do so, as well.
Battery Dance, a professional company in downtown New York City, launched its Dancing to Connect programs over a decade ago. With these programs, company members travel abroad to conduct week-long dance workshops for underprivileged and at-risk youth. It very much reminds be of the work I myself did as an intern for the Hayatuna program launched by the Swedish NGO, Spiritus Mundi.
Instead of simply asking the children to watch and copy movement, the educators give the kids their own choreography wands, allowing and asking them to invent their own movement vocabulary. When I worked with the House of the Roses volunteer dance company, also a New York City-based organization, we employed this dance education method, and it proved extremely effective.
In creating their own movement to express emotions, ideas, etc., the children recognized in themselves greater potential and felt more closely tied to the project, more needed.
In Moving Stories, the documentary recently made following Dancing to Connect in Iraq, India, Romania and South Korea, we see the same trends and behaviors: dance stirring joy and awakening creativity in the young participants, and gaining appreciation by both the performers and their communities alike. It is clear that dance truly is a way we can communicate regardless of geographical or linguistic boundaries, and also that art is vital to our collective human culture.
I love what director, Rob Fruchtman said in an interview: “Dance is both a way in and a way out.” In addition to developing a greater understanding of oneself, dancing provides an outlet through which one can release stresses and emotions normally buried within.
It is so commendable that Battery Dance seeks out areas where there is the greatest need for something as freeing and healing as dance. The communities highlighted in Moving Stories have suffered more than most.
Gender violence, abuse, war and poverty are prevalent in the lives of these children. In India, for example, Dancing to Connect works with young women who have suffered sexual exploitation. In Romania, many of the children are gypsies who were raised in slums.
Working with kids is not always a walk in the park; attention strays, feelings get hurt, manners are lost, tempers flare, etc. Add to that the fact that the target population for these programs has been disproportionately affected by serious issues, and there you have a massive challenge. Battery Dance does not give up, though – another thing to admire.
After going through an intensive week filled with dance, the kids perform for an audience. It is clear, by the time of the shows, that the children have grown individually but also socially. A sense of accomplishment and pride is palpable. New friendships have been forged.
So much good comes out of Dancing to Connect, but a week is fleeting. Battery Dance works to make these programs sustainable by training people affiliated with the performing arts in these international locales under the company’s leaders during the workshops. The hope is that these close to home, native language speaking teams will grow the program, or something resembling it, as life continues, that the week with Battery Dance will not be remembered as a singular rare opportunity but as the start of much more.
The performing arts serve not only as entertainment; they also naturally lend themselves to therapy and act as a launchpad for social change.
As someone who has experienced their power firsthand, I can only hope that they will continue to be shared, and with growing zeal.
I read up on CMRubinWorld about Dancing to Connect. The title of the article there is, “The Global Search for Education: Is Now Our Time to Dance?” To which my answer is: Yes, it has always been our time to dance.
Do those look like condoms? But they are. Gazan protesters are pumping helium requisitioned from hospitals to send condom-balloons as far as possible into Israeli areas. The condom-balloons have explosives attached to their tails. Some can be ignited by remote control.
Helium condoms have made their way to Israeli homes. On Sunday, a family in Moshav Beit HaGadi found two tangled in backyard trees.The Israel Police bomb squad was able to dispose of the explosives safely.
Families in the towns of Sderot and Netivot also found the distinctive white condoms in their backyards. In one case, a child ran out to inspect what she thought was a toy that had floated in, but her grandfather managed to get her out of harm’s way until the sappers arrived.
Molotov cocktails and chemical bombs tied to kites and helium-filled balloons have been launched from inside Gaza for the past 78 days. The fire bombs ignite when they land on the Israeli side of the border. Low-tech tactics, but they work. As of this writing, 412 fires have blazed in Israeli farm fields and conservation areas. Over 17,500 dunams (4,300 acres) lie scorched to the ground, at least 10,000 dunams (2,471 acres) of which are parks and nature reserves.
At least one-third of Israel’s land along the Gaza periphery has suffered extensive damage. Financial damage to Israel’s agriculture already stands at $1.4 million. Food crops that could have fed thousands; irrigation equipment, and farmers’ livelihoods, have gone up in smoke. In the past 24 hours alone, 17 fires have broken out in the Gaza envelope. Hundreds of turkeys in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha have choked to death, filling the air with the stench of burnt flesh.
But eco-terrorism isn’t limited to burnt turkey runs, wheat fields, and avocado groves. The pasture that Beduin communities depend on to feed their freely roaming flocks now offers nothing to hungry sheep and goats but ashes.
Damage to Be’eri Crater National Reserve. Photo credit: Luke Tress
Eucalyptus, pine, and mesquite forests, each tree planted by hand fifty years ago in the Gaza periphery, are now but blackened stumps. Slow-moving reptiles and mammals trapped in the fires die horribly.
Over 40 beehives have perished in flames near Tel Gama. That means 40 fewer bee colonies to pollinate crops on both sides.
Tens of thousands of tires are set on fire to create a smoke screen along the border fence for the arsonists to hide behind. With every breath, hundreds of children and adults on both sides of the Gaza border inhale air heavily polluted from burning tires, ash particles, and tear gas.
Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90
The helium that keeps fire-carrying balloons floating far into Israeli land has been siphoned off Gazan hospital supplies, depriving the struggling medical system there of yet another precious resource. What will be the toll on human health?
Scenes of billowing smoke, flames licking farm fields and trees, and dying wildlife, are still happening as of this writing. Arson fires have threatened a college in Sderot and come perilously close to houses. It’s been happening since March 30th. But the international press is indifferent.
Green Prophet interviewed Adele Raemer of Kibbutz Nirim in the northwestern Negev, near the border with the Gaza Strip. Nirim farmers work almost up to the rim of the Gaza Strip barrier. Raemer is a teacher and teacher trainer working in the regional high school.
“We’ve been lucky in Nirim,” she says. “We’ve had only three fires, all of which were put out quickly. The crops we raise by the border grow underground, such as sweet potatoes, so they survived the fires; and we managed to harvest our wheat in time.
“But it’s the same as during the previous war, when we were getting all these bombs and rockets. These aren’t just little kids’ kites, they’re weapons. As for the other side, how can people who claim to love the land do this to it? I can understand the frustration in Gaza, where life is unlivable. But this isn’t going to solve anything.”
There are other, yet-unacknowledged ecological disasters happening in the Gaza strip.
“The sewage system in Gaza is falling apart because they don’t have electricity to run the pumps,” Raemer notes. “The sewage runs in the streets there. It goes into the Mediterranean and into the underground aquifers, and it will eventually pollute water and land all around.”
Kibbutz Mefalsim, with 2,718 acres located four kilomers from the Gaza strip, has suffered greater agricultural losses from the fire-bearing kites and balloons.
“It’s horrible,” says Mefalsim resident Helen Zilser. “The fields catch fire and burn up incredibly quickly. You could be walking around and suddenly something burning will fall near you. We’re always breathing in smoke and tear gas that the IDF uses to break up violent demonstrations on the border. We have to close our windows so as not to breathe it in.
Photo credit: calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com
“The biggest frustration is not seeing a solution to this situation. I feel that the other side suffers, and we suffer. People in Gaza are slaves to Hamas. People are people, but Hamas are terrorists.
“I live in the Negev, where 98% of the residents are farmers. We have enough damage from natural causes, and now we have this. We live with fear; fear that our livelihoods will disappear, fear for personal security. On the other hand, I can’t not think that on the other side, people wake up in the morning with no bread on the table, no hope. They have nothing to lose, so they do what they’re told.
“I don’t take a political stance, neither left, right, or in the middle,” Zilser concludes. “I simply believe that people can live together in peace, without having to be like each other. But how?”
Israeli authorities struggle to bring the ongoing eco-disaster to international attention.
“It is inconceivable that the international community would allow Hamas not to be held accountable and pay for its criminal acts — not only against the citizens of the state of Israel, but also against the environment, which has been severely hurt by this criminal environmental terrorism,” said KKL-JNF world chairman Daniel Atar.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, sent a letter to the head of the World Health Organization.
“The Hamas terrorist organization, which controls the Gaza Strip, has issued an order to burn about 10,000 tires this Friday along the border with Israel,” he wrote. “The burning of tires in such a huge quantity will cause severe damage to the ecosystem in the area, will severely harm the life, the flora and health of the residents, and will add to the severe damage to the aquifer and lead to unprecedented air pollution.
“I call upon you, as the head of an international organization whose goal is to promote health and protect natural and environmental resources, to do everything in your power to publicly warn against this ecological catastrophe and to protest Hamas’ irresponsible behavior.”
The WHO hasn’t responded.
Yesterday, June 17, was World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought; a day established by the UN. Israel is the only country in the world who succeeds in making the desert recede into green productivity. The same UN who recognized Israel’s leading environmental role is doing nothing to condemn Hamas for the ecological and humanitarian catastrophe in the area.
No one has.
This is the least-reported ecological and humanitarian disaster in the media.
More than two thousand years ago, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed that larger animals tend to live longer than smaller ones. However, today, in the journal Developmental Cell,scientists report that it is cell size—not body size—that affects lifespan. Researchers in Israel, Canada, and Germany examined the pancreases of 24 mammalian species—from the smallest (shrew) to the tallest (giraffe)—and found that animals with larger pancreatic cells tend to age faster, while those with smaller cells seem to live longer.
“A correlation between two things that are so remote was shockingly beautiful and unexpected,” says senior author Dr. Yuval Dor, who studies developmental biology at The Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem.
Previously, scientists had thought that after birth, most mammals’ organs, including the pancreas, grow by cell proliferation. However, Dor and his colleagues made a serendipitous observation: they needed a higher magnification to look at pancreatic cells of new-born mice through a microscope than they did to look at those of adults, suggesting that each cell’s volume was substantially increasing from infant to adult life.
Repeated measurements showed that the growth of individual exocrine pancreatic cells, known as acinar cells, is responsible for much of organ growth after birth. “This was surprising because the assumption was that post-natally, the pancreas grows by increasing the number of cells, just as most organs do,” said Dor.
But when the researchers looked at the same cell type in humans, they realized that cell replication—not individual cell expansion—was solely responsible for pancreatic growth. This got them curious, so they ventured to neighboring labs, at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and Kimron Veterinary Institute. There they examined pancreases from a variety of mammals, from tiny Etruscan shrews to tigers.
Upon analyzing the data, the scientists found a strong negative correlation between the size of individual acinar cells and lifespan. Mammalian species that aged faster had larger acinar cells, whereas species that lived longer had smaller acinar cells.
To explain the correlation, the researchers focused in on the underlying molecular mechanism. Their prime suspect is mTOR, a protein that functions at the junction between cell size and lifespan.
“Our working hypothesis is that mTOR activity gives mammals an advantage in early life, possibly by allowing faster growth and a shorter time to sexual maturity and reproduction. However, mTOR also drives deterioration and aging later in life,” Dor shared. “This might explain why some mammal species sacrifice longevity for the rapid early organ growth associated with cell growth instead of replication: you get the selective advantage in early life but you pay the price later on,” Dor added.
This study gives a molecular “face” to the evolutionary theory of aging called antagonistic pleiotropy. The theory suggests that aging is the unintended consequence of mechanisms that are advantageous during reproduction age. More experiments are needed to test this hypothesis, concluded Dor.
With the increasing cases of obesity, a lot of people are looking for ways to cut the weight and lose the fats. One of the methods that have been greatly considered is the use of FAD diets. This is largely because most users have been able to get positive results albeit by pushing their bodies to the limits and depriving them of important nutrients. What most people don’t see coming are the long-term effects that these diets have. Even though they help you lose weight, the long-term effects prove that the trouble is not worth it.
Weight gain
FAD diets promise you great results in your weight loss agenda with minimal efforts. However, medical professionals and nutrition experts will tell you that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is by making sure that you make long-term changes to your lifestyle, embrace exercise and improve your eating habits. By taking a highly restricted diet, most of the weight lost weight is just water weight. Once you resume your normal eating habits, the pounds will jump right back and probably with a few more.
Your metabolism is altered
For a FAD diet to work, you need to eat a specific amount of food at a specific time. This forces your body to change its metabolism. Naturally, your body is able to tell you when to eat and when you need to stop eating. If you force it to go against this natural pattern, the negative effects can remain long after you have completed the diet which can be devastating to your body and health.
Malnutrition
To get the desired results, there are certain foods you will be prohibited from eating according to the diet you choose. Some diets will require you to remove carbohydrates from your diet and all types of fats. As a result, you deprive your body of these nutrients especially considering that foods like carbohydrates are essential for energy. This leaves you feeling easily exhausted, constantly tired and lacking vigor. Some of these fats like Omega 3 are also critical for the development and sustenance of your brain and lack of them can impact your mental health.
Hair and Muscle loss
The loss of muscle and hair is largely as a result of the nutritional deficiencies advocated for by the fad diets. For your hair to grow, it requires a sufficient amount of protein. When your body goes for long periods without such nutrients, the quality of your hair is affected which can lead to shedding. The low-calorie requirement of the same diets can also affect your muscle development. Denying your body its fuel for energy forces it to start digesting muscles. This can also impact your weight loss goals because the muscles also help you to burn more calories even when you are resting.
While there are plenty of ways to lose weight, it is important that you consult medical professionals on the safest and best ways to lose weight.
Along with improving your overall diet, using an exercise bike for weight loss helps keep you fit and healthy.
Natalie Portman is so vegetarian that she won’t even wear leather shoes. Here is her vegan alternative.
Have you ever tried a completely vegetarian diet? Believe it or not, it has several advantages! Vegetarianism is generally considered as a lifestyle. But it is more than that. It is also about good health and saving money. It helps to reduce cruelty on animals and promotes a greener way of living. Here below some advantages of vegetarianism.
Weight Loss
With a diet consisting of mainly vegetables and fruits, you can easily maintain a lower body weight. If weight loss is your aim, turning vegetarian is a good idea, even if it is for a short period of time. Vegetables and fruits are packed with vitamins, antioxidants and other essential nutrients which can greatly help in weight loss. They are also free from unsaturated fats that are present in most non-veg and fast food. As you cut out meat, the calories and fats in your body decrease, lowering your Body Mass Index (BMI). Also, as per studies, non-meat eaters live longer than those who consume it.
Protection from Diseases
Want to stay away from illness? Adopt a vegetarian diet! It is a fact that eating vegetables and fruits is beneficial for health. As they are full of fibres and antioxidants, they help in protecting the body from diseases. They are also low in fats and cholesterol. Most people in the world suffer from cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, chronic fatigue and cholesterol. All these can be avoided with a vegetarian diet. Plus, most fruits are alkaline and help with acidity or heartburn. A person with an alkaline body also has a reduced risk of suffering from cancer.
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Protecting Animals and the Environment
Apart from the different health benefits, vegetarianism also encourages protection of the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions are associated with meat production. Lowering them has a beneficial effect on global warming and climate change. These emissions are caused by factory farm animals which produce methane during food digestion and elimination. In addition to this, animals go through a cruel procedure during meat production. Farm animals are locked and cramped in cages and are rarely fed, to be finally slaughtered to produce meat. So, a vegetarian diet means less cruelty to these animals.
Saving Money
Do you want to save money? Become a vegetarian! The costs of meat are higher than those of vegetables and fruits. The average person spends less on vegetarian food than those who consume meat. Especially if you go for organic or hormone and antibiotic-free meat, it is even more expensive. Cutting out meat from your shopping list allows you to save money while remaining healthy.
Thus, vegetarianism is not only a lifestyle but it also has various advantages and health benefits. It promotes a greener planet.
Artist Marcelle Biton in front of her display at Jerusalem Design Week’s “Haready-Made: The Product in Orthodox Society” exhibition. (Credit: Yelena Kvetany)
Jerusalem Design Week happens every year, but it was a first for some artists participating in the exhibition “Haready-Made: The Product in Orthodox Society.” Relating to this year’s overall theme of “conserve,” the exhibition showcases objects used by members of the Haredi community—ultra-Orthodox Jews who reject secular life—in order to sustain their culture in socially liberal and tech-savvy Israel.
The exhibition, which was on display at the Jerusalem Theater, ran until June 14.
Noa Cohen, the exhibition’s curator, related to The Media Line how the idea for the exhibition arose. While doing research on a different topic for her PhD thesis at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, Cohen stumbled upon the Art Shelter Gallery nestled in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mekor Baruch.
“I realized a lot of artists [in this community] pursued very unique ways of making art. I volunteered as their curator for a few years and now I manage the Art Shelter Gallery. The exhibition at the Jerusalem Theater,” she continued, “is a collaboration [between the gallery and Design Week].”
Cohen said that for some of the 15 artists participating in the exhibition, it is the first time they are showcasing their art in a public place. “I realized that there are many things in the ultra-orthodox community not known by outside spectators, such as the way they live and how they make their products specifically tailored to their needs,” she noted.
One of the displays at the exhibition consists of a mannequin whose head is covered by a bright, colorful head-scarf (tichel). A cellphone is visible between the mannequin’s head and the head-scarf. Artist Marcelle Biton told The Media Line that this work is an adaptation, depicting how Haredi women often speak—often without using their hands—on “kosher” cellphones conveniently tucked underneath their tichels.
“You can’t find these scarfs in the stores; they are hand-made. And kosher phones are usually small ones produced by Nokia or Samsung,” Biton explained.
A piece by Miriam Monk, a second year student in the joint Oman-Bezalel program for haredi women, submitted as a final project at the end of the school year. (Photo courtesy the Oman School of Higher Education for the Arts)
Unlike most Haredim, Biton did not go through the community’s educational system and therefore ended up with experiences atypical of ultra-Orthodox women.
“You are inspired and want to express what you’ve experienced. The fact my artwork is being displayed during Design Week is already an achievement. Opportunities for Haredi artists to show their work are already very limited,” Cohen said. “It makes it more interesting to consider that there aren’t enough young, female artists within the Haredi community.”
Bar Mayer is another female artist who grew up within the Haredi community, but left it behind in later years. Her display at Design Week features a large portrait of her family tree.
“The work is the first I’ve done to reconnect with my family after many years of distance,” Mayer told The Media Line. The decision to make a fresh start 19 years ago meant a formal break with her ultra-Orthodox community.
A quick glance at her art reveals signs of discord. Almost half of the family members presented in the tree were either absent in the space assigned for a portrait—which was often substituted by colored papers—or they appeared with their backs to the camera. Some members wore traditional Orthodox garb such as the black fedora and suit, although some did appear in modern clothing.
Second year students in the joint Oman-Bezalel program in their drawing studio. (Photo courtesy the Oman School of Higher Education for the Arts)
“Some of them didn’t understand why I was reconnecting with the community. Showing up with my camera was very invasive in a way. I don’t expect them to get me, because art is very marginal in the Orthodox world,” Cohen elaborated.
For artists in the Haredi community or closely linked to it, participating in shows can be very a thorny affair, especially if they take place on the Sabbath—the Jewish day of rest—or involve an international audience.
“This type of exhibition shows the diversity of the Israeli art world,” Cohen concluded. “It’s much more authentic and an opportunity to experience a broader range of Israeli art. I see the exhibition as a bridge.”
In addition to the Design Week exhibition allowing them to experiment with their artistry, both Biton and Mayer emphasized that the event has motivated them to reconnect with their Haredi heritage.
Nothing is more evocative of summer evenings than the odor of grilled food wafting around the yard. Even if you don’t have a yard, but only an apartment balcony. Chicken is much easier on the environment than other meats, so I recommend these quickly-cooked, spicy/sweet chicken wings for an unfussy barbecued meal.
As a young wife with few resources, I would sometimes balance a cheap electric grill on a window ledge and precariously grill chicken on it. The seductive odors had my neighbor’s kids ringing the doorbell, asking if they could eat dinner with us. They often did.
Although we still haven’t graduated to a powerful American outdoor grill – you know, the ones that look like a landed space ship – we often do light up some charcoal in a hibachi set up on the balcony, and grill us up some wings. The neighbors’ kids are all grown up, but we have grandchildren now, who like to gnaw on the crisp, highly flavored barbecued chicken just like they did.
The basting sauce has only three ingredients: garlicky, herby, spicy, harissa sauce, honey, and balsamic vinegar. Simple, but with big, big flavors.
As the wings are cooking, have someone else fry potatoes or cook rice. Or have a hearty potato salad chilling in the fridge. With a leafy tossed salad, you have a fine, summery dinner.
Consider serving 2-3 wings as a hot appetizer before a larger menu. The wings reheat well, set in a hot oven for 5 minutes if they’re at room temperature. If chilled from being stored in the fridge, heat for 10 minutes.
Grilled Chicken Wings With Harissa and Honey
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
2 kg. – 4 lb. clean organic chicken wings
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup harissa hot sauce (available in Middle Eastern shops and in many supermarkets)
Blend the vinegar, honey and harissa in a medium bowl.
Grill the wings over low heat for 15 minutes, then turn them over with tongs and grill another 15 minutes.
Baste the wings with the sauce. Turn them over and baste them again.
Keep grilling, turning them and basting each side at least once more.
Take them off the heat when you’re happy with their color and crispness.
