Israelis are known for their advances in high-tech. We brag about it whenever we can. A little known fact is that Israel also generates and exports tons of e-waste, or electronic waste. Bringing things up to speed is an Israeli company, Snunit Recycling which is poised to make a pretty penny from our electronic waste. And […]
Character vs. flash: An old building in the city center, and a shiny, new Aroma. What gives a city its particular character? Is it the city’s architecture, its parks and open spaces, its scents, its people? An article in Ha’aretz’s Real Estate section last week did a pretty good job of conjuring up downtown Jerusalem […]
“Sometimes you’ve just got to act” is a personal motto of two enterprising environmental activists, Devora Liss & Shoshannah Finkelman, who have initiated the Jerusalem Of Green Project, based at the Mercaz HaMagshimim (New Immigrant Absorption and Community Centre) in Jerusalem’s German Colony.The JOG Project mentors anyone who has an idea for an environmental project, […]
Last week Green Prophet introduced Sophie from Tinok Yarok, when she started her weekly column on ‘greening’ your baby. This week Sophie discusses the cloth nappy debate. Thinking about switching to the cloth diapers of yesteryear? Here’s Sophie’s take:This week I am introducing you all to the cloth nappy debate. This is a big one […]
Jack discovers a solar-powered trash compactor in Jerusalem. I stepped off the bus this evening and standing on the sidewalk before me was this great alien looking device. It was about two-thirds my height, a bit wider, but square, with flashing lights emitting from the top. This device, while it appeared to come from another planet […]
While most Israelis take pride in having made the desert bloom, some of the imported “blooms” have been contested over the years as threats to the ecosystem. In a land where Biblical passages echo everywhere, it’s sometimes disconcerting to realize just how dramatically the face of the landscape has been changed in recent years, and […]
Rocking chairs seem to be making a comeback these days. They are great for breastfeeding, great for reading. Great for hanging around in a forest. We featured Yael Mer’s simple and stylin’ Slipper Rocker, slippers and a rocking chair rolled into one. Today we bring you the recycled creations of Guy Arzi and his Rocky […]
Our readers have also been asking about organic gardening during the shmita (or Sabbatical) year in the land of Israel. Are there any loopholes around the halacha? What does shmitta mean? We love the idea of shmitta. The biblically ordained one year out of seven when the land is left to lie fallow (this applies […]
Environmental entrepreneur, Eyal Biger (right), the founder of Israel’s Good Energy Initiative. For every car that drives, every plane that flies and every appliance that gets plugged into the wall, a price is paid by the environment. The burning of fossil fuels for use in transport, industry and our day-to-day lives, emits carbon dioxide and […]
Bring out the tissues. When we heard the news that a 15 metre fin whale had made it to Ashkelon, in Israel, our hearts filled with joy. We know whales have come to these shores before. Take Jona and the Whale story, for example. Our hearts sunk. The young female calf found swimming off the […]
You’ve already read about mulch, rot and the need to invigorate when composting, now that the snow has cleared, it’s time to give the garden and plants and trees some energy and care again. My compost bin is made from two old wooden pallets, found abandoned on the streets. There are three fixed sides, screwed […]
It’s hardly surprising that “Survivor” is a hit: who doesn’t come home from work and immediately hunger to watch white trash in bikini tops hurling bleeped insults at each other over a picturesque campfire? Is it just us? Anyway, it turns out that “Survivor” is not just the last refuge of the dregs of every […]
We’ve been to visit the straw bale legends Bill and Athena Stein in Arizona. Israelis are getting into their own groove building with strawbale. Watch the time-lapsed video and the creation of a straw bale geodesic dome, at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava Valley. Lately, we are of the notion that it’s more green to […]
Greening your life, doesn’t require you to overhaul your house. In previous weeks, we discussed small ways you can green your kitchen and your bathroom; we’ve even started a series for greening your baby. This week, let’s take a look at the bedroom. When John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded the song Give Peace a […]
Israelis, as the saying goes, are like a cactus fruit, because they are prickly on the outside but sweet in the middle. We kind of think Israelis are like bamboo too: strong as steel but soft and smooth. (If you are into eco-chic, you’ll know why we are talking about bamboo.) Thanks to Designist Dream, […]
In 1994, Jerusalem chef Johnny Goric cooked a lunch and dinner for Yassar Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, during their peacemaking talks. He was also, more recently, the chef to King Abdullah II of Jordan. But besides feeding kings and some of the world’s most influential leaders, he is also cooking in the name […]
For years it has seemed that Israel and Thailand were enjoying a trade agreement that should keep both sides happy: we send Thailand our pushy and notoriously litterbug tourists, and they send us their illegal workers to scrub floors for half price. But it seems that Israel has something else to offer Thailand in addition […]
Jerusalem, the Holy City for three religions, is often known as Jerusalem of Gold due to the yellowy-pink stones from which the buildings are cut. Until the winter that is. We’ve had heavy snowfall in the city this past 24 hours covering it in white and leaving schools, businesses and buses at a standstill (check […]
Kids in Beit Shemesh schools–religious and secular alike–will soon be learning about environmental issues. A new initiative on the part of Sviva Israel, a religious environmental NGO, is bringing discussion of ecological topics into the classroom. In particular, kids will learn how to recognize their “ecological footprint” and be encouraged to tread lightly with some […]
This recently published book’s full title is ‘A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel’s Rift Valley,’ and it is just that; in 2004 Jerusalem-based writer and translator Haim Watzman took 2 weeks to travel up the Jordan Valley from Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shmonah in the far north, meeting a wide […]
All that new furniture and "essential" items you are all being told are necessary for your baby are NOT. Swap and borrow furniture from friends and family.
Israel was ranked #1 in the Middle East on Yale and Columbia’s 2008 Environmental Performance Index, a system which consists of variables that relate to environmental health and ecosystem vitality. But in comparison to the rest of the world, we’re #49.
We’ve been a little skeptical about the electric car project proposed by Shai Agassi. Israel relies still on heavily-polluting coal power plants; and a great deal of infrastructure will need to be put in place for this scheme to work. Not to mention the fact that Israelis barely recycle. That’s quite a jump from throwing […]
The Kishon River was once a notorious dumping ground for seven chemical plants, with the result that the entire ecosystem died and the river was even blamed for causing cancer in soldiers (though that has never been proven conclusively). In recent years, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has initiated what they refer to as a […]
“Gie me a spark o’ natures fire, thats a’ the learning I desire: Then, tho’ I drudge thro’ dub an’ mire at pleugh or cart, my muse, tho’ hamely in attire, may touch my heart.” Israel’s small but distinguished Scottish community may well be nursing hangovers and sore throats this week, after celebrating the anniversary […]