Traveling anywhere in Israel from the Holy City isn’t going to be easy on the day President Bush arrives, but it is a perfect day for experiencing the low carbon pleasure of train travel. For a start, Malcha station at 9 a.m is empty – it seems many commuters, tourists or day-trippers have left earlier, […]
“You can trace the recent history of Tu B’shevat seders like branches on a tree.” Nigel Savage, originally from Manchester, England, founded Hazon (Hebrew for “vision”) in 2000. Hazon works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community — as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all. In 2000 Nigel […]
It was neat to see the billboards are off of Ilan Pivko’s tower, in Tel Aviv today. The Ayalon Highway is pretty much free from all of the billboard clutter. In light of Ilana’s post yesterday, we thought we’d post this little ditty that we wrote for Heeb Magazine this summer, before they canned their […]
Look at My work, how beautiful and perfect is everything that I created. I created it for you. Be careful not to ruin and destroy My world. If you ruin it, there is nobody to restore it after you…” (Ecclesiastes Rabba 7:28) Those timely words written back somewhere between the sixth and eighth centuries pretty […]
One of my more vivid childhood memories is of the drive across the George Washington Bridge from New York to New Jersey, and zoning out to stare at what seemed like an endless procession of towering billboards displaying images of shiny cars, shiny models, and shiny promises of success. Seriously, is there a kid in […]
The Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University is looking for a few good green men and women. Think you have what it takes to become a fellow? The school is seeking fellowship candidates for a potential faculty position. The fine folks at Porter have sent us a note that they are advertising […]
Environmental Energy Resources, Ltd. (EER) is using Israeli-developed technology to set up Romania’s first plasma waste treatment facility. The system was developed by scientists at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and the claim is that it can handle radioactive and medical waste as well as the more conventional kinds. Cost of the project: $30 […]
Yael Mer’s “Evacuation Skirt” was designed tongue-in-cheek. Or was it? Conceived after the New Orleans hurricane and flood, says Yael: “The skirt keeps its glamorous look when it’s deflated on the one hand, and on the other, it inflates into a kayak with the right amount of volume to carry a grown up woman. She […]
Two Architecture lecturers from the Technion Institute in Haifa have designed a high-rise sustainable energy apartment complex that includes greenhouses for all its residents, and are building it in Wuhan Province, China. Tagit Klimor and David Knafo, who also run their own architectural practise Knafo Klimor, with offices in Tel Aviv and Haifa, believe in […]
Israeli designer Shay Alkalay is a man modeled after our own green heart. And with his cheeky invention, you will never have to say 'out, out, damn spot,' ever again.
With the panoramic view that I have from my window, I tend to find myself awed by the sunset. Often, I tell myself how incredibly artistically talented God is, the hues, the use of shadow, the definition… it’s beautiful. Oh how many times I wished that I could create such breathtaking scenes, on a […]
When I moved to Israel I started to understand, that not everywhere in the world things are going the same way. I grew up in Germany, where the convenience of a quiet and more or less unworried life, enables politicians to talk and act in terms of environment. Water saving, recycling and other environmental […]
It wasn’t that long ago when wild beasts roamed the earth. Lions, tigers, woolly haired mammoths and even elephants traipsed over the changing ecology of the Middle East up to the start of the early 15th century. Lions remain as the roaring yet watchful emblem of Jerusalem. Now humans are the wild beasts that dominate, […]
Being such a small place, you’d think Israel would be a simple place to get around on less than four wheels. But, alas, this is not the case since it’s cities and roads continuously choked with traffic. So it’s reassuring to hear that more Israelis are swapping their polluting automobiles for the most eco-friendly, not […]
Ironically, for a planet that over 70% of it’s surface is covered by water, water is becoming quite a commodity. While it may be true that the black gold of 20th century is being phased out, the new liquid gold, it appears, is Blue Gold aka water. According to an article published in USA Today, […]
Citizens and tourists rejoice: the Clean Coast Project of 2007 has ensured that we can hit those beaches in 2008. At least that’s according to the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, which reports that 80% of Israel’s beaches have been declared clean, with a mere 2% getting the dreaded rating of “dirty.” This is is […]
In previous articles, we’ve illustrated that religious Jewish practices such as Shabbat and Shmitta have the potential to affect the environment in a positive way. This makes us happy, as we at Green Prophet like when Jewish customs dovetail with the ideals of sustainability that we want to promote. We therefore regret to report that […]
For all of us green writers, here’s a creative & green challenge that came my way this week: a new US journal; Hawk and Handsaw – the Journal of Creativity & Sustainability, is starting up and invites writers and artists of all kinds to get creative on their sense of place. My head is already […]
Better known as the centre for three world religions, Jerusalem is increasingly becoming the focus for environmental activities and innovation. The start of 2008 will see the city hosting the launch of the Forum on Judaism and the Environment, a new initiative to bring together professionals, organisations and activists working in the field of Jewish […]
In a recent interview with this writer, Professor Pinhas Alpert, head of Tel Aviv University’s department of Geophysics and Planetary sciences, stated that “winters here in Israel are becoming warmer, with much less precipitation annually, and these extreme temperatures, at the minimum and maximum ends of the scale, also show a greater fluctuation between them.”Thats […]
“Israelis are tremendously committed to the environment. We can move mountains if optimism motivates us.” Alon Tal founded the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) in 1990 and has been working in public interest advocacy ever since. In 1996, he founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an advanced academic center where Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian, […]
One of our earliest and most popular posts to date is on cheap organic food in Israel. It got us wondering, what is our reader’s take on the organic food movement?Take Our Poll
Uprooting is a common theme in this part of the world: the Jewish Torah is compared to being a Tree of Life, and people who live in these parts are constantly struggling over land rights, and legitimizing why certain people should or shouldn’t settle here or there. Green Prophet is not going to enter the […]
Since the foundation of the first Kibbutz in Israel, nations around the world have looked to the Israeli model for communal living. One of the cornerstones of the kibbutz movement is C.A.L.L. (Communes at Large Letter), a seasonal magazine that reports on intentional communities in Israel and the rest of the world.
I want to share with Green Prophet a great site that encourages participants worldwide, not only here in Israel, or in the UK where it is based, but every computer-using sentient being anywhere, to cut down their energy output: be it water, waste, or carbon in general … and monitor their own reduction levels, and […]