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Jerusalem Boy’s School Makes Electricity On Roof

Miriam Kresh
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1
Jerusalem Boy’s School Makes Electricity On Roof

image-solar-energy-panels
A vocational yeshiva in Jerusalem meets a third of its own energy needs.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Boy’s Town  rooftop solar panels have been generating 40 kilowatts per hour since July. Boy’s Town is a vocational yeshiva in Jerusalem for students with socioeconomic challenges. The electricity generated on the school’s rooftop is sold directly to the Israel Electric Corporation for  a reduction on the school’s monthly electric bill. Suntech’s offer to sell solar panels to Israel coincides with the all the new electricity in the Israeli air; maybe similar future projects will take advantage of it.

Although long in fulfillment, the project is now generating other tangible benefits. School officials, viewing electricity production via computerized monitors,  know  how much the school economizes in money ( about NIS 12.000 monthly) and in carbon emissions.

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Should Home Egg Farmers Vaccinate Against Avian Flu?

Karin Kloosterman
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2

karin kloosterman egg farmer from Green ProphetEveryone hates needles, but don’t be a chicken if you want to vaccinate them against the new avian flu

If you’ve been reading the news you’ll know that there is a deadly outbreak of the avian flu virus circling the globe again. This one appears to be deadlier than every, UN health authorities are reporting. The new avian flu virus the H5N1 is rearing its head in the Middle East in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And I bet in other locales  –– places way too busy with political reform and uprisings to take stock of the problem.

For small time egg farmers like myself (see how I made a chicken coop), I am curious: should I be inoculating my birds? I asked, and the UN’s press office contacted a senior vet: it is the prerogative of each country to decide what action to take.

Dear Ms Kloosterman,

FAO Senior Animal Health Officer Jan Slingenbergh has this to say:

“Vaccination in different poultry species and production systems, against the background of a continually changing H5N1 and other Influenza A viruses risk scenario in poultry, is the prerogative of the public veterinary services of the respective country.

FAO keeps a focus on the international / global dynamics and ensuing broad health management ramifications.”

So the answer?  It depends. Egg farmers, small or big, should be in touch with their local veterinary services in their respective countries. Read more about the avian flu here. The picture above, by the way, is of me as a young girl. Egg farming.

Post-Revolution Development in Egypt Destroys Popular Red Sea Dive Spot

Tafline Laylin
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4
Post-Revolution Development in Egypt Destroys Popular Red Sea Dive Spot

eco-tourism, egypt, coral reefsThe revolution in Egypt has left a power vacuum that is allowing unchecked development to take over a once thriving, quiet dive spot.

Apart from the Egyptian revolution itself, a powerful culmination of civil disobedience that roused thousands of somnambulant citizens from decades of political apathy, it’s still hard to see in what way this grand moment in history has been good for that country. While the country attempts to work through its political uncertainty, and as funds that were set aside to help environmental organizations enforce regulations dry up, unscrupulous developers are exploiting the attendant power vacuum with projects that take nary an environmental or social impact into consideration. Just south of its border with Israel on the Sinai peninsula, Dahab is an immensely popular Red Sea dive spot that is in serious jeopardy of losing its precious coral reefs and rustic atmosphere to a series of crowded resorts.

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RECIPE: Late-Summer Pickled Peppers

Miriam Kresh
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RECIPE: Late-Summer Pickled Peppers
Pickled peppers
Preserve plenty peppers to produce a plethora of piquant pickles.

The late-summer peppers are excellent right now, firm-fleshed and plump, with smooth skins and that robust flavor that marries so well with vinegar.  Why not pickle some of them? Lemon season is just starting too, so try our recipe for preserved lemons while you’re in the pickling mood.

Making pickles is easy. It’s a matter of brine and spices added to the main vegetable, or vegetable mix. Make them as plain or as elaborate as you like, but that’s all it really amounts to. Since olive season will be starting soon, keep our method for making home-made olives in mind too. But let’s return to peppers. Like large, sweet bell peppers? Or do you prefer something fiery to serve as a true Middle-Eastern relish, as pictured above ? Any kind of pepper works in this recipe.

Pickled Middle-Eastern Peppers

Ingredients:

6-7 large bell peppers of different colors
or 8-9 slender hot peppers
2 cups water
2 cups apple cider or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thicklyIf pickling hot peppers, wear thin gloves to protect your skin. Do not touch your face at any time while processing the peppers. Gloves aren’t necessary to work with bell peppers.

1. Rinse and dry the peppers. For bell peppers, remove the stem ends and slice into quarters or eighths. Remove their seeds and white inner membrane. Leave hot peppers whole.

2. Pack the peppers into a jar that contains 1-1/2 liters (6 cups, 1 -1/2 quart). Stand the jar on a dry towel.

3. Boil the water, vinegar, salt and sugar for 5 minutes, covered.

4. Pour the hot vinegar brine over the peppers, using a funnel. Drop the garlic in.

Suggestion: taste the brine before pouring it over the peppers. Add more salt or sugar to taste.

5. Cover and allow to cool. Store in the refrigerator for 1 month before eating.

Enjoy!

More carefully-concocted Middle-Eastern classics and condiments on Green Prophet:

Israel Readies Offshore Natural Gas Pipeline

Maurice Picow
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1
Israel Readies Offshore Natural Gas Pipeline

natural gas israel
Tamar undersea gas wells will soon supply Israel with needed natural gas – but at what costs?

It has taken some time to reach this stage, but Israel’s undersea natural gas exploration activities by such companies as Noble Energy and the Delek Group have received  greater attention as an energy source in the wake of a number of terror attacks on the natural gas pipeline supplying natural gas by Egypt to Israel. It was reported on September 1 in Israel’s Globes financial newspaper that a pipeline to link the Tamar undersea gas field to the Israel mainland is about ready to be laid , with completion estimated by the end of 2012.

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Ocean Parts Sculptures Are A Strange Gift of the Sea

Karen Chernick
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Ocean Parts Sculptures Are A Strange Gift of the Sea

"beach waste sculpture"To all of you out there who used to make seashell necklaces on the beach as kids – did you ever think of making one of these?

Beautiful beaches can be found all over the Middle East, but unfortunately many of them are plagued by unnatural waste.  During the hot summer months it is a common pastime to go down to the beach for some natural air conditioning (as opposed to unnaturally air conditioned beaches), but the result is all too often that a lot of waste is left on the beaches.  The most ubiquitous form of beach waste is cigarette butts, but Israeli designer Koby Sibony’s beach waste sculptures teach us that there are many other types of beach trash out there.

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Agrexco Liquidation: An Obituary for a Company Relying on Cheap Water

Maurice Picow
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1
Agrexco Liquidation: An Obituary for a Company Relying on Cheap Water

agrexco produceAgrexco’s image  of produce may now be gone forever

Israel’s agricultural feats have often hailed as a modern miracle in the water deprived Middle East. This “miracle” pumped up with state-subsidized water is now having to face the realities of global warming and climate change, even though the Israeli public have been  supporting strong action on climate change for several years. Perhaps the most outstanding recent example of how the current realities of climate change are affecting the country’s agricultural progress, is the recent news that Israel’s well known agricultural exporting consortium Agrexco is now bankrupt and faced with liquidation as reported in The Marker financial paper .

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Avian Flu Rears Ugly Head Again in Israel and the Palestinian Territories

Karin Kloosterman
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1

hens bedouin market israel
Recently affected areas avian flu areas appear to be in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

The United Nations have urged this week for people to be ready against a possible but major resurgence of the Avian Flu, the H5N1, amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly Bird Flu virus is spreading in Asia and beyond. There are unpredictable risks to human health. The H5N1 virus has infected 565 people since it first appeared in 2003, killing 331 of them, according to WHO figures. The latest death occurred earlier this month in Cambodia, which has registered eight cases of human infection this year — all of them fatal.

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Israel’s GridON Keeps the Midnight Oil Burning

Karin Kloosterman
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Israel’s GridON Keeps the Midnight Oil Burning

lightening bolt grid gridonIt’s a fault current limiter to help large utility companies avert major power breakdowns.

I was sitting in the middle of an online boater’s exam back in Canada with my parents last week, when at question #18 the power went out. It stayed out all night, but was on before we woke up. A thunderbolt hit a power box near my cousin’s house on the other side of town (he saw the show) and the effects were widespread. Needless to say, we had to start the dreaded test over again a couple of days later. Thankfully it was done and my parents can drive their boats without worrying about getting a ticket.

We all know from experience that thunderstorms can cause power surges across the electricity grid causing massive blackouts. And a week before the blackout I’d just written about an Israeli company that hopes to address this need: Blackouts across the world now threaten to become more common as people’s power needs increase. High energy demands mixed with thunderstorms, solar storms, and the addition of renewables like solar and wind energy to the grid, creates an unpredictable mix of power variables infrastructure companies never had to deal with before. The Israeli company GridON may have a solution that a UK power company is now trying out.

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5 Steps for Eating a Paleo Diet

Ruth Almon
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7
5 Steps for Eating a Paleo Diet

paleo dietModern agriculture started in the Middle East. Can people here switch to the Paleo Lifestyle and eat like Cave Men?

What should humans eat for optimal health? The key word here is optimal. Our bodies are remarkable machines, and we can manage, more or less, on a wide variety of foods. But what foods work with our natural physiology, rather than against it? While many look to the future and modern food technology for guidance, it may be wise to take a historical approach. Homo sapiens (that’s us humans) have been evolving for a couple million years. Agriculture is believed to have originated just 10,000 years ago – a mere blip in evolutionary terms – in the fertile crescent: present day Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. So what did people eat before modern agriculture? Let’s take a look.

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AquaAgro Fund II to Focus on Preventing Starvation with Water Investment

Susan Kraemer
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AquaAgro Fund II to Focus on Preventing Starvation with Water Investment

starving african childAt its extreme, it is human life itself that is at risk from water scarcity

Can you imagine being this child’s mother? Perhaps she herself is also dying of starvation nearby, too weak to protect her dying child from this vulture that hovers expectantly nearby. Or already dead, perhaps.
It may seem inconceivable that something so horrifying could happen to you and yours. But this actually could be what happens to your own descendants in future centuries, even though you now live near a source of water and food and your life seems safe from such horror now. (New Record Heatwaves Not Like Good Old Dustbowl Days)

Increasing water scarcity is one of the effects of climate change, and the future could eventually be pretty grim for your own descendants if you are in a region that is presently under some water stress, such as the US Southwest or the MENA nations of the Middle East. (Israel Commits Itself to More Desalination)

Fortunately, there is a MENA clean tech firm that is preparing for the increased starvation risk brought about by the drought and water scarcities to come as a result of climate change.

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Marzan’s Luminescent Future Cityscapes With Solar OLEDs

Susan Kraemer
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2
Marzan’s Luminescent Future Cityscapes With Solar OLEDs

Israeli inventor Meidad Marzan has a vision of solar-powered futuristic city lights

Solar power embedded in tiny tiles cladding the sides of skyscrapers could be used to efficiently power programmable light-scapes like lamps creating ever-changing patterns on buildings at virtually no energy cost, using the nascent technology of OLEDs, suggests Marzan.

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UK hiking holiday specialist heads for Lebanon

Sarah Irving
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UK hiking holiday specialist heads for Lebanon

lebanon hikerEco-tourism holidays in Lebanon offer picturesque fishing villages and ancient remains

British walking holidays specialist Ramblers Worldwide has added Lebanon to its list of destinations, according to a recent announcement. Ramblers Worldwide have long included Jordan, Morocco, Oman and other Middle East and North African destinations on their itineraries, although some scheduled trips to Egypt and Syria have been disrupted by recent political events in the region. However, according to Marketing Manager Tony Maniscalco, “The Middle East is a popular destination for our clients who like to include culture, history and sightseeing on their walking holiday. Jordan, Egypt and Syria have proved especially popular. The recent turmoil in the area has had an impact on sales to this region and we unfortunately had to cancel 2 departures – Egypt and Syria – due to FCO advice.”

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A Geophysicist’s Guide to Striking it Rich – With Natural Gas

Green Prophet
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A Geophysicist’s Guide to Striking it Rich – With Natural Gas

natural gas bahrainIsraeli researchers say they can provide a more integrated way for surveying for natural gas. As the race is on to find natural gas in the Middle East Med region, could this tech help the region switch from oil?

Prospecting — the search for valuable reserves such as gold, diamond and natural gas — isn’t just a matter of luck. It’s about knowing where to look. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have modernized the hit-or-miss search with cutting-edge technology that scans the earth for signs of lucrative resources that could lurk beneath our feet. Combining a number of surveying techniques for the first time, Prof. Lev Eppelbaum has found a more accurate and in-depth land survey of Israel and the surrounding Mediterranean area than ever before. Their findings pinpoint the most likely places to find reservoirs of natural gas and oil.

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80% of Middle East and Africa Concerned About Climate Change

Arwa Aburawa
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1
80% of Middle East and Africa Concerned About Climate Change

middle east camel climate changeAccording to a recent survey, Africa and the Middle East is the second region in the world that is most concerned about climate change

For those of us dealing with climate change and environmental issues in the Middle East, it can feel like the region is constantly playing catch-up to the rest of the developed world. Despite the Middle East’s growing environmental movement and important green groups in countries from Jordan to Iran, we still look to the high-status green campaigns and campaigners of America and Europe for inspiration.

However, a recent survey has found that whilst less than half (48%) of all Americans are concerned about global warming, around 80% of citizens in Africa and the Middle East worry about climate change. So in one aspect at least, the Middle East is leading the way.

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