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Another Name for Sugar – High Fructose Corn Syrup

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corn-cobs-in-bowlWould you think that this healthy vegetable could be converted into something unhealthy?

When glancing at a list of ingredients, many of the words are not simply unfamiliar but completely unknown to the average consumer. This being the case, checking a list of ingredients seems an almost futile exercise as many of the foods listed are unheard of. When it comes to the various forms of sugar in food, the inability to recognise ingredients can be a huge concern for the health-conscious consumer.

Zonzoo Gives Old Phones New Life In The UAE

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recycled cell phones Zonzoo and Enviroserve recycle cell phones, earning donors a bit of good, “green”  cash.

When old cell phone batteries peter out and new models are just too hard to resist, many people chuck leave their old phones languishing in a drawer or chuck them in the trash bin.

From there they are transported and dumped in the local landfill, such as Hariya, where it leaks harmful toxins. Another alternative is to recycle your old cell phone, to give it a new life. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to recycle in the Middle East, where the facilities are not as advanced as they are in the West. Zonzoo is changing that.

Sinking Hotels! Salt Imbalance In Mined Dead Sea Threatens Tourism Industry

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dead-seas-salt-problemThe tourism and minerals industry, as well as the Tamar Regional Council, argue over who must take responsibilities for what environmentalists call all “ecological disaster.”

Take the most beautiful blue blown-glass vase designed with divine providence, throw it against a wall, and watch it shatter into hundreds of pieces. Then, try to glue it back together again and enter it into a design competition. This is what is happening with the Dead Sea. The northern part is shrinking as a result of reduced inflow, while the southern end is expanding because of the Dead Sea Works’ alteration of its chemical balance.

As a result, Ein Boker’s tourism industry is in grave danger, but Tamar’s Regional Council Head is mostly concerned with having the Dead Sea listed as one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders next year in order to draw increased tourism traffic to the Negev. Meanwhile, the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) calls the lake an “ecological disaster;” how the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) rules in the coming month will determine which industry will endure the brunt of this disaster.

Activists Generate Awareness of Critical Issues Ahead of UN Summit

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UN-activists-new-york Activists are pulling out all the stops ahead of a development summit at UN headquarters on 20-22 September.

Pro-aid and anti-poverty lobbyists are trying everything from giant letters to banging pans to raise awareness of the high-level event.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) suffer from a lack of widespread public recognition, not least in the summit’s host country, the US.

Mobilizing popular support and influencing delegates will demand a range of online and offline techniques, according to advocacy specialists, some more quirky than others.

Lebanon’s Five Biggest Environmental Headaches

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Lebanon faces a number of environmental threats, including air and water pollution, risks associated with climate change, and the impact of the 2006 war with Israel. IRIN, the United Nations environment news source, takes a look at the top five.

RECIPE: Kreplach For The Pre-Yom Kippur Meal

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image-kreplach-in-soup

Did you know it’s a mitzvah to eat well before the Yom Kippur fast? Kreplach (Ashkenazic traditional stuffed noodle dumplings) are a delicious addition to the pre-fast meal.

This year, Yom Kippur starts on Friday evening the 17th of September, and lasts till Shabbat is over on Saturday night. Although the fast falls on Shabbat, folks must still cook in advance – not only the pot of something for the little ones, but a meal rich in carbs, light protein, and fluids, to eat before the fast.  Fruit and veg are important, like our butternut squash stuffed with quinoa. And the traditional pre-fast soup with kreplach supplies a good part of the nutrition a body needs to get through the next 25 hours.

This recipe calls for chicken-filled dumplings served in chicken broth. But vegetarians can enjoy kreplach soup by using any savory filling (such as sauteed tofu,  mashed potatoes, and mushrooms seasoned with fried onion) and a hearty vegetable-based soup. Vegetarians and carnivores both enjoy supplementing the soup with a light, yet high-protein dish like our Majadra recipe.

Israel Cleantech Intelligence: Green Towers and 7 More Headlines

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Tel-Aviv's-skyline-is-changing Israel-China deals, green synagogues, droughts and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment.

Solaer, a Spanish renewable energy company, is expecting to claim 10% of the the Israeli PV solar market within five years. Progress is being made on the construction of Tel Aviv’s first green office tower, as well as on Ormat and Solar Millennium AG’s attempt to win a contract to develop and run a solar thermal energy plant in Israel. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Turkey’s New Step Towards Wind Energy in Balıkesir

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turkey-wind-energyOn the heels of  Turkey’s  smart-grid connection to Europe, the country announces that it will host a new wind-turbine factory in the Western province.

News moves quickly in the blogosphere. Roughly two weeks ago we reported Turkey’s new “smart-grid” connection to Europe, which is expected to not only improve the country’s own renewable energy sector, but will allow it to boost its economy by exporting energy to Europe.

While Leviathan promotes miniature wind-turbines, and others are leasing their roof space for smaller-scale agricultural and renewable energy projects, Turkey will host a full-scale wind-turbine manufacturing plant in the western province of Balıkesir.

UAE Man Campaigns Against Reckless Driving That Killed His Sister. Part II.

suraya-campaignEvery day, 35 people are killed in the Gulf as a result of poor driving. Mohd Shahnawaz has launched a new campaign to change the attitude behind the Gulf’s reckless drivers.

This is the second in a two-part series about the Suraya Foundation. In the first (which you can read here) we described how Mr. Shahnawaz started the Suraya Foundation in the United Arab Emirates after the death of his sister in an undisputed and possibly reckless driving incident.

In this second part, Mr. Shahnawaz describes his methodology for changing the cultural attitudes that wreck havoc on the roads.

In the Arab world, though particularly in the Gulf region, reckless driving accounts for a devastating string of traffic accidents and attendant fatalities. We reported that Iran has the highest rate of traffic fatalities, though Saudi Arabia also has a very serious traffic problem. Mr. Shahnawaz believes that a campaign that combines both an emotional and logical appeal is the most effective way to sway the public.

Tel-Aviv’s $60 Million Eco-Office Tower A Go

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Tel-Aviv's-first-office-eco-towerTel Aviv’s first ‘green’ office tower uses recycled, sustainable and domestic building materials and ecological maintenance procedures for a long-term low impact on nature.

Israel’s scarce water and energy resources were foremost in the minds of constructors Ronen and Alon Azouri when they designed Tel Aviv’s first ‘green’ office tower. Using recycled sustainable and/or domestic building materials and ecological maintenance procedures, their goal was to create an office block with a long-term low impact on nature.

Can Shmuel Ovadia’s SDE Wave Energy Compete with World’s Largest Wave Power Hub?

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israel-wave-energyWave energy may be Mankind’s future energy resource.

Generating electricity from ocean currents and waves is still far from being an accomplished reality, despite efforts being made by innovators like Shmuel Ovada and his SDE wave energy company. But now, the idea of using the tremendous power of the sea to create energy is much closer to practical reality with the completion of what is being hailed as the world’s largest wave power hub that is estimated to be able to produce as much as 187,000 MWh of electricity per year.

Why Israel Breathes Easy On Car-free Yom Kippur Day

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quiet-yom-kippur-streets

Israel’s green campaigners note the quiet streets and clear skies on Yom Kippur Day

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year in Judaism and begins this Friday. For non-Jews in Israel it is a day when the streets are quiet, peaceful and vacant of anything but feet.

But beyond urban tranquility, green campaigners in Israel have noticed an unexpected benefit to the Jewish day of prayer and fasting: the country’s ecological footprint is significantly reduced.

Sue Tourkin Komet Integrates Recycling (and a whole lot of other stuff) Into her Sukkah

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recycling-sukkahBefore you start building your sukkah, think about the materials and values that you want to use.

Sukkot, the Jewish Festival of Booths, will begin next week and many Jews all over the world are starting to think about building their sukkah. While intended to imitate a natural makeshift shelter and honor certain forms of plant life, sukkot are often decorated with plastic ornaments and other non-eco-friendly items. Sue Tourkin Komet, based in Jerusalem, shows us that it doesn’t have to be that way.  You can integrate upcycled and recycled elements into your sukkah (and perhaps even fully create it out of them).

Bridging Syria’s Bio-Tech Gap

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biofuel-technology-syriaSyria’s building its environmental research infrastructure one Masters at a time

In addition to de-congesting its markets, albeit at the expense of certain locals, and improving local and foreign knowledge about Syria’s extraordinary biodiversity, the country appears to be taking important steps to educating their public about environmental issues. Often the unsung heroes spend their lives doing critical research, which if any good is then applied to real-world scenarios. Thanks to the National Commission for Biotechnology, developed in concert with the Ministry of Higher Education in 2002, Syria is beginning to close the East-West gap in biotechnology and other critical environmental research.

Organic Honey versus Mass Produced?

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Sinsila beekeeper, East JerusalemThe honey bee chooses the flower, which changes the flavour of the honey. Which honey do you choose?

The Jewish New Year, otherwise known as Rosh Hashanah, was celebrated just this past week, and one of the most common symbols of this time is honey. A jar of honey symbolises a sweet new year, so around this time it is a popular commodity in Jewish households. When buying honey, no matter the time of year, do you stop to consider which type of honey you are purchasing? Â