Page 613 – Green Prophet

“Titanic” Ship Leads Mediterranean Sea Floor Research Mission From Israel

Tech

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September 6, 2010

Scientific heavyweights to scour the Mediterranean Sea Floor in a first of its kind research mission

We worry about the possibility of a giant trash heap floating in the Mediterranean, and about the effect that this and Israel’s new gas fields will have on marine life. We are also concerned that various oil exploration projects could culminate in accidental leaks that would have deleterious effects on the sea’s well-being. But we are mostly uncertain about what prowls on the sea floor. Our knowledge of this relatively unexplored region could deepen, though, since the premiere scientist Zvi Ben-Avraham, who is also the Israeli President’s scientific adviser, will lead a two week research mission aboard the Nautilus.

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5 Green Dating Ideas for the Middle Eastern Romantic

Lifestyle

Karen Chernick

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September 6, 2010

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5 Green Dating Ideas for the Middle Eastern Romantic

Impress your date and reduce your negative impact on the environment with a green-ified date.

Dating can be rough. Firstly, it can be hard to find that special someone (which is facilitated, in our modern times, by some form of online dating site or one of those popular US dating sites), and secondly, it can be difficult to come up with a date that is fun for you, your date, AND the environment. The classic “dinner-and-a-movie” date often involves a great deal of wastefulness since most restaurants are major resource and food wasters. But it doesn’t have to be. If you want to flex your creative side and show off some environmental muscle, try going on a green date.

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Jordan Combines Conservation and Tourism To Combat Environmental Woes

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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September 5, 2010

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Jordan Combines Conservation and Tourism To Combat Environmental Woes

In a historic measure that demonstrates Jordan’s new environmental commitment, the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature has agreed to establish nine more protected areas

With the help of certain enlightened individuals, such as the activists who pranced through Amman wearing lettuce to encourage vegetarianism, and Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), who have been working hard to save the Jordan river, Jordan is beginning to realize that the environment is crucial to the country’s overall survival. As a result, officials are combining conservation with tourism in order to entice visitors to explore the country’s natural beauty in addition to its history. Gemma Bowes from the Guardian takes us on a comprehensive tour through Jordan’s national parks and protected areas, making suggestions for a few good, eco-friendly places to stay along the way.

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Car Talk With the “Driving Dutchman” Highlights Many Green Auto Issues

Transportation

Maurice Picow

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September 5, 2010

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Car Talk With the “Driving Dutchman” Highlights Many Green Auto Issues

Testing Better Place Taxi in Tokyo. Will Taxi drivers go for only 130 km per charge?

Jerusalem’s Rusty Mike Radio station is relatively new to the Middle East, but it is already popular with thousands of listeners in worldwide, especially with the station’s Wednesday night Car Talk talk show that is devoted exclusively to cars and issues related to driving. Moderated by Joop Soesan, formerly from Holland, and who also goes by the name of “the driving Dutchman,” the one hour program often covers subjects like electric cars, hybrid cars, and the technology behind both.

I attended last Wednesday’s Car Talk program as Soesan’s guest, representing Green Prophet. Subjects covered during the hour long program included issues surrounding various car engine technologies, including biomass fuels and natural gas. Much of our conversation about electric cars centered around those being developed by Better Place Company headed by Mr. Shai Agassi. I described my experience in visiting the Better Place Electric Car Education and Test Drive Center near Tel Aviv .

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Polluters Face New OECD Rules

Business

Tafline Laylin

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September 5, 2010

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Israel’s entry into the OECD will mean more stringent pollution standards for industries, but it comes with a cost – especially for smaller businesses

Frequently people argue that it’s pointless to curb one’s personal habits when the big industries are most at fault for driving up greenhouse gas emissions. What difference does it make if one family recycles their cans, for example, or their meat consumption, when the agricultural, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries pollute at rates that are exponentially higher? In Israel, that argument will be increasingly difficult to maintain, as the cabinet recently ratified the country’s membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The standard

OECD’s aim is to impose legal industry standards for developed economies. Of the 220 such standards, 70 apply to the environment.

The ratification should lead to better disclosure of each plant’s pollution output and a permitting system to control and prevent pollution; tracking the presence of dangerous chemicals will also be a priority.

However, implementing these new, rigorous pollution standards will require an adjustment period that will be easier for large companies to incorporate than it will for small to medium sized companies.

A little help from the government

For this reason, the Israel Manufacturer’s Association is asking the government for NIS 200 million to ease the smaller organizations’ transition, though according to Haaretz writer Ora Coren, the treasury has received no such request.

However, the Environmental Protection Ministry’s Director General Yossi Inbar told Haaretz that it is prepared to spend billions of shekels to improve industry environmental standards.

“It hasn’t come voluntarily, but rather because they have no choice,” he told Haaretz.

Slow to implement

Amit Bracha, the Director of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, claims that implementation of the OECD rules, which is expected to last until 2017, could occur more quickly, and that despite their claims otherwise, even large companies have not fully grasped environmental concerns.

Israel Chemicals, which has received criticism for its role in compromising the ecological health of the Dead Sea, has since become the poster child for environmental awareness among industries, according to Coren.

Judging footprints

The company’s executive Vice President Asher Grinbaum claims to understand the interconnectedness of environmental and economic health, and acknowledges that in the same way that consumers judge their food by its calorie and fat content, so too will they judge industry’s carbon footprint.

The OECD rules will ensure that polluters absorb the costs of pollution, so that consumers will be encouraged to purchase products that are cheaper and cleaner. Also, companies that have poor environmental standards will no longer receive incentives or subsidies.

“The OECD led the Environmental Protection Ministry to discontinue its policy of letting factories receive separate permits for air and ground pollution and to develop an integrated pollution registry. New air pollution legislation will come into effect in Israel next year as a result,” writes Coren.

While a certain step in the right direction, the hard days of implementation still lie ahead.

:: image via Taras Kalapun and story via Haaretz

More Green News From Israel:
Will Israel’s Undersea Gas Pipeline Idea Increase the Mediterranean’s Already Polluted State?
One State. One Environment
Intel Israel Is LEED’s Golden Child

Nursing in the Middle East

Health

Hannah Katsman

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September 5, 2010

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A How to avoid common pitfalls that undermine breastfeeding in the Islamic world.

Dr. Modia Batterjee, the author of A Fading Art: Understanding Breastfeeding in the Middle East, is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant with a private clinic, and has a masters degree in public health.

As such, she is able to understand both the day-to-day issues facing young mothers as well as the larger, global forces that influence infant feeding patterns. These feeding patterns play a role in the high infant mortality rate in the Muslim world, about 60% in the first year of life. This post continues Part I of this review of A Fading Art: Understanding Breastfeeding in the Middle East.

Why Muslims fail at breastfeeding

There are many cultural practices and beliefs that prevent both exclusive and long-term breastfeeding of babies in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world.

Separation after birth. Babies should be placed on the mother’s stomach immediately after birth, and kept with the mother throughout the hospital stay. Even in the case of a cesarean section the mother can breastfeed immediately after the surgery, as long as she is alert and has help. Early feedings are important to establish the milk supply and for baby to get colostrum, the early milk that coats the stomach and prevents harmful bacteria from entering the baby’s system.
Teas and formula. In Saudi Arabia, babies are often served tea or formula to soothe tummy aches or help baby sleep. But these interfere with the mother’s milk supply, which works according to supply and demand. If the breast is not emptied frequently enough, they gradually produce less milk.
Nipple confusion. Some babies start to prefer the bottle after having been fed a supplement. It’s not always the nipple itself that is the issue. Sometimes it’s the mother’s low supply, or the baby’s inability to breastfeed well that leads a baby to prefer the bottle. Fixing these problems usually reverses the preference.
Questions about milk supply. This is a major concern among Saudi women. According to Batterjee the important signs are satiety after each feed, the number of urine-filled diapers, and the color of the stools. She emphasizes night-feeding as an important factor in maintaining supply. Her recommendation to nurse on only one side may not work well for all mothers especially in the early weeks when the supply is being established. Current recommendations are to let baby finish the first side at each feeding, then offer the second.
Correct latch-on. Babies need to suckle in a way that allows the nipple to reach back against the baby’s soft palate to avoid pain and transfer a good supply of milk.
Birth. Pain medications during labor cross the placenta and affect both the baby and the mother in the early stages of breastfeeding.
Ramadan and prolonged fasting for a month can quicken the end of nursing

Breastfeeding and Fasting During Ramadan

Dr. Batterjee advises Moslem women to eat and drink well in between fast days during the holy month of Ramadan. She also writes:

As soon as she begins to feel the exhausting pressures of breastfeeding and fasting, such as feeling ill, feeling dizzy, or passing dark yellow urine indicating dehydration, it is okay for her to break her fast and give her kafarah (compensation) for that day.

Muslim women who are pregnant or breastfeeding might be exempt from fasting if they feel that the fasting would negatively affect their health or their baby’s health.

A mother might be expected to make up for the missed fasting at a later time or pay some compensation for not fasting. Consulting a scholar or a book of fiqh is recommended to determine the appropriate guidelines.

Breastfeeding and the planet

Dr. Batterjee doesn’t forget ecology, “the least familiar benefit of breastfeeding.” In Pakistan, the number of feeding bottles sold annually, if placed end to end, would reach Mt. Everest. One liter of water a day is needed to mix the formula, and another two to wash the bottles. This doesn’t take into account water used to raise cows and manufacture formula.

A Fading Art: Breatfeeding in the Middle East by Modia Batterjee is an unusual and fascinating first-hand account of family life, public health, and breastfeeding in the Islamic world.

More on breastfeeding:

World Breastfeeding Week Focuses on Baby-Friendly Policies
Breastfeed Your Baby in a Hijab: Public Breastfeeding in the Middle East
Ten Tips for Breastfeeding Your Baby in Public in the Middle East

4 Reasons To Eat Pomegranate During the Jewish New Year

Health

Naomi Ben-David

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September 5, 2010

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4 Reasons To Eat Pomegranate During the Jewish New Year

You have to love the health benefits of this amazing fruit.

With Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) around the corner, certain traditional foods are expected to appear at the table. There are many different recipes, but there are several which are universal, including honey cake (try out this amazing recipe) and certain fruits. One of these fruits, originating in the Middle East, is the pomegranate.

I have eaten pomegranate around New Year since childhood. It is only recently, however, that I realised that apart from being a traditional fruit, it is also extremely beneficial to your health. Here is a fruit which you should make part of your diet more than just once a year.

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Will Israel’s Undersea Gas Pipeline Idea Increase the Mediterranean’s Already Polluted State?

Business

Maurice Picow

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September 5, 2010

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Will Israel’s Undersea Gas Pipeline Idea Increase the Mediterranean’s Already Polluted State?

Natural gas fields off Israel’s coast. A submerged gas pipeline to Greece will be even more ecologically problematic.

Israel is considering a plan to build an underwater natural gas pipeline to Europe as a way to transport gas being drilled from offshore wells in the eastern Mediterranean. The plan, as reported August 30 in Globes, involves a pipeline that will run from the Tamar and Dalit gas fields, located off Israel’s northern coastline, and along the seabed to Greece where it will then be transported overland to various EU countries. The undersea gas fields are currently being developed by a drilling consortium involving the American Nobel Energy Inc., based in Houston Texas, and the Israeli Delek Group Ltd., controlled by business tycoon Yitzhak Tshuva.

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Swab A Frog For Good Health – But Not At Home

Travel

Tafline Laylin

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September 3, 2010

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Swab A Frog For Good Health – But Not At Home

UAE scientists have found that chemicals on frog skin can produce antibiotics for otherwise resistant “superbugs”

Frogs eat annoying, disease-carrying mosquitoes that we’re so eager to get rid of, as well as other insects and pests, and despite being a tasty snack for various omnivores, including humans, have survived 300 million years of earth’s onslaughts. Their divergent adaptations make the strangest circus seem dull: some use their eyeballs to swallow and another – the Gastric Brooding frog now extinct – used to swallow its eggs and raise its tadpoles in its stomach.

Sadly, approximately 1/3 of frog species have gone extinct. Conservation International (CI) scientists are currently scouring forest floors and caves and water bodies around the world for amphibian species in order to find ways to protect them. And if we – and I do mean we since we contribute to their habitat’s health – are successful at rehabilitating endangered populations, not only will we score a victory for biodiversity, but we’ll also score a victory for human health.

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Get Naked at Dead Sea for Spencer Tunick

Travel

Tinamarie Bernard

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September 3, 2010

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Get Naked at Dead Sea for Spencer Tunick

Get naked at the Dead Sea – for the environment!

Spencer Tunick, famous for his mass nude photographs of people set against unique backgrounds and landscapes, has chosen the Dead Sea to shoot his eco-sexy art.

That means hundreds to thousands of Israelis will need to volunteer to strip to their birthday suits, all for an important cause: The Dead Sea. Losing water every year, it is feared that the Dead Sea could turn into sludge if it continues to dry up at the current rate. Time to get naked for the environment?

Since 1994, Tunick’s photographic images have inspired us to see the naked form juxtaposed against the natural world through a unique lens, one that unifies and shows our vulnerability. “The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together, metamorphose into a new shape,” his website states.

naked dead sea spencer tunick — *Naked Dead Sea, 2011*

“The bodies extend into and upon the landscape like a substance. These grouped masses which do not underscore sexuality become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one’s views of nudity and privacy.”

And while the concept, ecosexuality, didn’t exist when Tunick began his work, it is a fitting description of his photography. The artist has previously worked with Greenpeace in an effort to raise environmental awareness.

Ecosexuality, the idea that our personal lives can and must be made sustainable, is as much about art and culture as it is about the lubrication we use, the foods we eat, or the sexual aids we purchase and play with.

The latter is often easier for green-virgins to grasp; the idea that GMO foods can have deleterious consequences on reproductive health, or that there are natural ways for men to improve sexual performance and women to enhance libidos, makes ready sense to someone newly minted into the world of sustainable sexuality.

How we view ourselves vis-à-vis the natural world, and how we take on the role of stewardship of this planet is connected to our reproductive survival too. As the authors of Gaia and the New Politics of Love point out, Mamma Earth doesn’t need us in order for the planet to survive, but we most certainly need her.

Several months ago Tunick expressed interest in shooting a mass nude scene in the Tel Aviv Port and had even hired an Israeli production company to carry out the plan. However, he dropped the project after encountering difficulty in raising funds for the complicated shoot. A total of $700,000 would have been required to close down the port compound and arrange the shoot.

The Dead Sea, long considered a crown Jewel for health and wellbeing is in the running for one of the World’s New Seven Wonders became the next choice – as he is concerned about the health of the Dead Sea. To be held next spring, with no set date, environmentalists are now looking to raise $250,000 to bring Spencer to Israel.

Update 2011: Some photos Dead Sea Naked photos below

naked dead sea photo areil — An aerial perspective of Spencer Tunick’s Naked Sea project at the Dead Sea. Photo by Itamar Grinberg.

Top 5 Arab Sustainable Designers

Design

Arwa Aburawa

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September 2, 2010

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From New York to Egypt, Arab architects and designers show that it’s possible to be cool and environmentally responsible.

At Green Prophet, we are always happy to celebrate talented designers who care about the environment and nothing gets us more excited then when they are from the Middle East/North Africa region. So, I have put together our top 5 Arab sustainable designers who have inspired us to care for the environment through their spectacular designs. From fashion designers, architects to interior designers those Arab designers who have put sustainability at the heart of their work are here!

nadia-nour-eco-fashion

Nadia Nour~ Egyptian Fashion Designer

Nadia Nour is an Egyptian fashion designer based in New York who has a real flare for creating environmentally-friendly fashion. Combining elegant designs with organic cottons, silks and vintage fabrics, she insists that you can still be fashionable and care for environment.

She has taken the fashionistas in New York by storm and states that not only are green fabrics healthier for people and the planet but they also make for a softer and more durable fabric. As she remarked in an interview at Green Prophet, “women do not have to sacrifice style to be green.”

Nour encourages green shoppers to read the labels carefully and educate themselves about the negative impacts of the fashion industry. She insists that not only will this help build demand for more eco-clothing but it should help make better decisions when shopping.

Ziad Ghanem~ Lebanese Fashion Designer

Next up is Ziad Ghanem, a Lebanese fashion designer who is a master of recycled fashion couture. Ghanem shocked viewers at the London fashion week with his anti-consumerism message and vibrant designs which were all environmentally-conscious. Sourcing his fabrics from second-hand stores, Ghanem’s creations are printed using environmentally-friendly techniques under ethical working conditions.

As fellow Green Prophet writer Karen Chernick notes, “unlike other high fashion designers, Ghanem brings a funky environmental consciousness to his work that proves “green” ideas have their place in the world of couture.”

Zaha Hadid~ Iraqi Architect

Now this one is a little more controversial. Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid is no doubt one of the most influential architects in the world – in fact she was named as one of TIME Magazines top 100 influential people this year- but her green credentials are little more questionable.

Tafline Laylin of Green Prophet reported this summer that whilst her team had begun to explore more sustainable design methods, “[Hadid] has spent her entire career allowing her futuristic imagination free reign with little thought to the environmental consequences of her ambition.”

Even so, if Hadid did take her growing concern for sustainability more seriously (rather than focusing on getting LEED certification for Saudi’s Petroleum Studies and Research Centre) she could be an unstoppable force for change.

Karim Rashid~ Egyptian Designer

Karim Rashid is a leading figure in the design world with a flair for creative green designs. With over 300 awards under his belt, Rashid has created some amazing products that help you stylishly save the planet.

Born in Cairo, Rashid is half Egyptian, half English and his work includes the ingenious Bobble reusable bottle which has built-in water filter to help remove chlorine and organic contaminant as well as being recycled, re-usable and cheap.

Other green inventions include beautiful T-Rex lighting and an Eco-house made from recycled and eco-materials unveiled during Milan Design Week.

Hassan Fathy~ Egyptian Architect

Hailed as the Middle East’s Father of Sustainable Architecture, Hassan Fathy is an Egyptian architect who has inspired a generation of unique projects from Greece to New Mexico. What makes him stand out is his passion for sustainable projects incorporating traditional design and building materials such as mud, which he brought to the poor Egyptian peasant masses.

In 1946, he was commissioned to build a new Gourna village for 3,000 families and decided to include the villagers in the transition by enlisting them as builders, and by using their traditional architectural techniques and materials. Although he passed away in 1989, Fathy continues to inspire a generation of architects to embrace sustainable design. For that he makes it as number one!

Have we missed anyone out? If so, let us know and we might feature them right here on Green Prophet.

For More on Sustainable Design:

Zolaykha Sherzad Resurrects Traditional Afghan Crafts Via Modern Fashion Design

Will Foster & Partners Achieve Carbon Neutrality In Hong Kong?

“New Dress A Day” Blog Takes Consumerism Out of the Fresh Fashion Equation

Turkey’s Smart New Connection to Europe

Business

Tafline Laylin

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September 2, 2010

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While Turkey’s clean, smart energy solutions and its pending grid connectivity to Europe are praiseworthy, can we cut back demand too?

Critics of GE’s Ecomagination program – which is said to offer cleaner, smarter power solutions – claim that GE is simply airbrushing an unsustainable model, perpetuating the very consumer culture that needs to be curtailed if homo sapiens expect to survive its own damage to this planet. This model has been exported not only to Masdar City, where GE has set up a major hub, but most recently to Turkey. And therefore, by extension, to Europe, since this month Turkey will connect to Europe’s power grid using GE’s smart grid technology.

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One State. One Environment

Business

Green Prophet Guest

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September 2, 2010

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As peace talks resume, can environmental issues create bridges and links between opposing sides?

JERUSALEM – Every few years, the idea of establishing one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea rises and falls like a phoenix; a dream of a state where both Palestinians and Israelis live in peace with no borders, no barriers, cultural autonomy and equal citizenship for all.

In the 1940’s this idea was endorsed by leftist Jewish circles; in the 1980’s the PLO called for the establishment of a secular democratic state on the entire land, in the 1990’s it was championed by Palestinian intellectuals who had given up on the two-state solution and most recently this same idea has been articulated with some nuances by people on the right of the Israeli political map like former Defence Minister Moshe Arens.

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Too Much Salt or Not? 6 Tips for Salt

Health

Naomi Ben-David

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September 2, 2010

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Salt comes in many forms and has many uses. How many are you aware of?

One of the most common features of a set table is the salt shaker sitting neatly next to the pepper grinder. Saltiness is not only one of the basic tastes next to sweetness, bitterness and sourness, it is also one of the oldest forms of seasoning. From simple table salt to the mineral-rich salt of the shrinking Dead Sea, there are many forms of salt available.

Beyond existing in various forms, salt also has a multitude of uses in the kitchen, which exceed simply seasoning food. There are several tricks in regard to using, as well as removing salt, that can be handy in day to day life.

1. How many times have you accidentally slipped, pouring too much salt into a soup or stew? By putting a raw peeled potato into the stew or soup, you can remove some of that extra salt. As the potato boils, it absorbs the salt from the water, taking away the overriding saltiness of the food. Of course you can always repeat the procedure if you have had a major over-salting accident.

2. When it comes to meat however, the best solution is to soak the meat in water prior to cooking. Cured meat is often very salty, so letting the meat stand in water overnight is a great trick.

3. Adding salt to vegetables is relatively common, whether it is in salads or in cooking. The reason for this is that salt subtly enhances the natural flavours of the vegetables. If you are boiling any kind of green vegetable, you can add a fair amount of salt without having to worry about salt absorption. Green vegetables contain a great deal of water, so they will not absorb much of the salty water they are boiled in, just enough to taste great.

4. If you want to boil water at a higher temperature salt can be handy. It doesn’t make the water boil faster, but it does make the water boil at a higher temperature. Keep in mind that the difference in temperature will vary depending on how much salt you add.

5. Salt is also useful in desserts in small quantities. Adding just a pinch of salt to cream and egg whites makes them whip faster, higher and better. It will give you that really stiff quality that is necessary in so many desserts, without impacting the flavour.

6. Another useful trick is to add just a touch of salt to garlic before you crush it. Making garlic into a nice smooth paste before adding it to your cooking means that nobody will find themselves biting into a piece of garlic. Instead the flavour will be evenly spread throughout the dish. Adding salt allows you to make a nice smooth paste very easily.

Despite the many health issues surrounding salt, it is an extremely valuable tool in the kitchen. This simple spice is extremely versatile, so why not try a pinch?

Jewish Charity UJIA Goes Green in London

Business

Green Prophet Guest

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September 2, 2010

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Jewish Charity UJIA Goes Green in London

UJIA’s Green Thread aims to make the charity more ecologically and economically efficient

One of the biggest Jewish charities in the UK has adopted a green policy to reduce its environmental footprint. The United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) decided that moving to new offices in north London last year was the perfect opportunity to examine how the organisation could reduce its environmental impact. This initiative could have a knock-on effect around the world – even the Middle East.

“Being environmentally responsible runs through everything we do at UJIA. Since moving into our new Camden offices, we have been putting our green principles into practise,” explains David Janner-Klausner, UJIA’s programme and planning director (pictured above, left, alongside UJIA chief executive, Douglas Krikler).

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