Advertising itself as Israel’s first food-focused conference, “Mazon Le-Machshava” or food for thought, opens in the Tel Aviv port next Thursday, November 19.
In addition to a Top Chef-style cookdown to produce the tastiest meal with the lowest carbon footprint, the conference also promises conversations about farming, energy and water.
It taps into a growing trend – organic farming has a following not only in Israel, but also in the West Bank and Jordan.
Listen up Middle East: The UN wants stronger laws for protecting land, water and wildlife during times of conflict.
If the cost of human life isn’t enough for our species to understand, the UN has issued a report on enforcing the laws in place to protect the environment during conflict.
Precious desert lilies plowed over by tanks, chemicals whose potency lingers on land and in aquifers for generations after killing wildlife in one fell swoop, and marine devastation by oil spills are just some of the negative environmental effects of conflict we can expect today in the Middle East — where the old saying still applies: all’s fair in love and war.
Keen on doing business in the Gulf region? This might be your conference.
The Gulf Environment Forum – the first comprehensive environmental conference and exhibition to take place in the Persian Gulf region – has been planned and is going to take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on March 7-9, 2010. The forum is being held under the patronage of HRH Prince Turki bin Nasser bin Abdulazziz, the Chairman of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment. It is also being supported by the United Nations Environment Programme and the GCC union of chambers of commerce and industries.
The forum will focus on a variety of environmental issues, including: sustainable development, water, clean energy, recycling, e-waste, carbon trading, industrial wastes treatment, air pollution, coastal protection, bio-system and nature preservation, climate change, studies and consulting, and legal framework and policies.
A ban on alcohol sanitizer products and a looming swine flu, may keep pilgrims away from Hajj.
As the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina draw near, the question once again is whether the Saudi government can adequately deal with more than 3 + million pilgrims that are expected to make the pilgrimage and festival of Eid el-Adha (Festival of the Sacrifice) this year. Especially in light of diseases such as the global H1N1 influenza pandemic which is now a world-wide concern to UN and other international health officials.
The problem of how to cope with the strain that this mass of humanity puts on the Saudi health and sanitation authorities is bad enough in a normal season; but this year may be especially trying to cope with the H1N1 virus, otherwise known as swine flu, that returning pilgrims who may be infected could take back with them to their home countries.
After all, this situation is a bit more worrisome than when the virus originally broke out in Mexico last winter when tourists returning from holidays there infected others after arriving home.
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 Al Gore receives award for his anti global warming efforts
Al Gore, who barely lost (or won) the US Presidential election in November 2000, and vowed never to return to US political life, appears to have come out a winner for not doing so. The former Vice President for 8 years under the Clinton Administration decided to devote his time afterwards to teaching as well as making the world aware of the dangers of global warming, a warning that has been noted several times on Green Prophet, including a more recent article tying global warming and climate change with what is happening in the Middle East.
Gore’s efforts to make the inhabitants of our planet more aware of what fossil fuels and other man-made polluters are causing must have rubbed off on some people, as it has resulted in Gore being honored and awarded a number of acclaims and prizes, including an Academy Award in February, 2007, from the Hollywood film industry for his documentary film: An Inconvenient Truth, that paints a sobering a graphic picture of what is happening to this planet thanks to its human inhabitants.Â
This honor was followed a few months later with Gore and the UN sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , jointly winning the 2007  Nobel Peace Prize. Gore was also honored in Israel less than a year later, in July 2008, with an award from the Dan David Foundation for alerting the world to the dangers of overuse of fossil fuels.
Syria faces a severe drought. A shift in weather patterns, or just a dry season?
A severe water shortage in Syria is forcing farmers to look for alternative means of livelihood but the drought’s impact doesn’t end with the crops.
Around a quarter of a million Syrian farmers have been forced to abandon their land over the last two years following three years of drought and failed crops. It’s one of the worst water crises in recent years with residents in Damascus and other major cities putting up with periodical water cuts during off-peak hours.
The crisis is not only the result of several years of below average rainfall but also the rising needs of a growing population, in a country with more than 20 million people and an estimated growth rate of 2.1%.
Syria’s main sources of water are the Euphrates River, the Tigris River, the Orontes River and ground water. Syria’s economy relies heavily on agricultural export, a strategy which is being called into question by experts.
The eastern squat toilet is the world’s perfect eco-toilet. Come and look inside.
Some people think they’re primitive, but I love them. The hole-in-the-floor Middle East squat toilets can be found in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt –– and likely in other Middle East countries I’ve yet to visit. They’re used in China too.
Not common in Israel where the standard flush toilet is in use, I recently re-encountered the Middle East toilet in Sinai, Egypt, when staying at a bare bones sort of desert retreat run by Bedouin. (We stayed in huts with no electricity, no running water. No TV, no iPods…)
Contrary to what spoiled westerners might believe, squat toilets are extremely clean, are the answer to the toilet-paper-saving bidet, and in the natural squat position, our bodies are best aligned to the right position when we relieve ourselves. In short, they are environmentally-friendly.
Marine research on the Red Sea will be more serious, thanks to new ship.
With pirates, environmental pollution, increasing water traffic and a collapse of coral reefs, a new research ship with its course set for the Red Sea port of Eilat is good news for us to hear. According to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the university dedicated a new $1.3 million research ship at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat.
Purchase and outfitting of the new ship was financed by Israel’s Council for Higher Education, the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science and private donors.
No red carpets for us environment-lovers, stupid!
The typical Hollywood movie premiere is a scenario that we’re all pretty familiar with: celebrities pull up to the red carpet in large, gas-guzzling cars (what would happen if Brad Pitt and George Clooney carpooled in a Smart Car for a change?), pose for the photographers, and then proceed to watch their film. And the film is usually an action movie with high speed car chase scenes, or a gushy romance, or a goofy comedy.
A couple of weeks ago, the League of Independent Activists (IndyACT) and its partners – the Green Party of Lebanon, the British Embassy in Lebanon, and the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce – challenged this typical movie premiere movie event with a “Green Carpet” premiere screening for the environmental film, “The Age of Stupid.”
A wind farm in Turkey. Should Turkey look east to oil-rich countries, or west to renewables?
Turkey seems to be becoming more interested in renewable energy these days, especially in the areas of solar, geothermal like that of Ormat, and wind energy.
But the future of this country, which straddles the link between east and west, appears to be centered around a proposed amendment to a renewable energy law (links to PDF) , which although passed back in May, 2005, has yet to really become the norm in a land that is trying to decide whether to align itself with the west, resulting in eventual EU membership, or renew its ties with the Islamic World. Recent measures to dissociate itself with its ally Israel in recent weeks illuminate this dilemma.
Artistic rendition of the Timna Renewable energy park In Eilat
During a speech at the recent 2009 Israel Presidents Conference, Prime Minister Netanyahu remarked that Israel is embarking on programs to enable it to be almost entirely reliant on alternative energy systems by the year 2020. This plan, which many  people see as more of a visionary dream (because Israel won’t even be able to curb its greenhouse gases by 2030), may be much closer to becoming reality following the upcoming Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference, scheduled to take place in Israel’s southernmost city on February 16-18, 2010.
In fact, the very theme of the upcoming conference, sponsored by the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Authority, may make it one of the most important of its kind as it will also include the inauguration of a special 200 MW Timna Renewable Energy Park, a center for the development of renewable energy projects.
Non-profit groups from 18 developing countries called on Saudi Arabia to “stop playing an obstructionist role” in the current climate change negotiations in Barcelona, claiming the oil kingdom’s delaying tactics will hurt the world’s poor.
“Developing countries need all the support they can get,” said Wael Hmaidan of IndyACT Lebanon and founder of the Arab Climate Alliance in a statement issued Wednesday. “It is unfortunate to have a country among their ranks that is weakening their positions.”
Saudi Arabia considers a climate change deal in Copenhagen “a threat to its oil trade,” the groups said. They claim that to disrupt negotiations, the delegation has tried to remove language that would support vulnerable countries, among other tactics.
Without any change in policy, Israel may be heading to double its current emissions by 2030. According to the Jerusalem Post, a study commissioned by Israel’s Minister of the Environment Gilad Erdan (left) and executed by the McKinsey consulting firm found that Israel’s problem is high population growth coupled with rising standards of living.
The Post reports that Israeli emissions, at 10.2 tons per person per year, are more than Western Europe’s but half of the United States’. Â The lion’s share of those emissions come from electricity production. The coal power plant in Ashkelon – which we wrote about here (Israel’s Minister of the Environment Says to Shut Down Coal Plant) – will undoubtedly add to that figure.
But there is some hope, McKinsey says. If Israel ramps up solar, wind and natural gas power, implements the electric car, retrofits homes to be energy efficient, and generates power from garbage, then the amount of emissions forecasted for 2030 could drop by as much as 70 percent. That figure would slide even lower if Israelis become vegetarian and cut back on air conditioning and heating.
BrightSource solar energy company could be part of the alternative energy solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be interested in leading his country away from its current dependence on imported oil and into various forms of alternative energy. But he wants his vision to go far beyond the borders of the tiny State of Israel and for it to be a goal for other nations to strive for as well.
In a recent address at the 2009 Israeli Presidential Conference that occurred October 20-22 in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister spoke about a national project for “developing an alternative to oil within 10 years”.
Although he didn’t present a concrete plan for reaching this accomplishment, he compared this idea with other accomplishments his country has achieved in the technological and medical fields and added that the citizens of his country have two great resources: “minds and hearts” as well as the “desire and ability” to wean Israel away from an energy source that continues to feed the coffers of countries who actively sponsor terrorism; saying that “dependence on fossil fuels strengthens the dark regimes that encourage instability and fund terror with their petrodollars”.
Climate change activists are pooling their resources as we speak in Barcelona at the Barcelona Climate Change Talks. This is an antecedent to the big United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December where countries are expected to draft real solutions to stopping the over-production of greenhouse gases. Part-time Green Prophet Stacy Feldman reports from Barcelona:
It’s crunch time on global climate change.
This week, delegates from 192 nations are meeting in Barcelona, Spain, for the final five days of global negotiations leading up to the make-or-break UN Climate Change Conference from Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen.
For two years of these climate treaty negotiations, oil-producing Middle Eastern economies have gotten flack for fighting to protect the oil trade and not the planet. At the Bangkok climate talks in October, the Saudi delegation led a quiet campaign to get compensation from nations that cut oil consumption due to coming carbon regulation, a position it first took back in 2000.
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