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An Electric Scooter Market "Gone Wild" May Have Killed Tel Aviv Man Yesterday

Karin Kloosterman
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10
An Electric Scooter Market "Gone Wild" May Have Killed Tel Aviv Man Yesterday

trekker-israel-electric-scooterIt’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or in this case, his life: A 42-year-old man, Eyal Kolovich, was killed in south Tel Aviv yesterday while riding a Tel-Aviv made Trekker electric scooter. His was a red seated model resembling the ones in the picture here. We’ve been advocating the use of electric scooters for low-impact transport around Tel Aviv and thousands of them are now the transport mode of choice for Tel Aviv celebrities and yuppies.

I’d interviewed the founder of Trekker Arik Yehuda about 6 months ago, and he told me that it’s super easy to soup up the Trekker to go at speeds well above the allowable limit of 7 miles or 12 km per hour (on average they go about 18 MPH anyway), and that some models when tweaked can go much, much faster.

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"Dust Alert" Exposes Contaminants In Our Homes and Environment

Green Prophet
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7
"Dust Alert" Exposes Contaminants In Our Homes and Environment

bendo-eyal-dust-alertWorried that dust from a nearby construction zone will harm your family’s health? A new Tel Aviv University tool could either confirm your suspicions or better yet, set your mind at rest.

Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor and his Ph.D. student Dr. Sandra Chudnovsky, of TAU’s Department of Geography have developed a sensor called “Dust Alert” — the first of its kind — to help families and authorities monitor the quality of the air they breathe.

Like an ozone gas or carbon monoxide meter, it measures the concentration of small particles that may contaminate the air in your home. Scientific studies on “Dust Alert” appeared recently in the journal Science of the Total Environment, Urban Air Pollution: Problems, Control Technologies and Management Practices.

“It works just like an ozone meter would,” says Prof. Ben-Dor. “You put it in your home or office for three weeks, and it can give you real-time contamination levels in terms of dust, pollen and toxins.”

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Annual Green Sukkah Conference Taking Place Again in Kibbutz Ein Shemer

Karen Chernick
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2
Annual Green Sukkah Conference Taking Place Again in Kibbutz Ein Shemer

green sukkah conference israelThe high holidays keep marching on, and after a reflective and sustainable Rosh Hashanah (and Yom Kippur) comes a (hopefully green) Sukkot.

The ecological greenhouse in Kibbutz Ein Shemer will be hosting their annual Green Sukkah Conference again (we wrote about it last year as well) with this year’s topic being “The Water Crisis as Opportunity.”

To be held on Monday, October 5th (and if you’d like to participate please register in advance at www.greenhouse.org.il), the day-long conference will be attended by activists from a wide variety of organizations.  Some of the organizations that will be represented are Adam Teva V’Din and the Mekorot Water Company.  Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz will also be present.

The conference will begin at 10am with introductions, and the first lecture of the day will be given by Nitzan Horowitz on the subject of “The Water World: On the Global Water Crisis, Causes and Consequences.”

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Ghost Merchant Marine Fleet In Malaysia An Echo Of What's Happening In Haifa

Maurice Picow
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5
Ghost Merchant Marine Fleet In Malaysia An Echo Of What's Happening In Haifa
Emply cargo vessels moored off S. Malaysia
Emply cargo vessels moored off S. Malaysia

They sit anchored off the sea ports of Singapore and southern Malaysia; virtual “ghost ships” with no crews or cargos, and nowhere to sail. The ships, all kinds of merchant cargo vessels, come in all sizes, including mammoth tankers and other bulk carrier vessels, container vessels without their usual number of 40 foot “high cube” cargo containers on board, and many other types as well.

These ships, all victims of the ongoing world economic slump, were once plying the high seas between ports in Europe and the U.K., to and from the Far East when world trade was still good – compared to now anyway.

But what makes this present situation even more serious is not the huge losses that international shipping companies like P &O Ned Lloyd and Maersk  are now stuck with, but the great amount of environmental damage that these ships are causing to the sea and marine life .

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The Israeli Clean Energy Forum Launched Yesterday

Karin Kloosterman
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6
The Israeli Clean Energy Forum Launched Yesterday

Hezi-Kugler-israeli-clean-energy-forumHow will government decisions convert vision to reality? Through the Israeli Clean Energy Forum, launched yesterday by Israeli politicians, industrialists, investors and lawyers.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the new forum brings together many of the big guns in the environmental business world in Israel, such as the former director-general of the National Infrastructures Ministry Hezi Kugler, who will be the Forum’s new chairman.

Additional directors and founders include Orit Marom-Albeck, a partner at the Shibolet & Co. law firm in charge of their cleantech practice, and Yehuda Bronicki, the chairman of Ormat Industries.

The event was kicked off by Israel’s President Shimon Peres, a staunch advocate of a green Israel.

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Limor Matityahoo Thinks the Sky Is the LIMITZ For Designer Recycled Products

Karen Chernick
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10
Limor Matityahoo Thinks the Sky Is the LIMITZ For Designer Recycled Products

upcycled plastic clutch purseTel Aviv based designer, Limor Matityahoo, has been involved with crafts for as long as she can remember.  Among her many skills, Limor is a textile designer, a makeup artist, a cake decorator, and an interactive product manager.  Most recently her curiosity, playfulness and skill have brought her to upcycled and recycled crafts made from plastic bags.  And we’re very glad that they did.

Limor taught herself how to use this versatile and (too) omnipresent material a few months ago, explaining that when a workshop that she was supposed to attend on how to make a bag from fused grocery bags got cancelled she took matters into her own hands.  She taught herself how to make plarn (plastic yarn) and also began experimenting with fused plastic sheets.

In Limor’s own words, “I believe recycled products must be both innovative and well designed.  I am absolutely in love with recycling plastic, knitting it, fusing it, and I cannot even express how happy I am to start from scratch in each project – I feel the sky is the (ECOby) Limitz when it comes to creating designer-recycling products from plastic bags!  I hope to be involved in designing eco-friendly projects and products, all from grocery bags and plarn.  The technique is amazing, the possibilities are endless.”

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BrightSource Solar Energy Project In Mojave Desert Shelved

Karin Kloosterman
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18
BrightSource Solar Energy Project In Mojave Desert Shelved

brightsource2_620px1

We’d been reporting over the last year or so about the California-Jerusalem company BrightSource and its plan to create a number of solar energy power plants in California’s Mojave Desert region. Early in the year it signed an historic contract with PG&E, as the power giant works to conform to California law and produce 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.

We’re not sure if they’re going to make it: some intense friction between environmentalists and the renewable energy developers has led to the Mojave solar project being dropped, reports the New York Times.

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Think Again: Fill All Those Empty Glass Jars with Light

Karen Chernick
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11
Think Again: Fill All Those Empty Glass Jars with Light

empty jar tea lightThink Again is a series that provides fun ideas for how to reuse items in your home that you would normally throw out or recycle.  Reusing is higher on the “green” food chain than recycling, because getting another use out of an object is always more effective than spending the energy to recycle it.  Plus, trying to reuse can force us to be creative!

We’ve all got them lying around – glass jars that we’ve kept from tomato sauce, or olives, or jam.  You may have been able to find some uses for them around the kitchen – maybe even using them to store the homemade etrog jam or strawberry jam inspired by Green Prophet recipes.  You may have also found some uses outside the kitchen, using them as pencil holders or spare change jars.  But if you enjoy a good spaghetti with tomato sauce dinner, chances are those jars are going to add up.

This easy project will help you transform a jar into a tea light or candle holder.  Not only does this mean that you’re being green by upcycling something that you already have, but the ambience created by this tea light might inspire you to turn off your electrical lights and save some energy.

For this project you will need:

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First Solar Powered Movie in Israel to be Screened in Tel Aviv Next Week

Karen Chernick
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7

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s&feature=PlayList&p=B8D76CD6FCA6389B&index=0&playnext=1[/youtube]

Watching a movie about the environment is one thing.  But watching a movie about the environment that is powered with solar power?  That is taking eco cinema to a whole other level.  And hopefully Israel is ready for it, because it’s happening for the first time ever in Tel Aviv next week.

Green Change and Ecocinema (the International Environmental Film Festival) have joined forces to organize Solar Nights – a series of three environmental film screenings powered by solar power to take place at the Hub-TLV in Tel Aviv.

The series begins this Tuesday, September 22 with a screening of The Age of Stupid – a film that will be screened in 45 countries and 700 venues on the same day in order to raise awareness towards Copenhagen 2009 (a summit in which crucial decisions about greenhouse gas emissions will be made).  Check out the clip above to see a trailer of the movie. You can read James’ review on the Age of Stupid film here. 

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Dow Licenses BioPetroClean's Tech To Gobble Up Oil In Wastewater

Green Prophet
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7
Dow Licenses BioPetroClean's Tech To Gobble Up Oil In Wastewater

biopetroclean-DOW-oil-refinery

Even the CEO was initially skeptical about BioPetroClean’s simple and effective solution for cleaning up industrial wastewater, but it works; and now Dow Chemicals is onboard.

The idea that microscopic bacteria could cheaply and efficiently cleanse oceans of industrial wastewater may seem far-fetched. But it is just this premise that launched BioPetroClean, a Texas-based cleantech company with research-and-development facilities in Tel Aviv.

In fact, the technology is so effective that $57.5 billion industry giant Dow Chemical just announced a global commercial agreement whereby it will market and distribute the Dow-BPC Water Treatment System internationally. The agreement includes exclusivity across significant oil drilling and refining markets.

“The selection of the BPC solution by a worldwide leader such as Dow is a great endorsement that can enable massive deployment of our new and exciting technology,” says David Amir, CEO of BioPetroClean.

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BrightSource Solar Energy Teams up with Bectel to Build Large California Solar Energy Facility

Maurice Picow
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4
BrightSource Solar Energy Teams up with Bectel to Build Large California Solar Energy Facility

ivanpah_simulation[1] 

Following a previous agreement made between the BrightSource solar energy  company and California’s PG&E utility company,  a recent article in Israel’s financial newspaper, Globes (9.10.2009)  noted that  the American-Israeli solar energy giant is now partnering with the American Bectel construction contracting company to build a 440 megawatt solar energy power plant in southeastern California.

Involving the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System, the project will consists of three separate solar energy plants that will sell the generated electricity to both Pacific Gas and Electric and California Edison.

The technology incorporated into the BrightSource energy systems has its origins with a company called Luz International,  founded by Arnold Goldman. The Luz company, which later became known as Luz II, became a BrightSource subsidiary, Brightsource Industries Israel Ltd (BSII) in 2006. In its 30 year  history, the Luz solar plants founded by Goldman have generated more than 11,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity.

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NATO Aids Water Bridge Between Jordan, Israel and the US

Karin Kloosterman
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5
NATO Aids Water Bridge Between Jordan, Israel and the US

clinton-rabinIsrael and Jordan share environmental problems, but regional politics and prejudices – despite a peace agreement – keep them from solving them together.

A new North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) grant set up to develop two inland water desalination plants – one in Israel and one in Jordan – not only gets two Middle East universities collaborating, but the end-product could quench the region’s thirst. It could also boost an under-used new technology that promises to save energy and water the world over.

According to the terms of the project, three universities – Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, the Hashemite University of Jordan and the University of Colorado in the United States – are to implement a new Israeli reverse osmosis desalination technology at two pilot sites.

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Tel Aviv Pushes Green Metric

Daniella Cheslow
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2
Tel Aviv Pushes Green Metric

solar-panelsFuture investors in Israeli businesses may be able to judge a company by its green record. According to the Jerusalem Post, last week the Environmental Protection Ministry, financial groups, the European Commission green and the green umbrella organization Life and the Environment,  got together to hash over a green metric system.

Opinion writer Asher Meir noted a few potential pitfalls – how can the environmental parameters ensure accuracy, how much will it cost, and who will keep tabs on smaller companies?

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Meet Inbal Limor Who Is Upcycling Jaffa's Junk Into Art

Karin Kloosterman
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8
Meet Inbal Limor Who Is Upcycling Jaffa's Junk Into Art

inbal-limor-israel-artistGreen Prophet loves to feature Middle East designers and artists who are turning junk into art. Meet Inbal Limor, who we’ve featured before as an “artist in transition”:

A few blocks from where artist Inbal Limor lives in Jaffa, Israel, is a junk collector’s dream. The Florentine neighborhood in South Tel Aviv is crammed with furniture studios, carpentry shops and young fashion designers who all throw their scraps and odds and ends into the big metal dumpsters that line the street.

Unlike in New York, the dumpsters in Israel considerately open from the side, making it easier to pull out finds without having to commit and dive inside.

The dumpsters hold a treasure trove of bags bursting with scraps of material, wooden blocks and furniture, old and new magazines, blueprints, stuffing, plastics and Styrofoam.

The 29-year-old collects all these, transforming them into paintings, sculptures, crafts and art. Limor is a little reluctant to divulge her trade secrets but she is willing to reveal that one of her best hunting spots is Jaffa’s nearby shuk (flea market).

She doesn’t go there to shop. After the garbage collectors sell whatever they can for pennies and dollars, they toss the “garbage of the garbage” left over from the day back onto the street.

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Cecilia Cohen's Recycled Artwork Teaches Us That When the Beer Bottle is Empty, the Possibilities Are Full

Karen Chernick
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3
Cecilia Cohen's Recycled Artwork Teaches Us That When the Beer Bottle is Empty, the Possibilities Are Full

cecilia cohen recycled glass beadsIf asked whether the glass is half empty or half full, we’re pretty sure that Israeli artist Cecilia Cohen would say full.  Full of possibilities.

A self-described “mother earth type”, Cecilia has always been conscious of her impact on the environment and is the kind of person “who worries about the survival of coral and bats and picks up garbage at the beach.”  She has brought this awareness to her art production and business practices.

Working mostly with glass and in a wide variety of ways, Cecilia creates beads, jewelry, boxes and other decorative items, all the while constantly finding ways to recycle and upcycle.  She transforms wine and beer bottles into beads (as shown above), old jewelry into stained glass, and integrates found shards of ancient pottery into her designs (as seen below).  She finds uses for even the smallest pieces of material, rather than throwing them away.

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10 Surprising AC Water Uses Cities Are Ignoring

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