The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
The event will livestream eclipse views from Iceland and northern Spain, where the eclipse will be total, while the 35-member International Space Orchestra, made up of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and researchers—performs a new orchestral interpretation of Voyager by PJ Harvey.
Canada's healthcare system may be under pressure, but its decades-long experience with digital transformation is becoming a model for Europe and beyond. In an interview with Nordic's Alison MacDonald, Green Prophet explores why successful AI in healthcare depends less on software than on empowering clinicians, improving workflows and building resilient systems.
Rather than retreating from climate change work, the Jewish Climate Trust organization has backed a new initiative designed to strengthen both climate action and Jewish community.
A rooftop solar system looks simple: panels, an inverter, a battery and a few cables. But beneath that simplicity lies a bill of materials thousands of lines long, where tiny current sensors, magnetic cores, gate drivers, capacitors and connectors quietly determine efficiency, safety and lifespan. These overlooked components—not the solar panels themselves—are why today's residential solar systems are smaller, smarter and far more reliable than those of a decade ago.
It is a wake-up call to teen girls on TikTok planning their next Coachella outfit or trip to Sephora: During the Second World War, thousands of young men left family farms to enlist, but the crops still needed planting and harvesting. Ontario's government answered by recruiting high school girls, from ages 16 to 18, to spend parts of spring, summer and fall to fill in for the labor shortage.
During the week of August 30, 2009, news included that the Dead Sea is drying quicker than usual. Israeli and Jordanian scientists have come together to study and protect the Gulf of Aqaba in the south and wastewater treatment company, BPT announced that it raised $12 million. For these stories and more see the headlines below.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — When Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan in early August, causing massive landslides in the southern part of the country, Israel, as soon as the extent of the destruction was known, sent Israeli-made water-purification equipment and high-speed water transport equipment to Taiwan.
The monster typhoon hit on August 8, causing widespread flooding in the south — the worst in over 50 years — and leading the death of over 700 people in remote villages in mountainous terrain. By August 13, Israel answered Taiwan’s call for help with a shipment of water-purification equipment, according to Raphael Gamzou, head of the Israeli Economic and Cultural Office, which serves as Israel de facto embassy in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.
Developed in Switzerland, low cost method can clean bacteria from water and you don’t need to buy a thing
A SODIS water purification “plant”
The evils of plastic water, microplastics, and beverage bottles have already been noted in previous Green Prophet articles, including one dealing with bottled water conflicting with green values ; and another more recent one that noted how so-called bottled water is really mostly tap water that is bottled and then sold at premium prices.
But now, there may be some redemption for that one-and-a-half liter polystyrene bottle as a safe and low cost way to purify drinking water. Known as solar disinfection, or SODIS for short, the method is almost cost-free and is now being used in many developing countries to make well and tap water safe for human consumption.
How to purify water using plastic bottles
The SODIS method has been applied to treat drinking water for more than 40 years with much recognition of its ability to inactivate microorganisms
The SODIS purification process involves filling a number of one and a half or 2 liter plastic bottles about 3/4 full of clear water (if the available water is cloudy, it should first be filtered through a layer of sand).
AC unit collects water. Use it as a part of the water-savings methods at the home or in the factory.
The bottle is then shaken vigorously to mix sufficient air with the water, and then filled to the top with more water and closed. The filled bottles are then placed on a metal or concrete surface (like the roof of a building or house) and left in the sun for at least 6 hours, or until hot to the touch.
The bottles should then be taken inside and allowed to cool before being opened for use.
The SODIS water purification process utilizes the sun’s ultraviolet rays to purify the water, killing harmful bacterial growth and other disease causing organisms. While heating water in plastic is not a great idea, this solution might be worthwhile to save lives.
To enable the water to heat faster, paint one side of the bottle black and then place the bottle on a roof or other surface with the black side down. This acts like a miniature sun boiler, and works on a similar principle as solar water heater collecting plates.
Many Middle Eastern countries have serious water problems. Some of them, including Iraq, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (especially Gaza), have dire shortages of safe drinking water, especially in Gaza’s case. The use of this very inexpensive way of water purification by people living in these locations considerably lessens the dangers of a number of water borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Emergency clean water by killing the bacteria with the sun using old water bottles. Via SODIS
The SODIS method of disinfecting drinking water was discovered at a Swiss research institute, The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology.
Although the technology has been known for some time, it’s only been given real media attention in the last year or so. But now, it appears that this very effective and low cost method of purifying drinking water may become a Godsend in parts of the world that are simply too poor to use more sophisticated methods of making water safe to drink.
So if you happen to live in an area with problems of having enough safe drinking water, don’t throw those plastic water bottles away – they may also be used for purifying your water supply, and thus solve their recycling problem at the same time.
A graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (together with other Israeli eco-designers Erez Mulai, Zohar Yarom and Yoav Kotik), Zinaburg trained as an industrial designer.
The three piece line of furniture that he created – which includes a chair, a bar stool, and an armchair – is created entirely out of repurposed aluminum soda cans and is titled “Refurnish Your Memory”.
Zinaburg explains the artistic vision behind the furniture: “In the recycling industry, between the gathering and concentrating phase and the melting/grinding phase, is the inter-phase of compressing. The objects compounding the cube become in a way autonomous and unique by the force of the compressing operation, and in contrast to the objects’ former life-cycle, in which they were similar, as part of the cube, each object has a different, incidental and uncontrollable form. The new/old esthetic formed by the compressing action is controversial and even at times difficult to digest, since the memory of the object’s former function acts as a repellent. In nowadays, in urban surroundings, the only nature that is available to us is an artificial one, one that is manufactured, like city gardens and traffic islands. Waste has become an integral part of our modern lives, a kind of urban nature, and that is why it can be regarded as a raw material like any other.”
“If they don’t eat, they don’t fly,” is what one Israeli ecologist recently said in a Haaretz article on the new Pelican Restaurant, open for business in the Hula Valley.
Some 500 million birds will be flying through Israel this fall, as they migrate from Europe to Africa. Fish farmers in Israel, irate over birds pillaging their fish ponds have been known to open fire on the birds. To keep nature in balance, the government has approved NIS 300,000 to stock the Hula Valley pond with tons of fresh tilapia for the pelicans and storks to feed on.
Palestinians in the south Mount Hebron region of the West Bank endure a complicated political situation and a stark reality. In this exceptionally poor area, they also live with the irony of looking up to see power lines crisscrossing their view of the sky, while they lack electricity in their homes.
Elad Orian and Noam Dotan, two political activists from Israel who are also physicists, have started a solar energy and wind project to supply power to the people who were left in the dark. They say that they both felt the time had come to do something practical with their politics that would improve people’s lives.
On their website, they describe the mission of their homegrown project, COMET (Community, Energy and Technology in the Middle East) as facilitating “social and economic empowerment… The core of our activity is the provision of basic energy services for off-grid communities in a way that is both environmentally and socially sustainable.”
Recent laboratory tests have discovered that consumers in Israel are eating Genetically Modified Organisms – whether they like it or not.
Tests by Milouda Quality Control Laboratories, which analyses food destined for sale in the European Union, discovered GM soya in popular foods sold in stores across Israel, reports Haaretz. Food contaminated with GM included baked goods, packaged schnitzel and meat substitutes. Israeli favourites like falafel could also potentially contain GM if they are fried in soya oil.
Biotechnology research may be big business in Israel but, as far as I am aware, no GM crops are grown commercially in the country. However, it is clearly being imported and is entering the human food chain via processed foods or animal feed. In addition to denying consumer choice – and putting public health at risk – GM contamination could precipitate an economic disaster for the Israeli food industry.
According to the blog 360East, Amman is about to adopt a Bus Rapit Transit system and make plans for installing light rail, two important steps to break Amman’s 30-year love affair with the private car.
Having lived in Amman in summer 2006, I can attest that buses are a mess. They are very cheap but often have no doors. Sometimes that can be a plus because the buses are filled with cigarette-puffing passengers jammed cheek by jowl in seats with miniscule leg room. But taxis are expensive, and walking on the street can be intimidating because of the combination of speeding, honking cars and unwalkable sidewalks.
The Jordan Times published a funny if disheartening essay this week about just how bad the pedestrian experience is in Amman. It’s part of a series written by urban planner Mohammad al-Asad, who founded the Center for the Study of the Built Environment. Check out his Web site for more fascinating articles on urban planning in cities like Riyadh, Aleppo and Beirut.
Al-Asad ventured out of his home sans car and headed to the Sweifiyeh neighborhood ten minutes away:
Think Againis 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!
Even though there’s paper all around us, somehow when we need to jot down a quick note it’s nowhere to be found. This project will help you dig into your paper recycling bin, pull out a few items, and with very little effort make a stylish and 100% reused notebook to keep by your phone, at your desk, in your back pocket, or wherever it is that you usually need note paper. And when you’re done with it – it’s completely recyclable!
To make your matchbox inspired recycled notebook you will need:
1 cardboard package (for example from a cereal box, box of pasta)
2 pieces of regular paper with one side already used (for example printer paper, mail solicitations)
Summer is always hot in the Middle East, but this season has gotten really fiery in Lebanon, where blazes have damaged over 15 million square meters of forest since June. The Lebanese Daily Star reports that farmers who burn their land after clearing it don’t take note of wind and dry conditions that quickly spiral out of control. Left, firefighters work in 2008.
To fight the fires, the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation is teaming up with the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to produce a cartoon campaign similar to Smokey the Bear. The project is still in brainstorming phase. The top contenders are the bee, the jackal, the falcon or the squirrel.
With the regional drought carrying on for its third year, Iraq is in a water bind as its rivers dry up. Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reports that Baghdad has urged Istanbul and Damascus to release water so that residents of southern Iraq don’t flee of thirst. The problem is that they are suffering from water problems of their own. Left, the three countries’ ministers meet in Ankara.
Iraq, once a food exporter, has to import 80 percent of its supply this year. The country has turned off the hydroelectric power plants over the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers to release dammed waters, but it hasn’t been enough. Now Iraq wants Syria and Turkey, both upstream, to release their own dams. In response, Turkey said they are trying, but global warming is decreasing the water supply there too:
“We even abnegated our electricity production in order to provide Iraq and Syria with more water,” said Environment and Forest Minister Veysel Eroğlu, who hosted the Ankara summit along with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız.
Eroğlu said climate change was the main cause of the dried-up riverbeds.
“Turkey’s biggest dam, the Atatürk Dam, has been almost emptied. The water level decreased by 10 percent,” he said, confirming that his country had provided a flow of 500 cubic meters per second in line with its legal responsibilities.
Iraq’s water shortage is having disastrous effects. An area that used to be known as the Garden of Eden – 9,00 km. sq. of lush marshes – has shriveled into a parched pach of 760 km. sq. The depopulated wasteland is becoming a haven for drug smugglers. In April Turkey announced it would release more water to revive the marshes, but apparently that effort hasn’t gotten too far.
But Syria and Turkey have their issues, as well. Climate change has emptied out 160 villages in the northern reaches of Syria, while lakes in Turkey have been drying up or turning into polluted salt water marshes thanks to warming and river diversion.
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is an Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian environmental organization that has been doing a lot of good since 1994. The organization focuses on promoting cooperative efforts in order to solve communal environmental problems in the Middle East and improve relations between the people in the region.
Now they are joining forces with 350.org, an international campaign that hopes to inspire the world to create a sense of urgency among world leaders for changing policies that would effect climate change. The campaign is focused on the number 350 – the level of parts per million that scientists have determined to be the safe maximum for CO2 levels in our atmosphere.
The collaboration will lead to FoEME’s organization of a regional protest at the Dead Sea on October 24, 2009 – the day that 350.org has designated as “Day 350”.
Mitzpe Alummot (literally, “Sheaf Observatory”) is a health farm in the lower Galilee of Israel that focuses on restoring the wellbeing of its visitors during their stays. But it also focuses on the health and wellbeing of the environment, one blade of wheatgrass at a time.
A large component of any stay at Mitzpe Alummot is the gourmet vegetarian, organic raw food. Besides not insisting on a strictly vegan menu, the food offerings at Mitzpe Alummot are the extreme environmentalist’s dream.
Vegetarian food is more environmentally conscious because it conserves all of the energy associated with raising livestock to be eaten as meat, and organic food keeps harmful pesticides out of our soil, air and waterways.
The health farm claims that cooking food in temperatures under 48 degrees Celsius (or 105 degrees Fahrenheit) preserves the nutritional values of the food, since food cooked above that temperature loses 50% of its protein and 70% of its vitamins and minerals. Cooking food in temperatures under 48 degrees also means saving a lot of energy.
Mitzpe Alummot believes in the Ann Wigmore philosophy, which “regards the body, the mind and the spirit as one whole.
This method offers a natural way of living, which helps prevent different ailments, while providing the tools to conquer disease.”
We would like to add that their holistic approach to food encompasses a healthier environment as well.
If the health benefits and energy savings are of interest to you, make sunburgers and Jerusalem artichoke salad and a basic fruit pie and carob fudge brownies for dessert.
As of 2025 the website was down, and presumably the center is out of business.
During the past week, Siemens bought a 40% stake in Arava Power while BrightSource Energy broke ground for a solar-steam farm that will partially power a Chevron oil field in California. Israel continues to face water shortage problems and an Israeli company has developed a plastic bottle that disintegrates. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 11 cleantech headlines, check below.
The Gulf of Aqaba (also known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat) is an important Middle Eastern body of water. The 99 mile long extension of the Red Sea is surrounded by four countries – Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia – and houses coral reefs and hundreds of fish and invertebrate species.
Since the marine ecosystem is especially vital to both Jordan and Israel, scientists from both of these countries will be collaborating with scientists from Stanford University to provide detailed oceanographic information that would help Jordanian and Israeli environmental agencies minimize pollution.
Participants in the project say that they are collaborating for the sake of science, peace, and environmental conservation.
According to Stephen Monismith, one of the scientists from Stanford (and the person responsible for the beautiful underwater photo above), “the people involved are interested in international collaboration in science and protecting the place they live. Nothing in the ocean understands political borders.”
