For Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, lack of infrastructure is a big obstacle for protecting the environment. Old and malfunctioning infrastructure (or often none at all!) for properly managing things like solid waste and sewage is a major threat to the Palestinian (and Israeli!) environment.
Luckily, however, the European Union announced earlier this week that they awarded 5.2 million Euros to the Palestinian Authority help improve solid waste infrastructure, and therefore help keep the environment healthy and clean.
The donation will go to 26 municipalities in eleven different Palestinian governorate, which were marked as those most urgently needing support for the solid waste management. The money will go towards the procurement of garbage collection vehicles, containers, and equipment to help manage dumpsites properly, and will be managed by the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government.
Businesses play a huge role in our everyday impact on the environment. The way that businesses conduct themselves – ranging from what services or products they provide, to what means they use to provide them, and what kind of energy consumption habits they have – all effect their carbon footprint. And since we live in a society where businesses are greatly relied upon to do things for us – our carbon footprint is directly related to what businesses we choose to support.
Maala – Business for Social Responsibility, a non-profit organization founded in 1998 to promote socially responsibile corporate behavior, understands the importance of improving our impact on the environment and is integrating this issue into an upcoming conference this Tuesday in Tel Aviv.
Among the many questions that the conference will address, the 600 conference participants will discuss whether sustainability can be a basis for a profitable business model.
The conference’s agenda includes a round table discussion, titled “Who is Responsible for the Environment?” chaired by Dr. Miki Haran, former Director of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment, and Jerry Greenfield’s speech (that’s right, of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream), “If It’s Not Fun, Why Do It?”
Industrial and municipal waste doesn’t go away when we flush it down the drain. It takes an enormous amount of energy for treatment plants to process it, while massive environmental and financial costs go into disposing of the leftover sludge.
Now, two Israelis are about to change the way we look at wastewater, by turning its constituents into a valuable source of power.
Emefcy (M.F.C Microbial Fuel Cell) was founded in 2007 by Eytan Levy and his partner Ronen Shechter. It aims to harness a bacteria found in nature that produces electricity as it decomposes organic matter.
A little out of place, a yurt in the Israeli desert offers a neat eco-treat.
Feeling jaded from all the holidays in this country, we decided to retreat to the desert for Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest). And this was no ordinary retreat: arriving into Moshav Dekel, in the Eshkol region of the Negev (bordering on the Gaza Strip), our spirits lift when we see our destination: 36 Figs – A Kazakh Yurt Desert Experience. Following on from previous Green Prophet posts about other yurt destinations in Israel, as a sometime ger/yurt builder myself, having spent time living in them with nomads in Mongolia, I have long wanted to get out and see what’s here – who are the yurt fanatics in Israel, what materials do they use and where are they based.
Boris Moldavski and his wife Rivka are immigrants from Russia, who arrived here many years ago and first lived in Nazareth Illit. Being an engineer, Boris moved around the country a lot, until he and other Russians were offered land down in Sinai. On barren desert soil they created the community of Yamit – until it was evacuated in 1979 after the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
Six-hundred families, including Boris and Rivka moved, and many of them came to the Eshkol region, founding 6 new agricultural communities, including Moshav’s Dekel and Avshalom, within an area collectively known as Hevel Shalom.
Winter is on its way, and with it the bone-chilling cold that penetrates every poorly insulated apartment in Israeli cities. Now is the perfect time to stop contemplating global warming alone, and one American Web site, Greensingles, promises to help its members connect to other carborexics with this pitch:
As you may recall, we recently delved into the wonderful world of cheese-making. And when we did, we told you to save up all that leftover whey, as we’d be featuring it in a recipe sometime soon. Soon, dear cooks and bakers, has arrived.
Now, what if you don’t happen to have embarked on the previously mentioned cheese-making adventure, and thus don’t have a jar of whey kicking around in the back of your fridge? Fret not, for this recipe is charmingly adaptable, and you can use just about any liquid dairy product you happen to have on hand: milk, buttermilk, cream, even leben thinned down with a bit or water or milk would be great.
Yonathan Neril, co-author of Eco Bible, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
“Look at My work, how beautiful and perfect is everything that I created. I created it for you. Be careful not to ruin and destroy My world. If you ruin it, there is nobody to restore it after you.” (Ecclesiastes Rabba 7:28)
What is an eco-rabbi? It’s a person who brings the Jewish faith message to the environmental movement.
It’s not only about carbon offsetting and it’s not about who’s right. The above passage is the bottom line. In this week’s Torah segment God creates the heavens and the earth. He gave it to us “to work it and to keep it” and it doesn’t look too good at the moment.
World-renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking, exclaimed: “The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth.”
And the Norwegian government along with the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) has created a Doomsday Vault. Some 700 km from the North Pole they have established the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds from locations worldwide in an underground cavern. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds duplicate samples of seeds held in genebanks worldwide to provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large scale regional or global crises.
This all sounds grim but guess what? It is. I usually like to keep these posts upbeat, but there is so much to do yet before we can exhale, knowing that we are leaving a true legacy and not a mess for the upcoming generations.
Let’s not let our climate’s tipping point come and go without a fight. With the new year in let’s all take on a little more. It’s about making change, and lot’s of it!
How about start your conversation with the Eco Bible.
Cold is on its way in, as tends to happen this time of year, and along with it different driving conditions. Rain and snow seriously inhibit a car’s performance and with it the mileage. Here are a several tips to help you save for these upcoming months:
Tune up! Make sure that everything is in tip-top shape. If your car is not running smoothly it wont give you the bang for your buck that you are relying on.
Add weight – While during the summer it’s a bad idea, making the engine work more burns more gas, but during the winter it has the opposite effect. If your car has proper traction it won’t have to struggle to get a grip.
Check your pressure – For every 5 degrees Celsius the temperature goes down, the air pressure in your tires reduces by one pound per square foot. Keep tabs on your tires for easy riding.
Thanks Daniel for the tips!
Looking to green your life? Find out more! Have a green-living tip to SHARE?
Inbal is now making green designs for a younger audience – kids.
Not only are these products whimsical and fun, but they teach the younger generation some valuable lessons. First of all, they encourage environmentally responsible behavior such as reducing waste through reuse. They also encourage creativity when thinking about the environment and the world in general. And lastly, they prove that being ‘green’ can be fun and mean that you have lots of cool things to play with!
Today’s book review, part of our ‘eco books review festival’, is by guest writer Gil Peled: Jerusalem-based Israeli eco-architect Gil (who trained in architecture in the wilds of deepest Scotland…), has been involved in planning and designing on the green scene in Israel for many years. His ongoing project is coordinating a Jerusalem apartment building which runs as a green housing project. He has recently returned from lecturing about this wonderful project at Oxford University. Learn more about it here, and do take the time to visit and get inspired!
Finishes are coatings applied to the external and internal surfaces of walls to protect them from the external elements and from internal wear and tear. In addition to their function to cover and protect the building’s structure, their textures and colours also determine the aesthetics of the building’s general appearance and interior spaces and atmosphere.
For centuries, lime and earth have been used for all types of buildings, on several continents and in hot and cold climate zones. The intention of this guide is to reacquaint us with ancient traditions and knowhow and to adapt them for contemporary use. This is especially relevant today in the light of growing public awareness of, and demand for, environmentally friendly, green and healthy buildings, as well as for DIY construction and repairs in tradional and vernancular contexts.
The guide, Using Natural Finishes, lime and earth based plasters, renders and paints – a step by step guide, by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce, is very comprehensive and informative with overviews, useful advice and practical tips. Significant and interesting background information is provided throughout, such as the reduced environmental impacts and CO2 emissions and improved health of breathing natural finishes. “Cookery book” methods of application on various building structures include earth, cob, adobe, masonry walls, strawbale etc. as well as various detailings.
Sunday’s New York Times featured an environmental article (“Extreme Approaches Toward Living a Green Life”) with an interesting twist. After describing what many everyday Americans, such as fellow green bloggers Sharon Astyk (of Casaubon’s Book) and Colin Beavan (of No Impact Man), do in their daily lives to alleviate their negative impact on the environment – it quoted what some psychologists and psychiatrists have to say about certain behaviors.
Basically, it attempted to diagnose what exactly is wrong with the extreme treehugger.
According to psychologist Elizabeth Carll, as cited in the article, “If you can’t have something in your house that isn’t green or organic, if you can’t eat at a relative’s house because they don’t serve organic food, if you’re criticizing friends because they’re not living up to your standards of green, that’s a problem.”
Dr. Jack Hirschowitz, a psychiatrist, added that certain “carborexic” behaviors might raise a red flag. (By the way, “carborexic” is this Green Prophet’s favorite new word.)
So in the spirit of taking a closer look at the behavior of environmental activists, entrepreneurs, and people involved in all things green – let’s take a look at some Israeli individuals that have been featured on Green Prophet. Are they devoted? Are they nuts? You decide.
When a small group of Jews arrived on the shores of Ottoman-ruled Palestine in 1882, they named the sand dunes they purchased to build their new homes Rishon LeZiyyon – the First to Zion.
Never mind the poor soil fertility, lack of water (or the fact that Petach Tikva, aka “Opening of Hope”, was the first new Jewish village established in the Holy Land), but the community soon became famous for its agriculture and vineyards, eventually becoming Israel’s fourth largest city and home to over 240,000 people.
Even though it runs freely from taps modern Rishon’s apartment blocks, water is still on the minds of Rishon’s current leaders – who hope to make the city the first “independent water economy” in Israel. In other words: to supply all of their water from local sources in five years time, cutting themselves off from the national water supply (including the ailing Kinneret) delivered to Israelis by Mekorot, the National Water Company.
Far be it for this Green Prophet to disavow her love of the city of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv has almost everything – the beach, museums, great food, interesting architecture, a happening nightlife… But also, of course, traffic congestion, waste, pollution, an overdose of concrete, and the improper collection of rainwater, to name a few. Tel Aviv – or any city – can be a lot to take and many urbanites find themselves searching for greener pastures eventually.
In Israel, these greener pastures will soon come in the form of an intentionally eco-friendly town in the northern Israeli region of Gilboa called Nurit. And lots of Israeli urbanites (mostly from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa) are getting on board.
Currently in the works with the first 100 homes ready by next year (and 400 families living in Nurit by 2012), this new green town is the product of intense consultation with global environmental experts. Nurit will not only encourage, but actively enforce environmentally responsible behavior via its infrastructure and services. And here’s how:
Ricotta is a summer cheese. And as the weather warms up, Jewish people start to think about the Hebrew holiday of Shavuot – the holiday that features dairy so prominently. In part it’s a question of ecology: meat is a high-impact food, and if we can all cut down a bit, the planet be much better off.
In part it’s a question of health: with all of the heavy holiday meals we’ve been having, a bit of a break seems in order. And in part it’s a question of celebration: just as the harvest enjoins us to pay closer attention to what we grow in the soil, making cheese rather than simply buying it in the store helps in the appreciation department.
Plus, it’s a bit of a chemistry experiment, and just plain fun.
There are some foodstuffs that we buy in their original, unvarnished form: fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk, meat. And then there are some foodstuffs that we buy already processed: bread, jam, pickles, and so on. These are all things that we could make at home, but for the sake of convenience and efficiency we tend to leave to others.
Once in a while, though, it can be incredibly enlightening to take one of these on and make it yourself. When you see the amount of raw fruit, labour and time you need to produce a small half-pint of jam, the seemingly high cost of the jar in the store makes more sense, and the need for properly paying farmers and food producers does, too.
We guarantee that you’ll never waste that last little bit in the bottom of the jar once you’ve made a batch yourself. In short, the more you have a hand in producing your own food the more you will appreciate it, and the more you will start to care about its origins, effects on the land, and sustainability.
Start cheesemaking with ricotta
In that spirit, we thought we’d take a first foray into the wonderful world of cheese-making. A very preliminary foray, mind you: there are no caves, specially injected moulds, or aging processes here. Just two ingredients, fifteen minutes, and minimal technique.
On with the chemistry!
Milk contains two basic kinds of proteins: casein or milk protein (about 80% of the protein in milk is casein), and whey protein. To make cheese, a small amount of an edible acid (in the form of vinegar, lemon juice, or enzymes) is added to milk, causing it to curdle.
The curdling essentially separates out the two kinds of protein: the curds are casein, and the whey is, well – whey.
The curds, which contain the bulk of the protein in the milk, are the material from which all cheese is made. Various flavouring agents, ageing times and processing methods all conspire to produce the huge assortment of cheeses that we know and love.
Ricotta is the simplest kind of cheese to make because it is just fresh, unprocessed curds – no further treatment is required. In commercial production, ricotta is made from the whey which is the by-product of the manufacture of other kinds of cheese, like mozzarella. That whey can usually go through a second process of acidification and curdling, yielding up more casein and thus more curds. Since whey is fairly hard to find at the local supermarket, this recipe calls for making ricotta directly from milk.
Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe
To yield about 3/4 cup of cheese:
1 litre whole milk
3 tbsp lemon juice
Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and set it over low heat. You want to bring the temperature of the milk up very gradually. Once you see little bubbles start to appear around the edge of the pan, you’re ready for step 2.
Pour the lemon juice into the milk, stir once just to make sure it’s distributed, remove the pan from the heat, and leave it alone for 15 minutes. Almost immediately you will see curds start to form. This will look somewhat gross. That’s okay – it’s what’s supposed to happen.
Set a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl and gently pour the contents of the saucepan into the sieve. Leave the curds to drain for about an hour. Stir a couple of times to make sure all the liquid (the whey) has a chance to filter out.
Congratulations! You’ve made ricotta. Scrape the cheese out of the sieve to use immediately, or press into a cake, wrap in plastic and refrigerate if you’re setting it aside for later.
One of the most shocking things about making ricotta is seeing just how little cheese you end up with relative to the amount of milk with which you started. This is one of those aha moments: the cheese shop won’t seem to be overcharging outrageously once you see the quantity of milk cheese-making requires.
Ricotta cheese with tomatoes
So, what to do with all that lovely ricotta? All manner of things, from pasta to dessert. We tossed ours with some roasted vegetables (more harvest celebrating) for a substantial autumn salad.
For Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, lack of infrastructure is a big obstacle for protecting the environment. Old and malfunctioning infrastructure (or often none at all!) for properly managing things like solid waste and sewage is a major threat to the Palestinian (and Israeli!) environment.
Businesses play a huge role in our everyday impact on the environment. The way that businesses conduct themselves – ranging from what services or products they provide, to what means they use to provide them, and what kind of energy consumption habits they have – all effect their carbon footprint. And since we live in a society where businesses are greatly relied upon to do things for us – our carbon footprint is directly related to what businesses we choose to support.
A little out of place, a yurt in the Israeli desert offers a neat eco-treat.
Winter is on its way, and with it the bone-chilling cold that penetrates every poorly insulated apartment in Israeli cities. Now is the perfect time to stop contemplating 
Among the many 
Sunday’s 
Far be it for this Green Prophet to disavow her love of the city of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv has almost everything – the beach, museums, great food, interesting architecture, a happening nightlife… But also, of course, 
