Have you ever had trouble keeping your spices longer than a day? If you leave them out they dry out, if you keep them in a bag they rot… what to do? You can keep your aromatics (leafy spices) and salad lettuce leaves fresh for longer by washing them, then wrap them is a paper […]
Israel. Another week, another delegation of foreign politicians. This time it’s the French President Nicolas Sarkozy gracing our shores and as I write this he is dining with his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, at his official residence ten minutes from my flat. Apart from the usual topics that concern foreign dignitaries in the Holy Land […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNY_-1Fsd2k[/youtube] The Israel cleantech world is buzzing over BrightSource and its subsidiary Luz II. The companies recently invited the press to visit the world’s first operating solar thermal field in the Negev Desert, for creating clean and efficient solar energy. The 12,000 square meter test site will generate 1.5 MW of electricity. Cheaper heliostats, no […]
Imagine if air conditioning came without the hefty price tag of electric bills—if it was, in fact, entirely free. Tel Aviv University Professor Avi Kribus, best known now for his discovery of electricity-creating bacteria, has invented a solar energy device that would power air conditioning and heating. Additionally, Kribus’s device is smaller and therefore cheaper […]
Baladi, a word that Israelis adopted from Arabic, means “national” or “of the country”. It is also the name that French-born Israeli designer, Brigitte Cartier, decided to give her design studio. Her Baladi Company for Ecological Progress takes our national garbage and transforms it into beautiful designs that we can all be proud of. After […]
A clean KumKum (electric water urn) is an efficient one. Keep your KumKum clean by periodically boiling equal parts water and lemon juice inside. This will extent your urn’s life and keeping it boiling happy.
Now that we’ve eco-toured Israel and Jordan, let’s move right along to another green tourism spot in the Middle East. Lebanon. And it’s no surprise that a country that places a regional cedar tree in the center of its flag (colored in green) has lots and lots of eco tourism options. Here are some of […]
Last week, I visited the town of Umm El Fahem with staff members from Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME). FoEME is a trilateral Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian environmental organization that brings environmentalists together to work on issues of shared regional concern. As the Summer 2008 FoEME intern, I am assisting with the Pro-Aquifer […]
While Israel has some of the world’s most promising clean technology companies in producing renewable energy — consider the geothermal power company Ormat [ORA (TLV)]and its geothermal power station in Nevada or Solel’s solar energy plant in the Mohave Desert – proving viability on Israeli turf has been a sore spot for inventors and would-be international […]
[youtube width=”560″ height=”410″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQugHz5HaAI[/youtube] Seventy-six thousand tonnes of waste pour out of Dubai’s construction sites every single day. Just one side effect of the massive building boom there/here. But the Emirate is now running out of space to put it as existing landfill sites reach capacity. So it’s building new plants to recycle more of that […]
Notice anything strange about this scene? Said Leemor Chandally, who sent us these photos, “I was passing by Rabin Square, when I noticed this situation and had to laugh. A bunch of people were waiting for a bus, but nobody was waiting inside the bus stop, which was obviously brand new. Instead, everyone was crouching […]
I was so anxious on Monday as I awaited word of delivery of my very first Israeli community supported agriculture (CSA) delivery to its drop spot in Tel Aviv. I was nervous, not because I thought the vegetables wouldn’t be good or because I was unsure if I was getting a good deal (the veggies […]
According to that old expression, beggars can’t be choosers. But Israeli designer Amit Brilliant proves that saying wrong with her line of recycled wallets, bags, notebook covers, and hats – Beggars. She chooses not to dump what would normally end up in the trash and turn it into something useful and aesthetic instead. In other […]
Being green is about being clean. In order to remove dust effectively from furniture use a slightly damp cloth – dusters only move the dust around. For a green polish try beeswax, it’s great for unpolished wood; or use a drop of olive oil, then buff with a dry cloth. This way you can cut […]
“We face the most almighty hangover, as the toxins unleashed by our century-long binge work their way through the earth’s system. We have to detoxify. We have to sober up. We have to come to grips….” from ‘Confessions of an Eco-Sinner’ by Fred Pearce. Pearce has written a book for the ecologically and socially minded. […]