Are there green products missing in your local greenshop? Write to the manager! If you can get enough people to inquire your local greenshop manager will get the message. It’s about the little changes that will change our world. One step at a time…
Find more about a greenmarket near you.
As part of our ongoing virtual eco-tour of the Middle East, this week’s journey is to Iran. Iran is a little further off than Jordan and Lebanon, but it is also an intriguing spot. And thanks to some information provided by Mohammad Memarian as a response to a Green Prophet post on MidEast Youth – a great regional website that promotes dialogue between people all over the Middle East – we’ve come to understand that while ecotourism is a pretty new idea in Iran, it is definitely developing fast.
According to Mohammad, he tells Green Prophet that a National Ecotourism Committee was established recently in Iran, but they have not run any national-level projects yet. Ecotourism in Iran currently consists mostly of travel agencies offering special eco-tours and the northern parts of Iran are especially popular among eco-tourists.
Here are some environmentally friendly tourism options for green visitors to Iran:
Ecotour Iran: Ecotour Iran, a leading tour operating company, cooperates with experts in the field of ecotourism. It runs the only official ecotourism center in Iran as well as training courses for ecotour leaders in the fields of zoology, ornithology, botany, geography, history, photography, outdoor sports, anthropology, and more. They offer a wide range of tours, some of which include bird watching and nature photography tours.
Iran Paradise is another company that says it offers eco tourism in Iran. Highlights of their 12 day/11 night eco-tour itinerary include visiting a variety of national parks, sleeping in tents, and viewing various aquatic, forest, and desert eco systems.
Let’s Go Iran: Let’s Go Iran is another tourism agency that offers a variety of eco-tours – skiing, diving, desert, and nomad tours. Highlights of the nomad eco-tour include a full day of camel riding in the desert followed by a delicious lunch of camel meat, camping overnight with the nomads in the Zagrus mountains, and trekking through mountains.
Read more about green happenings in the Middle East region:
All of us are aware of the high cost of energy these days, as well as the adverse ecological effects of using fossil fuels like petroleum and coal to run the coastal power plants that supply our electricity in Israel.
Since our power plants are located on or near our 200 km coastline, it would be great if someone could come up with an alternative fuel source that is not only economical but environmentally friendly as well. Sitting on the beach near my home in Israel’s central region, and seeing the tides come in, I have often wondered if something might be done to use the power of the ocean waves to make electricity. After all, many countries have been using water power to make electricity for years.
The idea of electricity being generated from the power of ocean tides and waves may be closer to being reality than previously believed up to now. Although harnessing the power of ocean waves has been thought about for years, no practical type of device has been made that is strong enough to withstand the battering received by the power of even normal sea surf as we have along our coastline.
Lycored has been in the natural food coloring business for some time and realized the amazing anti-oxidant properties found in tomatoes could be used in the cosmetics business.
The company has recently developed an alternative sunscreen that you ingest. This is good news for bleaching corals, transexualizing fish, and for our health — it is known that sunscreens contain chemicals that are not so healthy for us and the environment.
Lycored’s new invention will allow us to use much less.
Based on a tomato extract, Lycored’s neutraceutical (ingested as a capsule) Lycomato can be used to help your skin fight off the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Although Lycomato’s based on a tomato, don’t worry, you won’t turn red the company says. The product is currently available in Europe, and Lycored supplements can already be found in Israel in the You drink by Tara.
Heading to the beach?
See Eco-Mum on Green Summer Vacations
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwPLE7L5Klg[/youtube]
Recycling cans and bottles can be annoying: they clutter up your home, they smell if you don’t wash them out.
But a little bit can go a long way… The average American drinks 216 liters of soft drinks each year. In soda cans that the equivalent of 648 cans a year. If you would cash those in at 25 cents a can you would get $162… Still sounds like something to scoff at?
If you don’t feel like recycling check out other ways in which you can reuse your cans…
Last week, God took care of the waste in the camp. This week Moses hits the rock. The Israelites had been traveling in the desert for roughly forty years, and Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, dies. After Miriam dies suddenly the People of Israel lack water. Commentaries explain that in Miriam’s merit a spring followed the Israelites around, miraculously, during their travels. Now that she had passed on, the spring has dried up.
God commands Moses to gather the people in order to show them a miracle. Moses is supposed to speak to a rock and water will flow out of it. When Moses stands up before the people he loses his temper and hits the rock instead, water still flows from the rock but God is angry.
The previous time that the people of Israel did not have water God commanded Moses to hit the rock. But this time God commanded Moses to speak to the rock. God tells Moses that is as a result of his not bringing water in the manner in which he was commanded, he would not be allowed to bring the Israelites into Israel.
We can learn much from this story. Several commentaries extrapolate various educational models from this story, being forceful vs. being pleasant with your students. I believe that we can learn about not just how we should treat students, but how we should treat our land.
Leaders from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority concluding talks in Tokyo yesterday with the announcement that they plan to start building an agro-industrial park in the Palestinian Territories by next year.
The agro-industrial park could provide jobs for up to 6,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. According to Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, the park’s “success would provide local people with new jobs, promote the economic development of Palestine and hope for the future (full story from AFP).”
While we applaud the efforts of all four sides to work cooperatively towards achieving a viable Palestinian state with a successful economy, we wonder if this is another example of improper consideration of environmental concerns…
The summer is here and the kids are at home, if they are not at summer camp then you are probably hearing the words “I’m bored!” alot, if not too much. So how to keep your kids happy and green at the same time. In the next few weeks I hope to bring you some fun ideas to wile away the summer without putting a hole in your pocket!
First of all turn the TV off and let’s go out, whether you live in the city or the country, a little bit of imagination and old fashioned fun can keep you all busy and tired at the end of the day. Build your own kite and go fly, bike rides, nature trails, star-gazing and even bug collecting, all for no extra cost.
My first offering is good for inner-city and country kids alike. The Nature Trail can be at your local park or along your street, by foot or by bike. Just don’t forget plenty of water, a hat and suntan lotion.
This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I have felt so conflicted about.
I bought it after having seen it prominently displayed in UK bookshops, and having read some of the author’s incisive political writings in The New Yorker.
I anticipated that it would be illuminating and instructive, and expected it to fit into a recent run of similar non-fiction books about the environment that equally inform with hard facts; frighten the reader at the scale of the problem humanity faces, and also provide some sense of optimism about human ingenuity and ecological salvation.
After reading ‘Field Notes from a Catastrophe’ I found that it did none of these, and that its style oddly jarred with me – not compulsive writing, nor reflective and so insightful as to leave me wanting more.
Indeed Kolbert’s closing lines leave a bleaker taste than other writers on this subject:
It may seem impossible to imagine that that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.
In the spirit of using every possible material available and avoiding waste, Israeli designer Zohar Yarom has found a creative and functional purpose for furniture fabric samples. She makes handbags out of them.
After receiving degrees in design from the Bezalel school in Jerusalem and Parson’s in New York, Zohar founded her own ZY design company in 2003 with the objective of creating environmentally and socially sensitive design pieces.
Her diverse line of products once included handbags, storage solutions, furniture (such as the saddle chair), light fixtures, and ceramics.
And she prides herself on finding an aesthetic solution to reusing materials in a way that is both stylish and conscious of the environment.
According to Zohar, “it is important for me to emphasise environmental and social sensitivity through the design and use of the product, with the possibility of being more stylish.”
She is currently working on reusing billboard materials (similar to Abu YoYo, which creates bags out of billboard waste in Tel Aviv) and is involved with an organization called “Shekulo Tov” – an organization that helps provide vocational work for people with emotional disabilities. (As of 2020 the link wasn’t working, so we removed it.)
Zohar’s bags can be found in organic clothing store, Cotton, as well as online and in select design stores.
Read more about on sustainable design:
More Mileage out of Your Purse
Enlightenment by Arik Levy: Our Future’s So Bright, Green and Beautiful
Did you know that the bagged salad bought in the supermarket tends to contain high levels of chlorine… often higher than in the average swimming pool? It’s easy, and much healthier, to bag your own! Just like with aromatics, after washing and then spinning it dry, roll up your lettuce in paper towels and then seal it in a ziplock bag. It will hold up to a week or more!Â
Want more tips on green eating? Visit here.Â
Environmental and social change don’t always go together in green organizations, but the truth is that you can’t really make green changes without effecting society. Alternatively, some socio-economic groups just don’t have the resources to make costly (yet positive) environmental changes. As Jeff recently pointed out in his reaction to Tel Aviv’s farmers market, it would be great if everyone could eat organic veggies – but the sad truth is that only a slice of the population can afford to make this positive change.
That’s why it’s so cool that Green Action, a non-profit organization based in Tel Aviv, focuses on eco-social change. They don’t distinguish between the needs of the planet and the needs of the people who call it home, and work to protect both natural resources and disadvantaged communities.
Green Action tackles lots of issues, including:
Millions of printer cartridges go into landfill sites each year and this is increasing annually. Buying refilled cartridges is a good way to prevent this waste and they’re often cheaper than new ones. A quick google search can help you find a supplier near you!
Interested in ways to green an old computer? Visit here.
I know it sounds crazy, but composting is a great way to green your life, and it’s a lot easier than it sounds. But most important, it significantly reduces the damage we are doing to our environment. Most of the junk that goes into the garbage can be composted products like egg boxes and shredded paper can be thrown on the compost heap, as well as all the usual fruit and veggie peelings. Interested? Visit here for more information on how.
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